“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.”

“Life is a game of chess and you never really know when you are winning or losing.”

“Relationships are a battle. They are a chess game. And what did I do? I just threw all my chess pieces down on the board at once, and said, "Here! Have them all!”

“I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.”

“I love chess, and I didn't invent Fischerandom chess to destroy chess. I invented Fischerandom chess to keep chess going. Because I consider the old chess is dying, it really is dead. A lot of people come up with other rules of chess-type games, with 10x8 boards, new pieces, and all kinds of things. I'm really not interested in that. I want to keep the old chess flavor. I want to keep the old chess game. But just making a change so the starting positions are mixed, so it's not degenerated down to memorization and prearrangement like it is today.”

“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.”

“It [chess] is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game.”

“They say my chess games should be more interesting. I could be more interesting - and also lose.”

“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”

“To the angel of death, we are all like chess pieces on the chessboard.”