Chess Pawn Quotes & Sayings

Sometimes, all company forsaking,
They settle to a game of chess
And, leaning on a table, guess
What move the other may be making,
And Lensky with a dreamy look,
Allows his pawn to take his rook. — Alexander Pushkin

The human mind isn't a computer; it cannot progress in an orderly fashion down a list of candidate moves and rank them by a score down to the hundredth of a pawn the way a chess machine does. Even the most disciplined human mind wanders in the heat of competition. This is both a weakness and a strength of human cognition. Sometimes these undisciplined wanderings only weaken your analysis. Other times they lead to inspiration, to beautiful or paradoxical moves that were not on your initial list of candidates. — Garry Kasparov

Well, so you're pleased with your day. And so am I. First, I solved two chess problems, one of them a very nice one - it opens with a pawn. I'll show you. — Leo Tolstoy

Check your moves well, because it can
cost one pawn or losing a lot of just from three moves! — Deyth Banger

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

I'm a chess piece. A pawn,' she said. 'I can be sacrificed, but I cannot be captured. To be captured would be the end of the game. — Paolo Bacigalupi

The essential disadvantage of the isolated pawn ... lies not in the pawn itself, but in the square in front of the pawn. — Richard Reti

Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game — Nigel Short

I'd rather have a Pawn than a finger — Reuben Fine

If I had wanted to be a pawn in a game, I would have taken up chess... — Virginia Alison

When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all. — Mark Lawrence

The most important feature of the Chess position is the activity of the pieces. This is absolutely fundamental in all phases of the game: Opening, Middlegame and especially Endgame. The primary constraint on a piece's activity is the Pawn structure — Michael Stean

I view the director as my boss. I'm the pawn on the chess board. I don't say something to the director easily, because they are my boss. — Jennifer Lawrence

It is annoying that the rules of chess do not allow a pawn to take either horizontally or backwards, but only forwards ... This psychological tuning is ideal for attacking purposes, but what about for defence? — David Bronstein

Even a pawn can take down a queen. — Chanda Hahn

Can you buy an entire chess set in a pawn shop? — Steven Wright

Now I have the pawn and the compensation. — Roman Dzindzichashvili

I look at improvising as a prolonged game of chess. There's an opening gambit with your pawn in a complex game I have with one character, and lots of side games with other characters, and another game with myself - and in each game you make all these tiny, tiny moves that get you to the endgame. — Steve Carell

Sometimes a Pawn is enough to change the whole game and those who ignore the importance of it, are liable to lose their Queen. — Sandeep Sharma

The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard — Aron Nimzowitsch

The Block were not his enemy any more than the terror groups had been, however. They were just opponents in someone's obscene game of chess. It was stupid for a knight to hate a pawn just because it flew a different flag. — Evan Currie

I have a lot of time to think. To look at the strands of the past weave themselves into the knots of the present, and to imagine how the future might unfold from them. So many possibilities. Like a game of chess. And you, my little pawn, you are the catalyst, walking through the board one small step at a time, towards ... what? What sort of endgame will you bring us all, Orphan? — Lavie Tidhar

It's a great huge game of chess that's being played
all over the world
if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I might join
though of course I should like to be a Queen, best. — Lewis Carroll

This sacrifice of a pawn nowadays is only played for drawing purposes. Especially against the very strongest masters it has proved to be quite useful to this end. — Jan Hein Donner

When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right — Fiona Apple

Being a part of the Mafia was like being in a chess game where you had no idea if you were the queen or a pawn, until it was too late, until you lost the entire game or until you won. — Rachel Van Dyken

Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable mediator. One is not the player in this cosmic match of chess, one is simply a pawn on the chessboard. What decides everything is a conscious impersonal energy that sorcerers call intent or the Spirit. — Carlos Castaneda

You can only win the game when you understand that it is a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him lose them all. — Mark Lawrence

White has no positional equivalent for the centralized pawn. — Siegbert Tarrasch

Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game. — G.H. Hardy

You and I should play sometime. I think you would like it,' she said." It's a game of strategy, mostly. The strong pieces are in the back row, while the weak pieces - the pawns - are all in the front, ready to take the brunt of the attack. Because of their limited movement and vulnerability, most people underestimate them and only use them to protect the more powerful pieces. But when I play I protect my pawns.' ... 'They may be weak when the game begins, but their potential is remarkable. Most of the time, they'll be taken by the other side and held captive until the end of the game. But if you're careful - if you keep your eyes open and pay attention to what your oppenent is doing, if you protect your pawns and they reach the other side of the board, do you know what happens then?' I shook my head, and she smiled.
"Your pawn becomes a queen." ... 'Because they kept moving forward and triumphed against impossible odds, they become the most powerful piece in the game. — Aimee Carter

