The majority of people imagine a chess master as being a townsman who passes his life in an atmosphere of smoke and play in cafes and clubs: a neurasthenic individual, whose nerves and brains are continually working at tension: a one-sided person who has given up his whole soul to chess.

We perceive after a careful consideration of the evolution of the chess mind that such evolution has gone on, in general, in a way quite similar to that in which it goes on with the individual chess player, only with the latter more rapidly.

The essential disadvantage of the isolated pawn ... lies not in the pawn itself, but in the square in front of the pawn.

It is the aim of the modern school, not to treat every position according to one general law, but according to the principle inherent in the position

Those chess lovers who ask me how many moves I usually calculate in advance, when making a combination, are always astonished when I reply, quite truthfully, 'as a rule not a single one'

In open positions the safety of the King should be the first consideration.

Chess is a fighting game which is purely intellectual and includes chance.