Quotable quotes!
"A man that will take back a move at chess will pick a pocket." - Fenton"The way he plays chess demonstrates a man's whole nature." - Ellin
"The unconscious motive actuating the players is not the mere love of pugnacity but the grimmer one of father-murder." - Dr. Ernest Jones
"A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror." - Steinitz
"Chess holds its masters in its bonds . . . the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer" - Einstein.
"It is impossible to win gracefully at chess." - A.A. Milne
"When evenly matched opponents play correctly, the games seldom have any content and fre-quently end in draws." - Lasker
"More books have been written about chess than about any other game in the world." - Davidson
"Chess is the only game which may legally be played on the premises of the House of Parliament in Great Britain." - Reuben Fine
"Whereas the tactician knows what to do when there is something to do, it requires the strategian to know what to do when there is nothing to do." - Abrahams
"When you don't know what to do, wait for your opponent to get an idea. It's sure to be bad." - Tarrasch
"Pawn endings are to chess what putting is to golf." - Purdy
"The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made." - Tarrasch
"You cannot worry over your worries while playing chess." - McCarthy
"Those who are content to yield to circumstances play whist; those who aim to control circumstances play chess." - Collins
"There is no other game so esteemed, so profound and so venerable as chess; in the realm of play it stands alone." - Ely Culbertson
"Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe." - Indian proverb
" 'Tis all a checkerboard of nights and days where destiny with men for pieces plays." - Omar Khayyam
- WIN OR LOSE - Chess is a game where you either win, lose or draw. But as knowledge expanded, the percentage of draws in the 20th century mounted steadily until two-thirds of all master games now end in a tie
Indeed, a draw is the logical outcome if neither side makes any serious mistake. Emanuel Lasker, who held the world crown from 1894-1921, noted: "A game played accurately by men of equal strength will end in a draw and is apt to be dull."
Jose Capablanca, who dethroned Lasker, already feared in the 1920s that chess was getting effete. He proposed enlarging the board and adding a new piece, but the loss of his title put an end to such talk.
Pioneers of automation in the 1950s sadly predicted that chess would vanish as soon as machines solved its mystery.
"It will become another mathematical theorem locked away in a cold book. Few will look at the body. Few will know the details of the human evaluation. They will only know that a good and warm friend has vanished.
"Computers might prove that the advantage of the first move enables white to win by force. Or chess might endure the draw-death fate of checkers."
But despite these threats, chess is thriving as never before (except in Salt Lake City, where there now is no chess club). Winning a chess game is fun, and even draws can be exciting.