Karpov Chess 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 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

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

Las Vegas is a beautiful place. I like it more and more and plan to be here often. It's a great place for chess. — Anatoly Karpov

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

My studies with Botvinnik brought me immense benefit, particularly the homework assignments which forced me to refer to chess books and to work independently. — 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

The fact that a knight is temporarily on the edge of the board is of no great significance. — Anatoly Karpov

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

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

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

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

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

Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess. — Anatoly Karpov

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

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

Furman astounded me with his chess depth, a depth which he revealed easily and naturally, as if all he were doing was establishing well-known truths. — Anatoly Karpov

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

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

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

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

Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi have absolutely destroyed chess by their immoral, unethical, prearranged games. These guys are really the lowest dogs around, and if people knew the truth about them, they would be held in more contempt than Ben Johnson, the runner, and they're going to know the truth when I do this book! — Bobby Fischer

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

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

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