“You are not the first to be shocked and horrified by chess,” he assured her. “It is a curse of the intellect. It is a game for lunatics—or else it creates them.”
“The 64-Square Madhouse” (p. 74); originally published in If, May 1962
Short Fiction, A Pail of Air (1964)
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Fritz Leiber67
American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction 1910–1992Related quotes
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
“These Are Not Psalms”, p. 124
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
“Life is a game of chess and you never really know when you are winning or losing.”
Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) Argentine novelist
"La vida es una partida de ajedrez y nunca sabe uno a ciencia cierta cuándo está ganando o perdiendo."
Una muñeca rusa, 1991.
“It [chess] is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game.”
Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player
As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859
Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)
letter to his friend Bernardo de Iriarte, 7 Jan, 1794; as quoted by Jane Kromm, in The art of frenzy, 2002, p. 194 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yard_with_Lunatics<br>The painting 'Yard with Lunatics' (Spanish: Corral de locos) is a small oil-on-tinplate painting completed by Goya between 1793 and 1794; Goya says here that the painting was informed by scenes of institutions he witnessed in his youth in Zaragoza <br class="br">1790s
“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”
Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge
Indianapolis v. Chase Nat'l Bank, 314 U.S. 63, 69 (1941).
Other writings
“Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.”
Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946) Russian / French chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician
Quoted in: M. Yudovich, A. Kotov (2001) The Soviet School of Chess, p. 42.
“I smelled her before I saw her. Even so, the first sight was shocking.”
Spider Robinson (1948) Canadian author
First lines
God Is An Iron (1977)
“In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …