Anatoly Quotes & Sayings

I didn't picture myself as even a grandmaster, to say nothing of aspiring to the chess crown. This was not because I was timid - I wasn't - but because I simply lived in one world, and the grandmasters existed in a completely different one. People like that were not really even people, but like gods or mythical heroes. — Anatoly Karpov

Playing black, I put great stake in the Ruy Lopez: I liked it, feel it, and understand it; in matches with Hjartarson and Timman it served me well. - on preparing for World Championship versus Garry Kasparov — Anatoly Karpov

The comforts come from my movie and television writing. It is unusual to live this well simply from books. — Anatoly Rybakov

I operated a periscopic TV camera so the commander, Anatoly Artsebarsky, could establish where we were heading. It is real teamwork on Soyuz. — Helen Sharman

Anatoly Karpov, his by-the-book opponent, was too conservative to pressure Kasparov early in the game, so Kasparov put the pressure on himself with a Queen's Gambit - and won. — Christopher McDougall

Combinations with a queen sacrifice are among the most striking and memorable. — Anatoly Karpov

I went to government for making these changes. I remember a number of guys among these important figures. — Anatoly Chubais

This whole fuss did not only damage Fischer's image, but that of the USA as well. The way the Americans treated one of their most popular citizens did not make a positive impression worldwide. — Anatoly Karpov

During the Soviet era, private ownership was a crime punishable with up to five years in prison. — Anatoly Chubais

There was no doubt that sooner or later we will fight. But we will fight not in the way of the dissidents' protests. We understood that we needed to be as professional as possible. — Anatoly Chubais

You're not always able to choose. — Anatoly Chubais

The ideal in chess can only be a collective image, but in my opinion it is Capablanca who most closely approaches this ... — Anatoly Karpov

An amusing fact: as far as I can recall, when playing the Ruy Lopez I have not yet once in my life had to face the Marshall Attack! — Anatoly Karpov

Russia is a state within a state. To understand the population of Russia, you need to know the areas of the country; you need an understanding of the people and their interests. — Anatoly Karpov

If, in our first match for the world champion's title, I had managed to make the score 6-0, there would have been no Kasparov as a good chess player at all. — Anatoly Karpov

The red directors were one of the main political forces. Another force was the former Soviet ministers who lost everything because of the transformation of the Soviet Union to Russia. — Anatoly Chubais

No, I do not want to sacrifice four days for two games. My time is too valuable to do that. — Anatoly Karpov

I was world champion. For me, chess is my life. It is everything. — Anatoly Karpov

The Americans have gone through 150 years of ups and downs, to pull themselves up out of the mud. After only 15 years, Russia is already in the process of liberating itself from the same thing. — Anatoly Chubais

Style? I have no style. — Anatoly Karpov

The diversification of the people's demand could not be followed by the state apparatus. — Anatoly Chubais

We need strong personalities and only one world champion to attract sponsors. — Anatoly Karpov

The priority must be the unification of the world titles to straighten things out. But we should not wait that long anymore to change the situation, because we are running out of time. — Anatoly Karpov

Pawns not only create the sketch for the whole painting, they are also the soil, the foundation, of any position — Anatoly Karpov

A totalitarian system leaves behind it a minefield built into both the country's social structure and the individual psychology of its citizens. And mines explode each time the system faces the danger of being dismantled and the country sees the prospect of genuine renewal. — Anatoly Sobchak

I like to do projects in which you can see statistical results. I am very happy for all these small children, who have been the biggest group of victims of iodine deficiency. — Anatoly Karpov

But how difficult it can be to gain the desired full point against an opponent of inferior strength, when this is demanded by the tournament position! — Anatoly Karpov

I have found after 1.d4 there are more opportunities for richer play. — Anatoly Karpov

First of all, we have to go back to the classical time control. — Anatoly Karpov

Children can take lessons in that school via the Internet and can score extra points like e.g. in Geography or History. That sounds very promising and is a fantastic basis for future steps. — Anatoly Karpov

These guys were the real owners of the country, and for them to discuss with this young guy who becomes a member of the government was absolutely unacceptable. — Anatoly Chubais

It doesn't require much for misfortune to strike in the King's Gambit - one incautious move, and Black can be on the edge of the abyss. — Anatoly Karpov

