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 . . . and Wisdom

What the chess public needs is a method of winning easily without first mastering the difficult and unnecessary technique of making good moves. – MacMurray

When the clock is ticking and there's someone sitting on the other side of the board who wants to win as much as you do, you don't rise to the level of your desire; you sink to the level of your training. – Kelly Atkins

If you are a newbie to this game or a struggling ancient, I would urge you to learn from the methods of The Soviet School and build a solid foundation and appreciation for all aspects of the game. There are no shortcuts, and no miracle "master in 90 days" answers. If there were, we would all be masters. – Bob Kraemer

My teaching and writing experience has convinced me that the most effective teaching method is the clear exposition of general principles, followed by incessant repetition of these principles as they occur in actual play. – Edmar Mednis

Unsurprisingly, as player gains more and more experience, trying his best to analyze and evaluate, he gains proficiency. Pattern recognition, the storehouse of similar situations in a player's recollection, is the Rosetta Stone that eventually makes the process possible. Good books on strategy are a key vitamin supplement, but the training diet must include experience. – Lev Alburt

If learning chess were that easy, everybody would be good. – Dan Heisman

Most chess-players I know, myself included, know chess better than they play it. – Alex Yermolinsky

Chess is a game of understanding, not memory. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Education in Chess has to be an education in independent thinking and judging. Chess must not be memorized. – Emanuel Lasker

You should keep in mind no names, nor numbers, nor isolated incidents, not even results, but only methods. The method is plastic. It is applicable in every situation. The result, the isolated incident, is rigid, because bound to the wholly individual conditions. The method produces numerous results; a few of these will remain in our memory, and as long as they few remain, they are useful to illustrate and to keep alive the rules which order a thousand results. – Emanuel Lasker

Whoever wishes to develop a capacity for independent chess thought must avoid anything in chess which lacks life: artificial theories that rest on very few examples and an immense amount of contrivance; the habit of shying away from danger; the habit of needlessly taking over variations and principles employed by others, and repeating them unreflectingly; self-satisfaction and conceit; reluctance to admit one's errors... in short, anything conducive to routine, or to anarchy. – Emanuel Lasker

Properly taught, a student can learn more in a few hours than he would find out in ten years of untutored trial and error. – Emanuel Lasker

Chess rules and exercises - 5 hours
Elementary endings - 5 hours
Some openings - 10 hours
Combination - 20 hours
Positional play - 40 hours
Practical play with analysis - 120 hours
Having spent 200 hours on the above, the young player, even if he possesses no special talent for chess, is likely to be among those two or three thousand chessplayers who play on a par with a master. There are, however, a quarter of a million chessplayers who annually spend no fewer than 200 hours on chess without making any progress. Without going into any further calculations, I can assert with a high degree of certainty that nowadays we achieve only a fraction of what we are capable of achieving. – Emanuel Lasker

I am in favor of one formula: the gift of intuition instead of accumulating many variations. – Vasily Smyslov

Understanding, not memory is the essential key to chess success. The chessplayer who understands why will consistently defeat the player who only knows how. Play by sound general principles adapted to the specific requirements (offensive opportunities and defensive necessities) in each position. – Ron Curry

Nothing is more repugnant to the chess mind than memory without understanding. – Bruce Pandolfini

I remember a young player who said he had lost three years of his life studying the Najdorf. He realized that he had learned variations, not chess. – Bent Larsen

It always struck me as strange that someone would study something subtle that should take you from 2300 to 2301, when what they really needed was something basic to take them from 1400 to 1420 – Dan Heisman

It takes a strong player to realize how truly weak he is. – Saviely Tartakower

Only a strong player knows how weakly he plays. – Saviely Tartakower

Every chess master was once a beginner. – Irving Chernev

It takes about 4 years before a good player can look at your game and say 'Yes, that looks like decent chess.' – Michele White

Most chess players don't improve significantly after about eight years of serious play. – Andrew Soltis

One must be wary not to be deluded by superior game results against a small circle of opponents. In all likelihood, this indicates not any superior ability on one's own part, but merely the inferior skill of one's opponents. – Bruce Moon

The more schizophrenic you are, the more you hold an inner dialogue with yourself, the better at chess you will become. – Jeremy Silman

A chess game is a dialogue - a conversation - between a player and his opponent. Each move by the opponent may contain threats or be a blunder, but a player cannot defend against threats or take advantage of blunders if he does not first ask himself, "What is my opponent planning?" after each move. – Bruce Moon

