Quotes about chess

A collection of quotes on the topic of chess, game, gaming, play.

Quotes about chess

Isaac Asimov photo

“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 …
Bobby Fischer photo
Isaac Bashevis Singer photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Magnus Carlsen photo

“I get more upset at losing at other things than chess. I always get upset when I lose at Monopoly.”

Magnus Carlsen (1990) Norwegian chess player

Magnus Carlsen, chess prodigy from Norway - The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/01/world/europe/01iht-profile.4.15806138.html?_r=1

Garry Kasparov photo

“In chess, bigamy is acceptable but monarchy is absolute.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

Part II, Chapter 8, Exchanges And Imbalances, p. 102
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Marcel Duchamp photo

“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor

Quote from 'Time Magazine', 10 March 1952; as quoted on Wikipedia: Marcel Duchamp
1951 - 1968

Stanley Kubrick photo
Marcel Duchamp photo
Stefan Zweig photo
Siegbert Tarrasch photo

“Many have become Chess Masters, no one has become the Master of Chess.”

Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934) German chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician

As quoted in Chess and Computers (1976) by David N. L. Levy, p. 40

Edgar Allan Poe photo

“There is then no analogy whatever between the operations of the Chess-Player, and those of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage, and if we choose to call the former a pure machine we must be prepared to admit that it is, beyond all comparison, the most wonderful of the inventions of mankind.”

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic

Poe stating his arguments that Maelzel's Chess-Player was a hoax. Maelzel's Chess-Player http://www.eapoe.org/works/essays/maelzel.htm, Southern Literary Journal (April 1836).

Bobby Fischer photo
Adolfo Bioy Casares photo

“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.

Bobby Fischer photo
Siegbert Tarrasch photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Anatoly Karpov photo

“Seville never had a rich chess tradition. Valencia is entirely different, it is enough to say that one of the city squares is named after me.”

Anatoly Karpov (1951) Russian chess player

Interview on Chessdom, 2009 http://interviews.chessdom.com/anatoly-karpov-izvestia

Bobby Fischer photo
Jamal-al-Din Afghani photo

“The world is a game of chess; the loser loses and the winner wins.”

Jamal-al-Din Afghani (1837–1897) Political activist and Islamic ideologist

As quoted in Jamāḷ al-Dīn al-Afghāni: A Muslim intellectual (1984) by Anwar Moazzam, p. 3

Magnus Carlsen photo

“I am not some sort of freak. I might be very good at chess but I'm just a normal person.”

Magnus Carlsen (1990) Norwegian chess player

Meet Magnus Carlsen, The New King of Chess - TIME, Eben Harrell Friday, Dec. 25, 2009 http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1948809,00.html

Noam Chomsky photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Bobby Fischer photo

“Yeah, there are too many Jews in chess. They seem to have taken away the class of the game. They don't seem to dress so nicely, you know. That's what I don't like.”

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

1960s, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master (1961)

G. H. Hardy photo
Edgar Allan Poe photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Bobby Fischer photo
Lukas Podolski photo

“Football is like chess, only without the dice.”

Lukas Podolski (1985) German footballer

Fussball ist wie Schach, nur ohne Würfel.
Quoted in David Gordon Smith. "German Football's Greatest Sayings." http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/like-chess-only-without-the-dice-german-football-s-greatest-sayings-a-558638-druck.html Spiegel Online International. 6 October 2008. Retrieved 10 April 2018.

Anatoly Karpov photo

“People knew about 110 years of chess history. Nowadays, nobody is able to tell you the name of the world champion of 2000.”

Anatoly Karpov (1951) Russian chess player

Interview on Chessbase 06.07.2005 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2495

Bobby Fischer photo

“Morphy and Capablanca had enormous talent, they are two of my favorites. Steinitz was very great too. Alekhine was great, but I am not a big fan of his. Maybe it’s just my taste. I’ve studied his games a lot, but I much prefer Capablanca and Morphy. Alekhine had a rather heavy style, Capablanca was much more brilliant and talented, he had a real light touch. Everyone I’ve spoken to who saw Capablanca play still speak of him with awe. If you showed him any position he would instantly tell you the right move. When I used to go to the Manhattan Chess Club back in the fifties, I met a lot of old-timers there who knew Capablanca, because he used to come around to the Manhattan club in the forties – before he died in the early forties. They spoke about Capablanca with awe. I have never seen people speak about any chess player like that, before or since. Capablanca really was fantastic. But even he had his weaknesses, especially when you play over his games with his notes he would make idiotic statements like 'I played the rest of the game perfectly.”

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

But then you play through the moves and it is not true at all. But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt.
Radio Interview, October 16 2006 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_35_3.MP3

Bobby Fischer photo

“You know I'm finished with the old chess because it's all just a lot of book and memorization you know.”

