Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders - Savielly Tartakower
Chess is a beautiful mistress. - Larsen
Chess is life - Bobby Fischer
Chess is like life - Boris Spassky
Chess is everything - art, science, and sport. - Karpov
Chess is 99 percent tactics. - Teichmann
Chess is really 99 percent calculation - Soltis
Chess is mental torture. - Kasparov
Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. - Nigel
Short
Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe
- Indian proverb
Chess is as much a mystery as women - Purdy
Reflections
Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. -
Tarrasch
You cannot play at chess if you are kind-hearted. - French Proverb
Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all. - Fischer
Every chess master was once a beginner. - Chernev
Life is too short for chess. - Byron
A good player is always lucky. - Capablanca
A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope
you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage,
and the third... when you know you're going to lose! - Tartakower
When the chess game is over, the pawn and the king go back to the
same box - Irish saying contributed by Etienne Goldstein
General Tips
When you see a good move wait - look for a better one. - Emanuel
Lasker
Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and
the endgame like a machine. - Spielmann
All that matters on the chessboard is good moves. - Bobby Fischer
The pawns are the soul of chess. - Philidor
Tactics
The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made. - Tartakover
No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King. - Koblentz
The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last
mistake. - Tartakover
A man surprised is half beaten. - Proverb
Chess is 99 percent tactics. - Teichmann
There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine. - Tal
The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary. - Nimzovich
The pin is mightier than the sword. - Reinfeld
The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given
position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind. - Emanuel Lasker
Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard. - Fine
If the student forces himself to examine all moves that smite, however
absurd they may look at first glance, he is on the way to becoming
a master of tactics. - Purdy
The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas
the strategian knows what to do when there is nothing to do. - Gerald
Abrahams
Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more important
than a knowledge of strategical principles. - Purdy
The scheme of a game is played on positional lines; the decision
of it, as a rule, is effected by combinations. - Reti
In the perfect chess combination as in a first-rate short story,
the whole plot and counter-plot should lead up to a striking finale,
the interest not being allayed until the very last moment. - Yates
and Winter
A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes
the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them not
only not difficult, but almost a matter of course. - Tarrasch
It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men. - Tartakover
Middlegame
The middlegame I repeat is chess itself; chess with all its
possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc. - Znosko-Borovsky
Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middlegame. -
Tarrasch
Endgame
Every pawn is a potential Queen. - Mason
The Passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock
and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not
sufficient. - Nimzovich
A Passed Pawn increases in strength as the number of pieces
on the board diminishes. - Capablanca
Any material change in a position must come about by mate,
a capture, or a Pawn -promotion. - Purdy
Planning
Even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. - Mikhail
Chigorin
It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but
a realisable plan. - Znosko-Borovsky
Analysis
Methodical thinking is of more use in chess than inspiration.
- Purdy
Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game
turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no one
knows in advance which half - Jan Tinman
