“Why do you like to play chess so well?”

— Robert A. Heinlein, book They

“Because it is the only thing in the world where I can see all the factors and understand all the rules.”
They (p. 55)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)

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Robert A. Heinlein557

American science fiction author 1907–1988

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Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

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“In tournaments it is not enough to be a connoisseur of chess; one must also play well.”

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As quoted in "The Bright Side of Chess" (1952) by Irving Chernev, p. 107

“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. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorization is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position. It is really deadly, and that is why I don’t like chess any more.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

Radio Interview, October 16 2006 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_35_3.MP3 <br class="br">2000s

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“Where did you learn to do that so well?
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I guess that would be like kiss and tell.
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“I'm a chess player; I play chess.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977) American boxer

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“I have the weapons to do well here. I will need some time to adapt of course, but I am not worried about that. I think I will adapt well. I am a player who likes to play, who likes to participate in the game. That is why I think the way Arsenal play will suit me. I like scoring goals and Arsenal create a lot of chances, so if I do well, then we will do well.”

Olivier Giroud (1986) French footballer

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“You know, even more than playing chess, I dislike dealing with self-righteous chess players.”

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Source: Michaelmas (1977), Chapter 7 (p. 98)

“What do we mean by “understanding” something? We can imagine that this complicated array of moving things which constitutes “the world” is something like a great chess game being played by the gods, and we are observers of the game. We do not know what the rules of the game are; all we are allowed to do is to watch the playing. Of course, if we watch long enough, we may eventually catch on to a few of the rules. The rules of the game are what we mean by fundamental physics. Even if we knew every rule, however, we might not be able to understand why a particular move is made in the game, merely because it is too complicated and our minds are limited. If you play chess you must know that it is easy to learn all the rules, and yet it is often very hard to select the best move or to understand why a player moves as he does. So it is in nature, only much more so.”

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist

volume I; lecture 2, "Basic Physics"; section 2-1, "Introduction"; p. 2-1
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964)

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