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

Radio Interview, January 27 2002 http://www.geocities.jp/bobbby_b/mp3/F_20_1.MP3
2000s

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“To obey a rule, to make a report, to give an order, to play a game of chess, are customs”

uses, institutions
§ 199
Philosophical Investigations (1953)

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Jerry Spinelli photo
Raymond Chandler photo
Kazuo Ishiguro photo
Sophie Kinsella photo
Woody Allen photo

“I failed to make the chess team because of my height.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
William Golding photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Jon Stewart photo

“It's not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It's that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Source: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction

“Fencing isn't really fighting. It's more like chess with the risk of puncture wounds”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

Arturo Pérez-Reverte photo
Jerome K. Jerome photo
Steven Wright photo
Yann Martel photo
Yann Martel photo
George Eliot photo
Stuart Wheeler photo

“I would just like to challenge the idea that it is necessary to have a lot of women, or a particular number, on a board. Business is very, very competitive and you should take the performance of women in another competitive area, which is sport where [men] have no strength advantage. Chess, bridge, poker - women come absolutely nowhere. I think that just has to be borne in mind.”

Stuart Wheeler (1935) British businessman and politician

As quoted in The Independent, Thursday 15 August 2013 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ukip-faces-renewed-accusations-of-sexism-as-stuart-wheeler-claims-women-are-not-as-competitive-as-men-8763570.html
See Victoria Coren for a reply.

Lorin Morgan-Richards photo
Subhash Kak photo
Ashot Nadanian photo

“Chess is not Mathematics, where ten is always more than one; in chess the King with a pawn can beat opponent's King with all pieces if they are placed badly.”

Ashot Nadanian (1972) chess player

Interview at S'pore Chess News, 23 August 2010 http://www.singaporechessnews.com/interview_ashot_nadanian.html

Ingmar Bergman photo
Jennifer Shahade photo
Matt Ridley photo
Paul Morphy photo

“It [chess] is not only the most delightful and scientific, but the most moral of amusements.”

Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

Viswanathan Anand photo

“Being the undisputed world champion is a relief. We instituted a unified chess title, I am the absolute world champion.”

Viswanathan Anand (1969) Indian chess player

Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,

Emanuel Lasker photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
William Gibson photo
Masha Gessen photo
Alexander Alekhine photo

“With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like we'll never see again.”

Alexander Alekhine (1892–1946) Russian / French chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician

Quoted in: Edward G. Winter (1989) Capablanca: A Compendium of Games, Notes, Articles..., p. 307; on his great rival José Raúl Capablanca.

Garry Kasparov photo

“In conclusion, if you want to unravel the multitude of secrets of chess then don't begrudge the time.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

Learn Chess with Gary Kasparov (2003)
2000s

Siegbert Tarrasch photo

“Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player.”

The Game of Chess (1931), Pt. 2 : The End Game, p. 79

Viswanathan Anand photo
Anne Brontë photo

“Chess-players are so unsociable, they are no company for any but themselves.”

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXXIII : Two Evenings; Helen to Walter

Zygmunt Vetulani photo
Garry Kasparov photo

“The public must come to see that chess is a violent sport. Chess is mental torture.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

As quoted in Martin Amis's review of "Kasparov-Short" by Raymond Keene, Independent on Sunday, November 1995.
1990s

Adrian Slywotzky photo
Siegbert Tarrasch photo

“He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess.”

Siegbert Tarrasch (1862–1934) German chess player, chess writer, and chess theoretician

As quoted in The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played : 62 Masterpieces of Chess Strategy (1965) by Irving Chernev, Game 18 : The Isolated Pawn, p. 81

Paul Morphy photo
Marcel Duchamp photo
Felix Frankfurter photo

“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

Jennifer Shahade photo

“Tournament chess is not relaxing. It's stressful, even if you win.”

Jennifer Shahade (1980) chess player

ChessBase.com - The strongest native-born American woman" (3 August 2003) http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1093

Ashot Nadanian photo
Benjamin Franklin photo
Viswanathan Anand photo

“…in 2000, when I defeated Alexei Shirov at the World Chess Championship in Teheran to become the first Indian ever to win the title.”

Viswanathan Anand (1969) Indian chess player

pages=292-93
Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower

Yuval Noah Harari photo
Henry James photo

“Life's too short for chess.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Henry James Byron, Our Boys (1875), Act I
Misattributed

Paul Morphy photo

“Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations.”

Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859 https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=aEZAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA3

Will Durant photo
Bill Engvall photo
Anil Kumble photo
Adam Smith photo
Jennifer Shahade photo

“I love chess, but it's the height of decadence.”

Jennifer Shahade (1980) chess player

The King's Gambit (2007)

Noam Chomsky photo
Newton Lee photo
Victor Villaseñor photo