“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 Leiber 67
American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction 1910–1992Related quotes
“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.”
"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.”
As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859
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
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
1790s
“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”
Indianapolis v. Chase Nat'l Bank, 314 U.S. 63, 69 (1941).
Other writings
“Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.”
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.”
First lines
God Is An Iron (1977)
“In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.”