I have never in my life played the French Defence, which is the dullest of all openings
In life, as in chess, forethought wins.
In positions of strategic manoeuvring (where time is not of decisive importance) seek the worst-placed piece. Activating that piece is often the most reliable way of improving your position as a whole.
Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few
I’ve seen - both in myself and my competitors - how satisfaction can lead to a lack of vigilance, then to mistakes and missed opportunities.
Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life
It often happens that a player is so fond of his advantageous position that he is reluctant to transpose to a winning endgame.
The delight in gambits is a sign of chess youth. . . In very much the same way as the young man, on reaching his manhood years, lays aside the Indian stories and stories of adventure, and turns to the psychological novel, we with maturing experience leave off gambit playing and become interested in the less vivacious but withal more forceful manoeuvres of the position player.
Chess is a fathead and feudal game.
Computers have proved to be formidable chess players. In fact, they've beaten our top human chess champions.
Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double-entry accounting.
One thing I learned, with permission of the school committee of Indianapolis, was that when a tyrant or a government gets in trouble it wonders what to do. Declare war! Then nothing else matters. It's like chess; when in doubt, castle.
Carlsen came with a line that was not very theoretical, trying to challenge the World Champion to play chess. [. . . ] But Anand proved that even this obscure line is something he has studied before, and it was Carlsen that was set back.
Chess is one of the few arts where composition takes place simultaneously with performance
Truth derives its strength not so much from itself as from the brilliant contrast it makes with what is only apparently true. This applies especially to Chess, where it is often found that the profoundest moves do not much startle the imagination.
Chess is more than a game or a mental training. It is a distinct attainment. I have always regarded the playing of chess and the accomplishment of a good game as an art, and something to be admired no less than an artist's canvas or the product of a sculptor's chisel. Chess is a mental diversion rather than a game. It is both artistic and scientific.
Different people feel differently about resigning
Football is like chess, only without the dice.
Without technique it is impossible to reach the top in chess, and therefore we all try to borrow from Capablanca his wonderful, subtle technique.
The tactician must know what to do whenever something needs doing; the strategist must know what to do when nothing needs doing