The lower rated player tends to think only of his own plans and so he misses what the opponent has in store. – Bent Larsen

No accidents! The only good games are those where everything is logical, where both opponents each time find and make the best move, and the one who wins is he who sees and calculates further. – Archil Ebralidze (to his student, Petrosian)

Live, lose, and learn - by observing your opponent - how to win. – Amber Steenbok

Try to play stronger opponents - they will punish you for your mistakes, so you will learn to identify them and be less likely to make them. – Dan Heisman

Play mostly opponents 100-200 points higher than you - you need to be punished for your mistakes so you won't make them again. But don't completely stop playing opponents 100-200 points lower than you - they are the ones whom you have to learn to beat consistently. – Dan Heisman

To be a winner in chess you must first become a loser to stronger players. – Ken Smith

You learn what to do from studying GM games; and what you've been doing wrong - and thus what to correct - from studying your own games. – Kelly Atkins

Don't be afraid of losing. Be afraid of playing a game and not learning something. – Dan Heisman

You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player. – Jose R. Capablanca

After having lost a game at chess, it is my custom to ponder on the past moves until I find out the false step that led to my defeat. – An 18th century Hindu Rajah

Save all your tournament games and run though them after the event. The best way to make progress in chess is analyzing your own games, especially the lost ones. – Sergei Shipov

A critical approach to one's games in essential. Once you become happy with your chess, you're finished. Some people think it's tough to analyze the games you lost. For me it felt even worse to have played what seemed like a great game only to discover some huge mistakes in the analysis! – Alex Yermolinsky

Significant chess improvement requires objective self-discovery and self-examination, finding and eliminating weaknesses. – Taylor Kingston

Once you analyze your games in detail, you may not like what you see. – Alex Yermolinsky

The pinnacle of insanity is to play chess exactly the same and expect a better result. Look at your losses and make the changes necessary – Harl Myers

Many weaker students make the same mistake dozens, if not hundreds of times even though they know it is a mistake because they are either too stubborn to admit to themselves they are wrong or not willing to pay the price (in work or ego) to make the adjustment. – Dan Heisman

One may make mistakes, but one ought not to practice deception on oneself. He who bravely puts his views into practice can, of course, suffer defeat. Yet in so far as he endeavors to understand the causes of his loss, it will be to his benefit. But he who no longer has the courage to realize his conceptions is losing the qualities of a fighter and approaching his decline. – Emanuel Lasker

You get better (and your rating goes up) when you learn, or when you find a mistake and don't repeat it, not when you win a bunch of games. – Dan Heisman

You have to remember that game that you played way back then. You cannot lose the same game twice. And you have to carry the knowledge of that loss with you for years. – Yasser Seirawan

One should be extremely objective and self-aware of one's own play. How are my openings? Am I being outplayed? How's my end game? You have to be critical of your play. – Yasser Seirawan

Every missed opportunity to play better - even in a drawn game, or a difficult game to win - is your loss. That is why it is necessary for you to return again and again to study your oversights, regardless of how the game turned out. – Garry Kasparov

If you are interested in learning, think of a draw offer as an offer to remain ignorant! – Dan Heisman

By not playing (or by offering draws out of fear), you stop learning; and when you stop learning you stop improving, and eventually your rating either goes up less quickly than it would have, stagnates, or even goes down if you play so little that you get rusty. So becoming more selective just for rating purposes is ultimately harmful. It is just that simple but often overlooked: if you want to get better, then you should be playing and learning as much as possible regardless of the short-term effect on your rating. – Dan Heisman

Analysis, if it is really carried out with a complete concentration of his powers, forms and completes a chess player. – Lev Polugayevsky

Always check your analysis, which is apt to be superficial when it is for research rather than a concrete game. – Ken Messere

It is useful to publish your individual analytical work. Then you are subject to objective criticism. – Mikhail Botvinnik

If you can’t take (constructive) criticism, consider taking up another game, perhaps solitaire. – Jeremy Silman

It is vital to check one's analyses thoroughly, including those that have already been published. To broaden one's chess outlook it is useful to study the available game-collections of the leading chess players. To improve one's accuracy of calculation, one should solve endgame studies and analyze games abounding in tactical ideas. – Mikhail Botvinnik

