Some of My Favorite Chess Quotes

“Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events.”
-- Benjamin Franklin, who was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 1999. His chess set can be seen in a Philadelphia museum today.

“Without error, there can be no brilliancy.”
-- Emanuel Lasker

“Many have become chess masters, but no one has become the master of chess.”
-- Siegbert Tarrasch

“Every chess master was once a beginner.”
-- Irving Chernev

“Chess is everything: art, science and sport.”
-- Anatoly Karpov

“I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess.”
-- Siegbert Tarrasch

“If a ruler does not understand Chess, how can he rule over a kingdom?”
-- King Khosrow II of Persia

“I prefer to lose a really good game than to win a bad one.”
-- David Levy

“The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world.”
-- H.G. Wells

“The enormous mental resilience, without which no chess player can exist, was so much taken up by chess that he could never free his mind of this game.”
-- Albert Einstein

"Life's too short for chess."
-- Henry James Byron

"Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess."
--Irving Chernev

“My problem with chess was that all my pieces wanted to end the game as soon as possible.”
-- Dave Barry

"You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player."
-- Jose Raul Capablanca

"Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind."
-- Bobby Fischer

"If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off."
-- Nigel Short

"That's what Chess is all about. One day you give your opponent a lesson; the next day he gives you one."
-- Bobby Fischer

"Who is your opponent tonight?" "Tonight I am playing against the Black pieces."
-- Akiba Rubinstein

"For surely of all the drugs in the world, Chess must be the most permanently pleasurable."
-- Assiac

Emmanuel Lasker: "Resign or else."
Jose Raul Capablanca: "I think I'll else."

"You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas."
-- Stanley Kubrick

"When the game is over, the king and the pawn go into the same box."
-- Irish Proverb