Chess is something more than a game. It is an intellectual diversion which has certain artistic qualities and many scientific elements. — Jose Raul Capablanca
Chess is a miniature version of life. To be successful, you need to be disciplined, assess resources, consider responsible choices and adjust when circumstances change. — Susan Polgar
Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted. — Vladimir Putin
Chess is everything: art, science, and sport. — Anatoly Karpov
An hour's history of two minds is well told in a game of chess. — Jose Raul Capablanca
These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess. — Kobe Bryant
The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'. — Emanuel Lasker
Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency. — Raymond Chandler
Chess is a game sufficiently rich in meaning that it is easily capable of containing elements of both tragedy and comedy. — Luke McShane
Short Chess Game Quotes
On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long — Emanuel Lasker
You can only get good at Chess if you love the game — Bobby Fischer
Discovered check is the dive bomber of the Chessboard — Reuben Fine
The most powerful weapon in Chess is to have the next move — David Bronstein
After the game the King and pawn go into the same box. — Italian Proverbs
In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate. — Isaac Asimov
In chess, as in life, opportunity strikes but once. — David Bronstein
In chess, as in life, a man is his own most dangerous opponent. — Vasily Smyslov
Top 10 Chess Game Quotes
In my games I have sometimes found a combination intuitively simply feeling that it must be there. Yet I was not able to translate my thought processes into normal human language. — Mikhail Tal
You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player. — Jose Raul Capablanca
Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it's OK to lose. I don't. You have to be merciless. — Magnus Carlsen
There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine — Mikhail Tal
I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves — Bobby Fischer
Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent — Mikhail Tal
When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our game, he replied: 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!' — Mikhail Tal
Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without ant errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless. — Mikhail Tal
The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient — Aron Nimzowitsch
Many Chess players were surprised when after the game, Fischer quietly explained: 'I had already analyzed this possibility' in a position which I thought was not possible to foresee from the opening — Mikhail Tal
At the end of the game the kind and the pawn go back in the same box.
Life Is A Chess Game Quotes
The whole life with a wife is like an end game with two bishops of different colors. — Viktor Korchnoi
Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness. — Seneca
The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess. — Benjamin Franklin
Every man needs woman when his life is mess, because like in game of chess; queen protects king.
Have you ever seen a demonstrable example of equality in your entire life? Can it be glimpsed in any dog show or classroom? In any ping pong game or chess match? Of course not. It is a philosophical abstraction, something nowhere to be found in nature. — Boyd Rice
Life is like a game of chess. To win you have to make a move. Knowing which move to make comes with IN-SIGHT and knowledge, and by learning the lessons that are acculated along the way. We become each and every piece within the game called life! — Alan Rufus
Life is like a game of chess...there are many moves possible, but each move determines your next move...where you wind up is the sum total of all your past moves...but first you have to make some kind of move. — Mort Walker
Chess like love, like music, has the power to make man happy.
Chess is a game that benefits people of all ages, especially kids, in any area of life, business, problem solving, and social skills. Chess has the unique ability to combine focus, concentration, imagination, coordination, teamwork, and leadership all at the same time. — Dustin Diamond
The pleasure to be derived from a chess combination lie in the feeling that a human mind is behind the game, dominating the inanimate pieces ... and giving them breath of life. — Richard Reti
For me, Chess is life and every game is like a new life. Every chess player gets to live many lives in one lifetime. — Eduard Gufeld
Life on a lifeboat isn’t much of a life. It is like an end game in chess, a game with few pieces. The elements couldn’t be more simple, nor the stakes higher. — Yann Martel
In Your Chess Game Quotes
In order to improve your game you must study the endgame before everything else; for, whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middlegame and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame. — Jose Raul Capablanca
In order to improve your game you must study the endgame before everything else. — Jose Raul Capablanca
If you are weak in the endgame, you must spend more time analysing studies; in your training games you must aim at transposing to endgames, which will help you to acquire the requisite experience. — Mikhail Botvinnik
I claim that nothing else is so effective in encouraging the growth of chess strength as such independent analysis, both of the games of the great players and your own. — Mikhail Botvinnik
Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the quiet positional players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your space, tying up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do! — Yasser Seirawan
Your body has to be in top condition. Your Chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind — Bobby Fischer
The gigantic challenge is the magnitude of the individual differences in the optimal set point for "good stress." For one person, it's doing something risky with your bishop in a chess game; for someone else, it's becoming a mercenary in Yemen. — Robert M. Sapolsky
Earlier in my career, I never thought of boxing as a chess game, but I confirm that they are, in fact, very similar. You can plan your fights and strategy just like you would in chess. — Wladimir Klitschko