Fate knows all about you, it knows your fears and your weaknesses and your confidences and strengths, and it can be ready for all of them when it decides that the time is right. It can move you like a pawn in a terrible game of chess, sacrifice you for the good of others, drop you from a building you should never have been inside, give you a disease that no one has ever heard of. Luck and chance are impartial. Fate is active. It picks on people. Almost as if it thinks about things too much ... — Tim Lebbon

Feronia played at politics the way she played chess
shrewdly, always thinking about her next move. In this game, Feronia was queen, and Byrony a pawn. Normally, there was no comparing their strengths. But if a pawn was clever and evaded the ire of stronger pieces, if it moved strategically, if it refused to yield, there were ways it might advance. Ways it might become a queen. — Kaye Thornbrugh

When your house is on fire, you cant be bothered with the neighbors. Or, as we say in Chess, if your King is under attack you don't worry about losing a Pawn on the Queen's side — Garry Kasparov

Here's a list of things an intermediate player will have in his chess toolbox: Checkmate patterns involving the Queen, Rooks, Knights and Bishops in combination with each other. King and Queen checkmate. King and Rook checkmate. King and pawn (promotion), then King and Queen checkmate. Pins, skewers, and forks. Understands the principles of the opening. Knows a solid opening for white, and can play a sound opening for black against both e4 and d4 openings. Understands the idea of winning the exchange, and knows what to do after getting up in material. — Ronn Munsterman

He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess — Siegbert Tarrasch

It is always advantageous to exchange your king's bishop pawn for the king's pawn, since this leads to the seizure of the centre and, in addition, to the opening of a file for the rook. — Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

Use art, be creative. No more war. No more children dying. A pawn that does not move in chess upsets the game. I know there is love in the world still and that is what i wish to surround myself with. Sacrifice your time and energy into something positive instead of the negative and you will see that change around you. — Lorin Morgan-Richards

War is like a game of chess ... but with this little difference, that in chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight is always stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone ... Success never depends, and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position. — Leo Tolstoy

And the good writer chooses his words for their 'meaning', but that meaning is not a a set, cut-off thing like the move of knight or pawn on a chess-board. It comes up with roots, with associations, with how and where the word is familiarly used, or where it has been used brilliantly or memorably. — Ezra Pound

Be warned! From Satan's viewpoint you are a pawn in his game of cosmic chess. — Adrian Rogers

As a rule, pawn endings have a forced character, and they can be worked out conclusively. — Mark Dvoretsky

A passed pawn increase in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. — Jose Raul Capablanca

The acting is something that will always be a part of my life, but the writing gives me a lot more creative freedom. You're a pawn in somebody else's chess game, whereas as a writer and as a director, you get to call the shots. And that's very thrilling. — Amber Benson

A pawn, when separated from his fellows, will seldom or never make a fortune. — Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

A knight ending is really a pawn ending. — Mikhail Botvinnik

The pawn is the soul of chess. — Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

It cannot be too greatly emphasized that the most important role in pawn endings is played by the king. — Siegbert Tarrasch

It is in general and odd thing to reach some measure of fame and see one's name bandied about in the newspapers. It is quite another to see oneself turned into a chess piece in a political match. I should call myself a pawn, but I feel that does some disservice to the the obliqueness of my movements. I was a bishop, perhaps, sliding at odd angles, or a knight, jumping from one spot to another. I did not much like the feel of unseen fingers pinching me as I was moved from this square to that. - Benjamin Weaver — David Liss

I'm the Pawn of chess game, whose aim is not to protect the King only but to become the Conqueror. — Samar Sudha

Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf — Cecil Purdy

A Soviet diplomat, like a skilled chess player, does not expect his opposite number to give up something for nothing, not even a pawn. — Arthur Dean

It so often happens that, after sacrificing a pawn, a player aims not to obtain the initiative for it, but to regain sacrificed material. — Efim Geller

She strove for poised composure, despite feeling like a powerless pawn in a despicable game of human chess, played for the amusement of those who enjoyed tragic endings at the expense of someone else's happiness - no - their very existence. — Collette Cameron

Football is a chess game to me. If you move your pawn against my bishop, I'll counter that move to beat you. Football is the same way. I study so much film that I know exactly what teams are going to do. I love knowing what a offense is going to run and stuffing that play. — Junior Seau

There is no disputing that in the eyes of Schlechter, Teichmann or even Rubinstein, the backward pawn was something more substantial than lively piece play, but in our day the latter is more often preferred. — David Bronstein

If I am a pawn in someone else's chess game, you better believe I am going to demand an explanation before being shoved at some rook. I'll play my part, damn it, but I want the courtesy of being asked for my consent! — Thomm Quackenbush