Great Chess Player Quotes & Sayings

In my opinion, the style of a player should not be formed under the influence of any single great master. — Vasily Smyslov

None of the great players has been so incomprehensible to the majority of amateurs and even masters, as Emanuel Lasker. — Jose Raul Capablanca

I claim that nothing else is so effective in encouraging the growth of chess strength as such independent analysis, both of the games of the great players and your own. — Mikhail Botvinnik

The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'. — Emanuel Lasker

A championship contender in the early twentieth century needed charisma and a knack for cultivating sponsorship, and Rubinstein was the epitome of the shy and unsocial chess player. Now matter how great his chess skills, he lacked the people skills to be a self-promoter and fund-raiser. — Garry Kasparov

A great chess player always has a very good memory. — Leonid Shamkovich

The huge egos of great chess players are legendary. Psychologists have been amazed by their vanity, have studied it, and anecdotes concerning it are abundant. But never before has there been such a prima donna as Bobby. Already he has managed to alienate and offend almost everybody in the chess world. That includes officials, patrons, writers, almost everybody and anybody who might be in a position to help him in his career. — Israel Albert Horowitz

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

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

It is not possible to become a great player without having learned how to analyse deeply and accurately. — Mark Dvoretsky

Rather an end in horror, than horror without end. He could not condemn principles he might need to invoke and apply later. The wolf cannot help having been created by God as he is, but we shoot him all the same if we have to. The great player in diplomacy, as in chess, asks the question,Does this improve me?, not look at the possible fringe benefits If you can't have what you like, you must like what you have. — A.J.P. Taylor

A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player — Bobby Fischer