Chess Quotes

“Before the endgame the gods have placed the middle game.” - Tarrasch

“In such positions, combinations are as natural as a baby’s smile.” - Fine

“The good player is always lucky.” - Capablanca

White’s Pawns fall like ripe apples.

The scorpion’s sting at the tail-end of the combination.

The smoke clears.

“I like to coax my opponents into attacking, to let them taste the joy of the initiative, so that they may get carried away, become careless, and sacrifice material,” wrote Korchnoi.

Emanuel Lasker’s maxim: “When you see a good move - wait - don’t play it - you might find a better one.”

The beginning of the end.

Chess, like love, is infectious at any age - Flohr

“A passed Pawn increases in strength,” says Capablanca, “as the number of pieces on the board diminishes.”

Fischer’s restless energy in attack is reminiscent of the fire and dash of that other prodigy who dazzled the chess world with his mastery - Paul Morphy

“Endings of one Rook and Pawns are about the most common sort of endings arising on the chess board. Yet through they do occur so often, few have mastered them thoroughly. They are often of a difficult nature, and sometimes while apparently very simple they are in reality extremely intricate.” - Capablanca

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. - Thomas De Quincey

If once a man delays Castling and his King remains in the center, files will open up against him, Bishops sweep the board, Rooks will dominate the seventh rank, anbd Pawns turn into Queens. - Irving Chernev

The Rook must be aggressive in the endgame.

“Passed Pawns must be pushed!”

The moral is: Play for a win if you want to get a draw!

Even the mighty Alekhine, who played more billiant games than any other man who ever lived, did not pluck combinations out of thin air. Even he had to abide by Lasker’s dictum: “In the beginning of the game ignore the search for combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination - and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden.”

A brilliant game with a sparkling finish.

“An ending worth very careful study,” says Capablanca.

I’ve made this sacrifice so often, I feel like applying for a patent! - Fischer