In so-called communist Romania, chess was held in high esteem, even if our champions were weaker than the Soviets. This game, this "sport of the mind," was at the time a better way to establish your reputation than literature. — Dumitru Tepeneag
The game of baseball between pitcher and hitter sets up like a game of chess in that you have to anticipate several moves ahead to set up your opponent. — Brad Lidge
Game Of Chess Quotes
Capablanca was among the greatest of chess players, but not because of his endgame. His trick was to keep his openings simple, and then play with such brilliance in the middlegame that the game was decided - even though his ooponent didn't always know it - before they arrived at the ending. — Bobby Fischer
I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess Others give only 2 percent — Bobby Fischer
When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method. — Garry Kasparov
A lot of people think being at the top means you have to be the best at a certain game. You don’t. It’s more about personality. — KSI
All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with 'winning or losing this game of chess. — Marcel Duchamp
When I was a child I liked the games of Capablanca, and later I was captivated by Alekhine's play. — Vladimir Kramnik
It was a beautiful moment at the end to win a game of this stature. — Mikel Arteta
Methodical thinking is of more use in Chess than inspiration — Cecil Purdy
The most important feature of the Chess position is the activity of the pieces. This is absolutely fundamental in all phases of the game: Opening, Middlegame and especially Endgame. The primary constraint on a piece's activity is the Pawn structure — Michael Stean
I would say, in a year, I spend maybe half of that playing FIFA. I love it that much. — KSI
Chess Quotes
Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do. — Jean Piaget
You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one — Mikhail Tal
Whoever called snooker "chess with balls" was rude, but right. — Clive James
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. — Emo Philips
We are a thick skinned people with emtpy souls. We spend our days playing dice, chess, or sleeping - and we say we are the best people that ever came to mankind? — Nizar Qabbani
To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess. — Mikhail Tal
People who want to improve should take their defeats as lessons, and endeavor to learn what to avoid in the future. You must also have the courage of your convictions. If you think your move is good, make it. — Jose Raul Capablanca
When you see a good move, look for a better one. — Emanuel Lasker
Most players ... do not like losing, and consider defeat as something shameful. This is a wrong attitude. Those who wish to perfect themselves must regard their losses as lessons and learn from them what sorts of things to avoid in the future. — Jose Raul Capablanca
Chess Match Quotes
The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it. — Sayings
At the highest level, if you don’t have a solid defensive base, you can’t get by. In one match, yes. But over a whole competition? No. — Didier Deschamps
The more matches I play, the better I feel on the pitch. — Antoine Griezmann
When I started watching matches, it was those of Marseille. After that, it was Lyon. I went to see them all the time in the league or the Champions League with my dad. — Antoine Griezmann
The human element, the human flaw and the human nobility - those are the reasons that chess matches are won or lost. — Viktor Korchnoi
We must be happy with the outcome because Rennes played a pretty good match tonight. They stopped us playing our way by defending well. — Didier Deschamps
Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable mediator. One is not the player in this cosmic match of chess, one is simply a pawn on the chessboard. What decides everything is a conscious impersonal energy that sorcerers call intent or the Spirit. — Carlos Castaneda
In the current FIDE World Championship, on the knock-out system, weaker players have good chances. Those, who in a long match would practically have no chance, here may creep through. — Sayings
I'm not afraid of Spassky. The world knows I'm the best. You don't need a match to prove it. — Bobby Fischer
Though I would have liked my chances in a rematch in 1998 if I were better prepared, it was clear then that computer superiority over humans in chess had always been just a matter of time. — Garry Kasparov
Chessboard Quotes
Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons, who share a legitimate desire for knowing and having, but above all for being more — Pope Francis
On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in the checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite. — Emanuel Lasker
I started by just sitting by the chessboard exploring things. I didn't even have books at first, and I just played by myself. I learnt a lot from that, and I feel that it is a big reason why I now have a good intuitive understanding of chess. — Magnus Carlsen
I would never want Ukraine to be a piece on the map, on the chessboard of big global players, so that someone could toss us around, use us as cover, as part of some bargain. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard — Aron Nimzowitsch
Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity — Pope Francis
Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire. — Zbigniew Brzezinski
An isolated pawn spreads gloom all over the chessboard. — Savielly Tartakower
The Chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem — Marcel Duchamp
Unchecked pride evolves into swagger, a hypnotizing mask of insecurity that can and does compromise our ability to make progress and attain power. Pride stands in the way of forgiveness and a strategic approach to navigating a chessboard rigged to prevent pawns from becoming kings and queens. — Jason Whitlock
Chess Players Quotes
The great World Champions Morphy, Steinitz, and Lasker were past masters in the art of Pawn play; they had no superiors in their handling of endgames. The present World Champion has not the strength of the other three as an endgame player, and is therefore inferior to them. — Jose Raul Capablanca
The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind. — Edgar Allan Poe
Could we look into the head of a Chess player, we should see there a whole world of feelings, images, ideas, emotion and passion — Alfred Binet
I loved being the best player in the world. There was no pressure staying there. — Stephen Hendry
