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

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.

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

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.

If the opponent offers keen play I don't object; but in such cases I get less satisfaction, even if I win, than from a game conducted according to all the rules of strategy with its ruthless logic.

You can't play chess if you're groggy from pills.

We need strong personalities and only one world champion to attract sponsors.