Home analysis has specific features of its own: you are not restricted by time, and you can move the men freely. Despite this difference between home analysis and practical play, there is much in common between them. It is a well-known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts. – Mikhail Botvinnik

To become a good chessplayer, you have to be willing to play, to lose (often!), and to work hard (very, very hard) at ironing out all of the holes in your understanding. There are many ways to begin this journey: study openings and the typical middlegame plans that arise from the systems you wish to employ; read any one of the many middlegame books that have flooded the market; pick up an endgame book and learn the basics of this phase of the game; look at annotated master games (always a good idea); and finally, find a chess teacher who will look at your own games and rip you apart (if you can't handle the criticism, may I suggest taking up solitaire?). Having a chess teacher to look over your games is extremely useful. – Jeremy Silman

You can study by yourself all you want, and surely such efforts might even help, but I can't imagine anything being more valuable to a serious student than the objective analysis of his or her own play. You must be tested constantly in actual competition and then you should follow these efforts by reviewing them under the scrutiny of a sympathetic adviser.
– Bruce Pandolfini

It's generally - but erroneously - assumed that the best teachers are the best players, and that the best players can easily communicate the secrets of the game. Actually, the best teachers are often just interested amateurs. – Andrew Soltis

GMs are so far removed in playing strength from class players that their advice is often misguided. For the same reason that a university mathematics professor will probably not be able to teach addition as well as a first grade teacher, a GM will probably not be able to teach the basics of chess as effectively as a pedagogically inclined player who is much weaker.
– Michael de la Maza

Strong chess players like to talk about the many years of dedication and hard work that are required to become a master-level player. Unfortunately, they often confuse this hard and time-consuming path with the relatively small amount of work that most class players need to do to experience a significant improvement in their playing ability. – Michael de la Maza

If you don't improve fast enough the experience will be so painful that you probably will not want to play chess at all after a while. – Ignacio Marin

A potential problem for any student of the game is that it's natural to become stranded on performance plateaus. In order to succeed at any discipline, we have to be prepared for these periods of virtual stasis, where no matter how hard we work, we can't seem to make headway. In fact, it's not uncommon during these times to play worse for awhile, possibly a phenomenon you may have experienced. This happens especially when trying to effect new ideas and techniques. We may become so enmeshed in abstractions that obvious things are overlooked, and our play suffers. How we deal with these apparent setbacks and periods of getting nowhere is cardinal to whether or not we get somewhere in the end. – Bruce Pandolfini

It's easy to surrender to your frustrations when progress seems to be at a standstill. But if you want to break out of your apparent slump, you must somehow stay with the program, whether by hard work, dedication, or doggedness. And when you finally break out, it may seem as if it happens "just like that." But it won't be "just like that" at all, regardless how suddenly and surprisingly the gain in strength manifests itself. It's likely that you've been getting stronger all along, even if plainly by accruing experience, but the improvement might not show itself until all the parts are in place. – Bruce Pandolfini

Confusion is often an essential part of the learning process, especially in chess where most players find, as they progress, that the game alternates between phases of seeming quite easy, then impossibly difficult. – Dan Heisman

When I hit a slump, I go looking for Bobby. – Kelly Atkins (on playing over Fischer's games to break out of a slump)

Studying Fischer's games is important, I think, for any player of any playing strength. Above all, it will give you a good idea how to approach the game, or, to put it another way, it will change your attitude to the game in a way that is bound to improve your own play. – Garry Kasparov

We have to separate beginners/amateurs from professional players. For amateurs, certainly they can, and should, learn from the masters of the past. You can’t start nuclear physics without the basics. You have to go from Newton to Einstein, and in chess it’s the same, you have to start with the classics and the basics. That’s the problem with many youngsters today, they run right to the database. The value of the old games and old commentators, Tarrasch, Steinitz, Chigorin, Alekhine, is that they explained the rationale for their moves, and it’s still there. – Garry Kasparov

Studying the old masters is never a waste of time. The game's changed a bit since their day, but not THAT much. You master the games of Steinitz, Lasker, Capa, Nimzo, etc., and you've mastered chess and can play with ANYBODY. – Kelly Atkins

Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the quiet positional players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your space, tying up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do! – Yasser Seirawan

It's better to temporarily halt your chess growth at a young age with the purpose of having a full comprehension of everything before making the next leap than it is to assume that everything is already accomplished, only to discover your mistakes when it's too late. – Mikhail Chigorin

