The system set up by F.I.D.E. ... Insures that there will always be a Russian world champion... The Russians arranged it that way.

I'm not as soft or as generous a person as I would be if the world hadn't changed me.

Tactics flow from a superior position

I know people who have all the will in the world, but still can't play good Chess

But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt. He [Capablanca] wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It's a terrible game now. Very uncreative.

Capablanca was among the greatest of chess players, but not because of his endgame. His trick was to keep his openings simple, and then play with such brilliance in the middlegame that the game was decided - even though his ooponent didn't always know it - before they arrived at the ending.

I'm not afraid of Spassky. The world knows I'm the best. You don't need a match to prove it.