Tarrasch Chess Quotes & Sayings

I'm happy to be making my first appearance on air professionally. By that I mean I'm finally getting paid, which I know will be a great relief to my creditors. — Jack Benny

Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player — Siegbert Tarrasch

Sin is too big to be handled alone. — Johnny Hunt

I have a quite feeling of pity for all those who don't know chess; almost like I am sorry for those who never learned to love. Chess, like love and music, has the ability of making people happy. — Siegbert Tarrasch

In God's case, if He had said in the infinite sovereignty of His absolute will, "I will have no substitute, but each man shall suffer for himself, he who sinneth shall die," none could have murmured. It was grace, and only grace which led the divine mind to say, "I will accept of a substitute. There shall be a vicarious suffering; and My vengeance shall be content, and My mercy shall be gratified. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

What is it in humans that makes us so eager to believe ill of one another? ... What makes us so hungry for it? Failed idealism, he suspected. We disappoint ourselves and then look around for other failures to convince ourselves: it's not just me. (15) — Mary Doria Russell

I think that most people who are just artists, who are getting famous, would trade a lot of their fame back for some normalcy, pretty much immediately. — Ansel Elgort

Intellectual activity is perhaps the greatest pleasure of life; chess is one of the forms of intellectual activity. — Siegbert Tarrasch

As Rousseau could not compose without his cat beside him, so I cannot play chess without my king's bishop. In its absense the game to me is lifeless and void. The vitalizing factor is missing, and I can devise no plan of attack. — Siegbert Tarrasch

I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the fourth game, I wasn't feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well, must one have to win every game? — Siegbert Tarrasch

The images of stick-thin prepubescent girls never should have had power over me. I should've had my sights set on successful businesswomen and successful female artists, authors, and politicians to emulate. Instead I stupidly and pointlessly just wanted to be considered pretty. I squandered my brain and my talent to squeeze into a size 2 dress while my male counterparts went to work on making money, making policy, making a difference. I — Portia De Rossi

The future belongs to he who has the bishops. — Siegbert Tarrasch

Tarrasch's 'dogmas' are not eternal truisms, but merely instructional material presented in an accessible and witty form, those necessary rudiments from which one can begin to grasp the secrets of chess ... — Garry Kasparov

One doesn't have to play well, it's enough to play better than your opponent — Siegbert Tarrasch

All lines of play which lead to the imprisonment of the bishop are on principle to be condemned. — Siegbert Tarrasch

I look one move ahead ... the best! — Siegbert Tarrasch

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

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

Bill Maher fancies himself the reincarnation of Lenny Bruce. — Bernard Goldberg

Multiple mergers can be challenging because people come from different backgrounds. — Arundhati Bhattacharya

I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make man happy. — Siegbert Tarrasch

A lively imagination can exercise itself most fully and creatively in conjuring up magnificent combinations. — Siegbert Tarrasch

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

What is the object of playing a gambit opening? ... To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game — Siegbert Tarrasch

University is sheltered from the business world and they think they should not have any connection with the businesses because maybe the business is dirty or not very good. — Maurice Levy

Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about! — Siegbert Tarrasch

You have something that exists in your head, and getting that abstract thought from your head into something that actually exists is a difficult process. — Lazaro Hernandez

Short version: it doesn't matter how many bad decisions you just made, your job is to make the next one correct. — Steven Brust

I have always had a slight feeling of pity for man who has no knowledge of chess. — Siegbert Tarrasch

For the last six or seven years the circus has no longer been in fashion. That is a pity. One should go to the circus, beyond any question of fashion, at least one or two times a year-I am not speaking here to the real enthusiasts, they know better than I what they have to do. — Adrienne Monnier

First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game — Siegbert Tarrasch

A form of intellectual productiveness, therein lies its peculiar charm. Intellectual productiveness is one of the greatest joys - if not the greatest one - of human existence. It is not everyone who can write a play, or build a bridge, or even make a good joke. But in chess everyone can, everyone must be intellectually productive, and so can share in this select delight. I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. — Siegbert Tarrasch

No one has ever loved me
As deeply as you.
No one has truly shown me
What love could be like until now:
Not pretty or safe or easy
But more than I ever knew.
Love within reason -
That isn't love.
And I've learned that from you.. — Stephen Sondheim

Weak points or holes in the opponent's position must be occupied by pieces not Pawns — Siegbert Tarrasch

Here are some of the questions and answers to an examination paper in chess that was given some time ago — Siegbert Tarrasch

When I was teaching in the 1960s in Boston, there was a great deal of hope in the air. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, Malcolm X was alive; great, great leaders were emerging from the southern freedom movement. — Jonathan Kozol

There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola. — Leslie Fiedler

Many have become chess masters - no one has become the master of chess. — Siegbert Tarrasch

The proponents of Steinitz' theory - Tarrasch and his supporters - tried to express Steinitz' teaching in the form of laconic rules, and as often happens in such cases, they went too far. The laconic tended to become dogmatic, and chess began to lose its freshness, originality and charm. — Alexander Kotov

Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game — Siegbert Tarrasch

It is not enough to be a good player ... you must also play well — Siegbert Tarrasch