After giving a student the basic mating patterns and strategies you must begin giving them advanced concepts. At first these ideas will not make sense, many players will have a vague idea of what you are talking about but nothing more. Even a fragmented understanding of these concepts will prove useful though, and eventually they will improve as these lessons are assimilated by repetition and example. – Jeremy Silman

While the basic rules of chess can be absorbed in a few hours, nobody becomes a chess master overnight. The passage from relative ignorance to relative enlightenment requires time and study. – Bruce Moon

Much though some of the world would like to believe that chess talent is a divine gift - lazy English school of thought - or the result of great education and training - Soviet school of superiority - it is clear that the simple hard work approach does work. – Tony Miles

The magic formula to improve your game consists of two components: study and play. Study provides the theory and play provides the practice. – Robert Snyder

Repetition is the soul of learning. – Mike Franett

In the arduous path to chess mastery, enjoyment is the surest driving force. – Robert Burger

If the work is fun, it is easy to persevere; if it is not, you are never going to persevere so much that you can be a really good player. For lots of players, acquiring knowledge through practicing is fun, but acquiring theory through work is quite another story. – Dan Heisman

Don't worry so much about how well you play, and don't lose heart over your failures. When you lose, try to understand why you've lost and what you could have done to avert defeat. It doesn't matter if you're a C player, a B player, someone who likes the game of checkers but can't find opponents, or whatever, as long as the game of chess remains challenging and diverting. Play mainly for the pleasure of it, as often as you can, and improvement is bound to come. – Bruce Pandolfini

Buy chess books not so much to get to the next level but especially because you enjoy reading them. Buy chess software not merely to help you improve but primarily because you are stimulated by doing chess on a computer. Buy a chess teacher’s time not solely to get better but mainly because you really want to understand the game. – Bruce Pandolfini

Positions in books are selected to be 'about' one clear theme. Positions in most games are usually more complex! – Simon Webb

On the whole, each of us is inclined to concentrate on his own thoughts, plans, discoveries and side tracks - absorbing others’ experience is psychologically much more difficult. – Mark Dvoretsky

Theoreticians and chess teachers can't play the game for you. If you're an attacking wizard you don't want to find yourself in lifeless middlegames. If you're a positional player you don't want to immerse yourself in a jungle of loose pieces and complicated lines. – Bruce Pandolfini

As you develop as a player you will be more likely, in a given position, to choose a move that suits you stylistically than one that leads to objective equality. – Source Unknown

Don’t expect your opponent to make mistakes! When you play against the stronger players you will find you spend most of your time waiting for mistakes that aren’t going to happen. When we expect too much from our opponent we lose an opportunity to push ourselves to our limits. We feel that creative experimentation is not important if only because it is unnecessary. When you play chess (and this is true regardless of the level of your opponent), forget about your opponent! Better still, play each game as if it were against Garry Kasparov! Play the board. Build your faith in strong moves - not weak opponents! Have expectations that only concern your own ability. – Kevin Spraggett

Making strong moves is not the private property of Kasparov. Any master with enough will power will be able to find the same moves as Kasparov 8 out of every 10 times. The only real difference being that Kasparov will be able to find all of his moves in a two-hour time period whereas the master will need several hours more! – Kevin Spraggett

I don't worry about winning - I worry about finding the best move and let the result take care of itself. – Dan Heisman

The goal is almost always to find the best move, and not necessarily to tell the future (although sometimes that is necessary to find the best move). – Dan Heisman

No science, no profound positional considerations or strategic subtleties, can help a player if he is unable to find strong moves or to see and accurately calculate concrete possibilities for himself and for his opponent. – Mark Dvoretsky

It's all about recognizing and making judgments about patterns, so as you read the notes and ideas elsewhere on these pages, what you should be doing is seeing and remembering patterns. – Dave Regis

To become a strong tournament player, you must indelibly carve into your chess memory a certain limited number of essential positions and concepts. As similar situations arise in your own chess games, these memories stir and come to your conscious mind, alerting you to the best course of action. – Lev Alburt

In an OTB game, the deciding factors would firstly be memory of known examples, then judgment and the willingness to take risks against the clock. In CC, the important thing is to research the opening variation thoroughly, base critical analysis on that research, and maintain an objectively sound position at all times. Then the more complicated it gets, the more likely the better analyst is to win. – Tim Harding

