Woody Allen - Albert Einstein - James Burke - Emanuel Lasker - Fred Reinfeld - Gary Kasparov - Bobby Fischer - Storyville: Bobby Fischer: Genius & Madman TV - Anatoly Karpov - Edward Fitzgerald - George Bernard Shaw - George Orwell - Lewis Carroll - William Hazlitt - Emo Philips - Benjamin Franklin - Richard Dawkins - Raymond Chandler - Stanley Kubrick - Nigel Short - The Seventh Seal 1957 - The Grass Arena 1991 - Barbaric Genius TV - Bobby Fischer Against the World 2011 - Life of a King 2013 - Irving Finkel -
I failed to make the chess team because of my height. Woody Allen
Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer. Albert Einstein
The most intellectually exhausting battle known to the mind of man: the World Chess Championship. James Burke
When you see a good move, look for a better one. Emanuel Lasker
The pin is mightier than the sword. Fred Reinfeld
Without error there can be no brilliancy. Fred Reinfeld
The public must come to see that chess is a violent sport. Chess is mental torture. Garry Kasparov, cited Martin Amis, Independent on Sunday November 1995
Having spent a lifetime analysing the game of chess and comparing the capacity of computers to the capacity of the human brain, I've often wondered, where does our success come from? The answer is synthesis, the ability to combine creativity and calculation, art and science, into a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind, and are then refined and improved by experience. Garry Kasparov, Opening Gambit: Why Chess p4
It’s not enough to be talented. It’s not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions. ibid. p14
I like the moment when I break a man’s ego. Bobby Fischer
All I want to do ever is just play chess. Bobby Fischer
I don’t believe in psychology; I believe in good moves. Bobby Fischer
I don’t consider myself to be a genius at chess; I consider myself more to be a genius who just happens to play chess. Bobby Fischer
They said if I returned, I would be arrested. And if I’m convicted it could be millions of dollars and ten years in prison. For playing chess. Which is absurd. Bobby Fischer
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, press conference 1st September 1992
In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn’t do well. They’d get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorization is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position. It is really deadly, and that is why I don’t like chess any more. Bobby Fischer, radio interview 16th October 2006
Bobby Fischer is thought to be the greatest chess player of modern times. Storyville: Bobby Fischer: Genius & Madman, BBC 2011
In 1972 he was scheduled to play the ‘Match of the Century’ against reigning World Champion Boris Spassky of Russia. ibid.
Fischer watchers referred to it as the Wilderness Years. ibid.
There are many similarities between Murphy and Fischer. ibid.
Bobby Fischer’s victory of Boris Spassky in 1972 caused an unprecedented chess boom in the United States, revolutionizing the game in America and around the world. ibid.
Bobby Fischer’s book Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess is the best-selling chess book of all time. ibid.
Only he who never plays never loses. Anatoly Karpov
’Tis all a chequer-board of nights and days
Where Destiny and Men for pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays. Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubdaiyat of Omar Khayyam
A foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time. George Bernard Shaw, The Irrational Knot
He examined the chess problem and set out the pieces. It was a tricky ending, involving a couple of knights.
‘White to play and mate in two moves.’
Winston looked up at the portrait of Big Brother. White always mates, he thought with a sort of cloudy mysticism. Always, without exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal, unvarying triumph of Good over Evil? The huge face gazed back at him, full of calm power. White always mates. George Orwell, 1984
‘I declare it’s marked out just like a large chessboard!’ Alice said at last. ‘There ought to be some men moving about somewhere – and so there are!’ she added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat quick with excitement as she went on. ‘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!’ Lewis Carroll
A great chess-player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it. William Hazlitt, Table-Talk: Essays on Men and Manners
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Chess teaches foresight, by having to plan ahead; vigilance, by having to keep watch over the whole chess board; caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves; and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life – that even when everything seems to be going badly for us we should not lose heart, but always hoping for a change for the better, steadfastly continue searching for the solutions to our problems. Benjamin Franklin
Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the world chess championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility. Richard Dawkins
Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency. Raymond Chandler
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
Chess is ruthless: you’ve got to be prepared to kill people. Nigel Short
Why play chess with me? The Seventh Seal 1957 starring Max von Sydow & Bengt Ekerot & Gunnar Bjornstrand & Nils Poppe & Bibi Andersson & Ake Fridell & Inga Gill & Erik Strandmark & Bertil Anderberg et al, director Ingmar Bergman, Death