I still remember Botvinnik's reaction to each of my games, right from the opening moves. At first he would express amazement, then annoyance, and, finally irritation. — Anatoly Karpov

Bulgaria is the first state that has been awarded for its excellent fight against iodine deficiency by UNICEF. — Anatoly Karpov

Russia should support globalization. The Internet can develop in Russia in a very speedy way. — Anatoly Chubais

There was the scientific and technical progress which couldn't be predicted by the state. — Anatoly Chubais

The adjective sleazy must have acquired its present-day meaning to conform to its sound shape. A word cannot exist in slums, surrounded by slatterns and sluts, and preserve its purity amid all this slime. — Anatoly Liberman

For the whole of Western Europe, I know the business community quite good. — Anatoly Chubais

The truth is that my chess development was nothing out of the ordinary, and it proceeded probably at a pace no faster than others. — Anatoly Karpov

We flew throughout the summer and fall and the start of winter. At first the whiteness gave way to the green of summer, and then gold covered the fields and forests, and then the whiteness again. — Anatoly Berezovoy

You're never able to please everybody, especially when you're transforming a country like Russia. — Anatoly Chubais

You need to find somebody who will speak the same language. We understand that we couldn't have any kind of discussion without permission, without a legal framework behind it. — Anatoly Chubais

Chess is everything: art, science, and sport. — Anatoly Karpov

Killing the private property-that was the center of the Marxist economy and Marxist ideology. That was the center of the Lenin ideology. — Anatoly Chubais

The kind of capitalism I hate most is crony capitalism, the friends who decide. These are things which should be killed in Russia. — Anatoly Chubais

I am thinking about chess in schools in particular. In the USA more than 3200 children competed in an event. — Anatoly Karpov

[Harry] Kasparov and [Anatoly] Karpov have something in common. They both want to become deputies of the Russian State Duma. — Viktor Korchnoi

Bill Gates finds people in Russia to hire them to Microsoft. That's the Russian interest in this process. — Anatoly Chubais

It is dangerous to maintain equality at the cost of placing the pieces passively. — Anatoly Karpov

I don't think Russia will follow the United States's way. I don't think Russia will follow the French way. I'm sure Russia will find its own way. — Anatoly Chubais

Putin needs strong moves to keep the country as one. There is some criticism that he is centralizing power, but in Russia, if you don't centralize power, you have the risk of losing the country. — Anatoly Karpov

I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back. — Anatoly Karpov

Each university should have a Young Scholars' Committee. I became the chairman of this Committee, and immediately it was permitted to have this plan officially adopted. — Anatoly Chubais

I joined the city government, and we start to operate as the bureaucrats on the local level, so we were the only ones in the whole Russian team who were experienced in practical bureaucratic management in the complicated condition of 1990. — Anatoly Chubais

For the producers, there was no reason to produce. You get money, but you couldn't use this money. For consumers, you could have money, but you have no way to use it because you go to the shop and see nothing. — Anatoly Chubais

Money is the kind of instrument which is very speedily produced. — Anatoly Chubais

In space everything is different, you sleep on the ceiling. — Anatoly Berezovoy

The directors thought, They understand nothing in the real economy, in real life. They read some stupid books, and they came from the moon to the earth, and maybe in one month they will disappear. — Anatoly Chubais

I like 1.e4 very much, but my results are better with 1.d4. — Anatoly Karpov

By all means examine the games of the great chess players, but don't swallow them whole. Their games are valuable not for their separate moves, but for their vision of chess, their way of thinking. — Anatoly Karpov

No, no, it is obvious that the ECU should act as a close alliance for the benefit of chess. — Anatoly Karpov

The boy (then a 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov)doesn't have a clue about Chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession — Mikhail Botvinnik

There is a state that is able to understand the demand in the economy. That state should use prices as an instrument for implementation of this understanding. — Anatoly Chubais

I considered that I had to write stories about the people I had met, with whom I'd worked, the history of my books - just in case I up and die. — Anatoly Rybakov

All my books are adventures, but they also have a social viewpoint. — Anatoly Rybakov

It was almost forbidden in the Soviet Union to study the New Economic Policy. — Anatoly Chubais

As a personality, I'm fighter, you know. And I don't give up, and if I believe I'm correct, I'm right, then I work, and I fight. Okay, this could be over a chess board, this could be in life, and so I defend my principles. — Anatoly Karpov