Everything is secondary to matters of judgment and planning. – Duncan Suttles

The class of a player has everything to do with his versatility - the ability to make independent judgments in the different situations that may arise in the course of a game. – Mark Dvoretsky

A chess player's talent is measured not by his knowledge of the rules, but his ability to find exceptions to them! – Viktor Korchnoi

There are exceptions to every general principle and law in chess. Knowing when you can violate them is one of the hallmarks of a strong player. – Source Unknown

A crucial part of chess mastery is knowing the "rules", and another crucial part is knowing when to break them. – Yasser Seirawan

It is not rules that have to be reckoned with, but exceptions to them. – Anatoly Karpov

There are no rules nowadays, only the exceptions! – Sergey Shipov

Although experience is an advantage in telling a player what to look for, it can also restrict you into considering only 'normal' moves. – Simon Webb

Great players become great only when they can free themselves from the shackles of dogma! – John Watson

Always expect your opponent to see your threat and make the best reply. – Jeremy Silman

Take nothing for granted. Don't feel or hope that some line is good or bad. Make sure that it is! – Jeremy Silman

The moment after you release a chess piece is the moment of clearest thought in a chess game. – Source Unknown

Effects must be studied and compared. Consequences must be weighed. A move may not only seem but be good; nevertheless there may be a better move, and it should be looked for. The Judging Principle, in fact, includes what is meant by discriminating, comparing, calculating, and so forth. As so understood it means that you are to take nothing for granted; that so far from receiving appearances with open arms, you are to view them with suspicion, and test their claims thoroughly. Even after making up your mind, it is a good and wholesome practice to have one more look - a sharp, though brief, final glance; and into that last look you should throw as much impartiality as you can. – William Norwood Potter

To a chess master, there is no such thing as an "obvious" move. Experience has shown repeatedly that wins or draws are thrown away by thoughtless play. Careful planning is the essence of chess strategy. Every move must be scrutinized with care. Each must be analyzed in the light of the plan under consideration. Nowhere is waste of time more severely punished than in chess. – Samuel Reshevsky

In good chess, soundness is the first essential. – Alfred Emery

Your game is only as good as your worst move. – Dan Heisman

Avoid the quick, lazy move. This is one move that will almost always turn out to be the losing blunder. – Jeremy Silman

If you think, "Ooh, I hope he doesn't see that," you're too late. – Jeremy Silman

If you can't see nor know what your opponent is doing, then you have to assume the worse. – Larry Evans

An opponent will not alert us by shouting in our ears, BEWARE! – Amatzia Avni

When you have finished your calculations, write down the move you have decided upon on the score sheet. Then examine the position for a short time 'through the eyes of a patzer'. Ask whether you have left a mate in one on, or left a piece or a pawn to be taken. Only when you have convinced yourself that there is no immediate catastrophe for you should you make the planned move. – Benjamin Blumenfeld

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 a tense game. This tension may make you want to believe things that aren't really true, and comfort yourself with things that mean you don't have to think too hard any more. Not a bit of it. – Dave Regis

Hope Chess is not when you make a threat and you hope your opponent does not see it. Hope chess is when you make a move, wait for what your opponent does, and then hope you can meet his threats. Players that play Hope Chess will never get very good because some threats cannot be met. – Dan Heisman

Anticipate your opponent’s best replies to your moves. Ask yourself, “what move would I play against this move of mine?” Then other moves by your opponent should pose no problem. While not relying on an opponent’s errors, do take advantage of any mistakes that occur. Punish mistakes without mercy. – Bruce Pandolfini

There are certain entities often invoked by game analysts, and called the Principles. Of these mysterious powers little is known, save that they are easily annoyed and very revengeful. – William Norwood Potter

The surest way to consistently win chess games is to anticipate and frustrate your opponent’s plans. This has been one of the major keys to Karpov's success. Think and play prophyllactically. – Kelly Atkins

The most consistently effective strategy is to win with minimum risk. Avoid risky variations and speculative lines of play, unless behind. Avoid going for the “flashy” or brilliant win. When ahead, play for the certain win, even if slower or less glamorous. – Ron Curry

When trying to win, destroy opponent’s strengths; when trying to equalize, go for his weaknesses. – Richard Reti

The basic principle of converting one’s advantage is to stifle even the tiniest counter-chances. – Mark Dvoretsky