In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn't do well. They'd get bad openings. — Bobby Fischer
By 2012, my game was shot. You’re sitting on your chair watching players’ leagues below you play shots you can’t. That destroyed me. — Stephen Hendry
A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player — Bobby Fischer
I try to be a complete player – in attack and in defense – and to improve every year. — Antoine Griezmann
Chess as a sport requires a lot of mental stamina, and this is what that makes it different from a physical sport. Chess players have a unique ability of taking in a lot of information and remembering relevant bits. So, memory and mental stamina are the key attributes. — Viswanathan Anand
Chess Pieces Quotes
Help your pieces so they can help you — Paul Morphy
The king, which during the opening and middlegame stage is often a burden because it has to be defended, becomes in the endgame a very important and aggressive piece, and the beginner should realize this, and utilize his king as much as possible. — Jose Raul Capablanca
A passed pawn increase in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. — Jose Raul Capablanca
The rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. — Thomas Huxley
It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to. — Kazuo Ishiguro
To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game — Savielly Tartakower
To refer to the oft mooted question, "Which piece is stronger, the Bishop or the Knight?" it is clear that the value of the Bishop undergoes greater changes than that of the Knight. — Emanuel Lasker
The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. — Thomas Huxley
In the ending the king is a powerful piece for assisting his own pawns, or stopping the adverse pawns. — Wilhelm Steinitz
Chess Pawns Quotes
Pawns not only create the sketch for the whole painting, they are also the soil, the foundation, of any position — Anatoly Karpov
It cannot be too greatly emphasized that the most important role in pawn endings is played by the king. — Siegbert Tarrasch
A gambit never becomes sheer routine as long as you fear you may lose the king and pawn ending! — Bent Larsen
He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess. — Siegbert Tarrasch
As Olafsson showed me, White can win... It's hard to believe. I stayed up all night analysing, finally convicing myself, and, incidentally, learning a lot about Rook and Pawn endings in the process. — Bobby Fischer
The shortcoming of hanging pawns is that they present a convenient target for attack. As the exchange of men proceeds, their potential strength lessens and during the endgame they turn out, as a rule, to be weak. — Boris Spassky
Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf — Cecil Purdy
The power of hanging Pawns is based precisely in their Mobility, in their Ability to create acute situations instantly. — Boris Spassky
I'd rather have a Pawn than a finger — Reuben Fine
Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game — Nigel Short
Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi have absolutely destroyed chess by their immoral, unethical, prearranged games. These guys are really the lowest dogs around, and if people knew the truth about them, they would be held in more contempt than Ben Johnson, the runner, and they're going to know the truth when I do this book! — Bobby Fischer
No one ever won a game by resigning. — Savielly Tartakower
And from the time I was a kid, I've had this internal monologue roaring through my head, which doesn't stop - unless I'm asleep. I'm sure every person has this; it's just that my monologue is particularly loud. And particularly troublesome. I'm constantly asking myself questions. And the problem with that is that your brain is like a computer: If you ask a question, it's programmed to respond, whether there's an answer or not. I'm constantly weighing everything in my mind and trying to predict how my actions will influence events. Or maybe manipulate events are the more appropriate words. It's like playing a game of chess with your own life. And I hate fucking chess! — Jordan Belfort
It is difficult to play against Einstein's theory -on his first loss to Fischer — Mikhail Tal
The challenge is how to be better than the day before, than the previous game. — Mikel Arteta
You have so many games to play, and you can do well in one game but bad in the other ones. The thing you’ve got to be is consistent. — Giannis Antetokounmpo
When you get a trophy, why go jumping and crying? Winning‘s a great feeling, but everything else is an anti-climax. — Stephen Hendry
When looking for the biggest game, never ever, shoot at anything small. — Thomas Phelps
The key to winning this game is the ability to look at our failures, heal our wounds quickly, and come back to figure out what adjustments need to be made going forward. — Russell Brunson
I remember being a teenager and watching 40-year-old Michael Jordan compete in his final All-Star game. — Kawhi Leonard
The game changed. We changed it, and we’re here to play the new one. — Charles Hoskinson
If I play a bad game, I know I played a bad game. If I play a good game, I know I played a good game. So I don’t need anyone to tell me if I did good or bad – because I know it. — Paul Pogba
If there are no more tournaments added I could be looking at playing pool. Why not? You don’t want to be sat at home twiddling your fingers all day. — Stephen Hendry
Those friendly games are not pointless. They enable us to go forward. — Didier Deschamps
It is just down to confidence. When I haven’t got any, I hate playing the game. — Stephen Hendry
It is the best thing to have great games, and the tiredness matters little. — Antoine Griezmann
Casino gambling with a system where you have the edge is a wonderful teacher for elementary money management. — Edward O. Thorp
I have tried to convince the players that if we work on certain things in training, they will happen in games and we will score goals from them. — Mikel Arteta
Even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. — Mikhail Chigorin
Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one knows in advance which half — Jan Timman
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of chess game quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about chess game to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of chess game quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