If you want to become a World Champion you should avoid playing in Open tournaments. — Anatoly Karpov

If I just produce the transparent ideal accepted by the Western experts, a process of privatization which will be very good but never happen, that means nothing. — Anatoly Chubais

Just make the right estimation of your own strengths and weaknesses, and also that of your opponent. — Anatoly Karpov

I don't pretend to anything more than harmony. — Anatoly Karpov

Chess is a very tough game, and psychologically a tough game. And of course, chess needs a lot of qualities, human qualities. And so you must have a very strong nervous system, and then you must be well prepared; you must be able to work a lot. — Anatoly Karpov

I didn't know so well chess theory, the theory of chess openings. And so, of course I knew the theory, but not on the level of the best players, so this was my ... this was always my weakness. — Anatoly Karpov

If civilization is in danger today ... it will do so with the enthusiastic assistance of credulous people. They seem to me more dangerous than the most brazen leaders, because everything is done with their cooperation. — Anatoly Kuznetsov

The days when it was possible to win a serious game only by merit of sporting character or depth of chess understanding have vanished forever. Chess knowledge has become dominant, bypassing all the other factors that contribute to success. — Anatoly Karpov

During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them. — Anatoly Chubais

If the opponent offers keen play I don't object; but in such cases I get less satisfaction, even if I win, than from a game conducted according to all the rules of strategy with its ruthless logic. — Anatoly Karpov

For a professional writer in the Soviet Union, it works this way. First, you have to have something to say - that's the main thing. Second, it's a matter of who publishes you. If your book has real stuff in it, readers will ferret it out, even in a Siberian journal. — Anatoly Rybakov

Scientific socialism, is the most religious of all religions, and the true Social Democrat is the most deeply religious of all human beings. — Anatoly Lunacharsky

40 million Russians are convinced that I am a scoundrel, a thief, a criminal or a CIA agent, who deserves to be shot, hanged or drawn and quartered. — Anatoly Chubais

During his consultations at the Kremlin, [Soviet ambassador Anatoly] Dobrynin had faced shock and incomprehension about Nixon's removal. 'They thought, how can the most powerful person in the United States, the most important person in the world, be legally forced to step down for stealing some documents?' he recalled. — Barry Werth

Private property is a very fundamental and very long-term institution. — Anatoly Chubais

There are no two countries with the same style of economic mechanism, with the same capitalism. — Anatoly Chubais

After that, Kasparov stepped back from chess which is, and I want this to be clear, not good for chess in general at all. As a whole, the current situation in the chess world leaves a lot to be desired. — Anatoly Karpov

You can't play chess if you're groggy from pills. — Anatoly Karpov

My idea is to make moves to bring chess back to the world's map, to make it part of the world's geography again. — Anatoly Karpov

My very first book was a games collection of Anatoly Karpov. On the whole I was attracted by positonal play with some tactics, and already then I was aiming for universality. — Vladimir Kramnik

The first great chess players, including the world champion, got by perfectly well without constant coaches. — Anatoly Karpov

To be champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well. — Anatoly Karpov

I lost the match. I blame only myself for this. There were many opportunities to win. But I missed them, no one else. — Anatoly Karpov

We had various kinds of tape-recorded concerts and popular music. But by the end of the flight what we listened to most was Russian folk songs. We also had recordings of nature sounds: thunder, rain, the singing of birds. We switched them on most frequently of all, and we never grew tired of them. It was as if they returned us to Earth. — Anatoly Berezovoy

I am joining the government not from the academic position but from St. Petersburg city council. — Anatoly Chubais

In Kansas I have a chess school. — Anatoly Karpov

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

Chess is my life, but my life is not chess. — Anatoly Karpov

The Bolsheviks started not just on the killing of private property; they were trying to abolish money itself. — Anatoly Chubais

A writer's main tool is his memory - his own memory, the collective memory of his people. And the strongest memory is the one that is created by a wound to the heart. — Anatoly Rybakov

In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government. — Anatoly Chubais

The Moscow energy system has never sustained such a load. — Anatoly Chubais

I'm communicating with the directors of the Soviet companies, and I see that it is wrong, but when I go to the official discussions, they discuss we should change the color of the walls. — Anatoly Chubais