The best practical rule for a winning game: destroy your opponent's counter-chances. It may be slower, but it’s surer. – Source Unknown

The most important principle in chess is safety; second is activity. Everything else is relatively unimportant.– Dan Heisman

When you are winning easily, you are more likely to be the one to be harmed by complexity. – Dan Heisman

Avoidance of mistakes is the beginning, as it is the end, of mastery in chess. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

One bad move nullifies forty good ones. – Al Horowitz

One may see all one’s opponent’s threats, but that is not enough. Your opponent may have no threat at all; but the move you contemplate making will alter the position, and you must always look to see if it gives the opponent an opportunity that was not there before. Statistics might show that players dig their own pitfalls almost as often as their opponents dig them for them. – Source Unknown

Until you reach at least master level, playing as error-free as possible is MUCH more effective and important than playing brilliantly, and will win a lot more games for you. One critical error will usually cost you more than a dozen brilliant moves will gain for you. Remember, the first step to mastery is the elimination of errors. – Kelly Atkins

Some part of a mistake is always correct. – Saviely Tartakower

A game is always won through a mistake, either the opponent's or one's own. – Saviely Tartakower

You can learn much from your mistakes - though it is infinitely kinder to the ego to learn from someone else's. – Fred Reinfeld

It's better to learn to shave on someone else's face. – Arnold Denker

Far from all the obvious moves that go without saying, are correct. – David Bronstein

Avoid minor mistakes! Most often he loses who makes the first minor mistake, because it signifies the beginning of an incorrect strategical plan. – David Bronstein

Chess doesn't allow for continual flouting of the right move. A few sins of omission, and a fairly easygoing and characterless situation is transformed into one that bristles with lasting difficulties. – Fred Reinfeld

When a good position begins to collapse, it normally collapses not into equality, but into ruins. – Boris Gulko

Bad moves come in waves. – Bill Wall

One weakness begets another. – Source Unknown

Blunders rarely travel alone. – Anatoly Karpov

The good player is always lucky. – Jose R. Capablanca

The loser is always at fault. – Vasily Panov

In chess, the threat is stronger than the execution. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

Threats are the basis for winning chess. – C. J. S. Purdy

Threats provide the chief and most varied weapon in the arsenal of strategic ideas. – Saviely Tartakower

Threats in themselves are not an accomplishment; they must achieve something. – Jonathan Tisdall

There are only two times you should make a threat: if, when your opponent meets the threat (which he almost always will), your game improves from the move before (or at least does not get worse), or if you are losing terribly and need something to make your opponent think about, so he might blunder and let you back in the game. – Dan Heisman

The move is there, but you must see it! – Saviely Tartakower

The mistakes are there, waiting to be made. – Saviely Tartakower

Short of actual blunders, lack of faith in one's position is the chief cause of defeat. To be sure, it is easy to recommend faith and not so easy to practice it. – Fred Reinfeld

In chess, arrogant confidence will win every time over melancholy fortitude. – Herbert Seidman

Having calculated a long variation, go for it, even you are not completely sure. Out of two sins - overestimation and underestimation of your own capacities, the latter is more dangerous. – Svetlana Matveeva

Do not ever underestimate your opponent, particularly when he is much weaker than you are. You are setting yourself up for a fall if you do this. – Max Euwe

Creating an undesired stalemate is the height of stupidity. – Source Unknown

A draw can be obtained normally by repeating three moves, but also by one bad move. – Saviely Tartakower

In master chess, one can take nothing for granted. Whenever a particularly favorable possibility presents itself, one must guard against a trap. – Frank Marshall

He who takes the Queen's Knight's pawn will sleep in the streets! – Source Unknown

You don't take the extra pawns with you to the grave. – Source Unknown

As so often in open games, winning material is a mistake. – Rashid Nezhmetdinov

Skeletons of mice are often to be found in coconuts, for it is easier to get in, slim and greedy, than to get out, appeased but fat.
– Viktor Korchnoi

The ideal conduct of the game consists in the following: quick development of the pieces on favorable strategical points for an attack or for defense, envisaging that the two basic principles are time and position. Coolness in defense and determination in attack. Don’t be carried away by possibilities to gain every material advantage. Create complications only in exceptional cases but don’t evade them. In other words, you should be ready in every stage of the game - opening, endgame or middlegame - for a complicated or simple fight, but always striving to the latter as far as it is allowed by the two basic elements: time and position. – Jose R. Capablanca

If you want to lose a miniature, then here are three helpful tips. First of all, it is a big help if you are Black: losing with White in under 20 moves requires a special talent, which few possess. Secondly, choose a provocative opening, for example an opening in which you try to realize strategic ambitions, but at the cost of backward development and delayed castling. Thirdly, if something goes slightly wrong, don't reconcile yourself to defending a bad position - seek a tactical solution instead! Don't worry about the fact that tactics are bound to favor the better-developed side; just go ahead anyway. Follow this advice and at least you will get home early. – John Nunn

In chess, knowing what to do is half the battle; knowing when to do it is the other half. – Unknown

Never make a good move too soon. – James Mason

Always know your own intentions before your opponent forces you to reveal them. – Bill Hartston

Chess is not only knowledge and logic. – Alexander Alekhine

In chess, as played by a good player, logic and imagination must go hand in hand, compensating each other. – Jose R. Capablanca

Develop a burning will to win. – William Martz

During a chess competition a chess master should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk. – Alexander Alekhine

The chess master today must have courage, a killer instinct, stamina and arrogance. – Larry Evans

Ambition gives you a killer instinct and enables you to fight hard in every game. – Karl Robatsch

To play chess very strongly, you have to be hungry, poor and malicious. – Alexander Tolush

The mind is like an unbridled colt. It runs off in all kinds of directions. In chess, you cannot have a mind that is wondering if India and Pakistan are fighting a nuclear war tomorrow. You have to be able to concentrate on the task at hand. – Yasser Seirawan

If you are in a tournament, you have to think of yourself - you can't think of your wife or children - only about yourself. – Judit Polgar

Never lose concentration when you are playing a game. One quick, thoughtless move can turn a brilliantly played game into a disaster. – Max Euwe

Even with a superior position, a player, no matter how strong, cannot afford to relax his attention even for one move. – Jose R. Capablanca

The interesting part about both Real Chess and Time Management is that both have to be practiced 100% of the time – 98% does not nearly work. For example, if on 98% of the moves (49/50) you play correctly, but on one move you decide to just relax and “see what happens”, that can be a disaster. By missing that one move each game you will consistently play hundreds of points weaker than your strength would have been if you had played every move carefully. It is similar with time – if you play even one move fast that may be enough to cause you to lose and, if you play too slowly and then have to play quickly during time pressure (as many top players do), then again just one big slip at the end may easily be enough to cost you the game. Playing Real Chess and practicing good time management requires being careful, but not pedantic. The ratings of two equally knowledgeable players may be separated by hundreds of points if one is more careful. A careful player need not be indecisive – those are two different qualities. But a player who is naturally not careful at other things may find that in chess that lack of care results in sudden catastrophes. We all know players who say, “I am 1600 and I was beating that 1900, but then he got lucky…” The explanation is that the 1600 may be better in all technical phases of the game, but the 1900 may have learned to be careful on all his moves every game, while the 1600 player is one of those 98% types. – Dan Heisman

A player who thinks he is better than a higher rated player is probably not trying his best on every move. That's why he thinks he is better, but he gets worse results. – Dan Heisman

The simplest and the shortest way of winning is the best way. – Baron Tassilo von Heyderbrand und der Lasa

Play the move that forces the win in the simplest way. Leave the brilliancies to Alekhine, Keres and Tal. – Irving Chernev

The further ahead you are, the less important your attack is and the more important your opponent’s threats become. Looking for which checks, captures, and threats he has is more critical than looking for the ones you have. So long as you do anything reasonable you can always win later with your superior force, but if you give that force away carelessly, you no longer have the superiority with which to win. – Dan Heisman

The more you are winning, the more you need to think defense first. – Dan Heisman

Want to go wrong and throw away a win? Go chasing after prettier butterflies when you've already got a sure one in your net. I can't tell you how many games I've blundered away because I found a quicker & prettier, but more complicated win than the sure thing I had in the bag. If you find a definite win, focus on it and leave the risky brilliancies to Kasparov & Shirov. Don't get distracted, don't go chasing after butterflies, and don't be tempted by chances to switch to flashier alternatives. Stick to the sure thing and grind it out. All that counts in the end is the 1 next to your name, not the exclamation marks in the notes. – Kelly Atkins

You aren’t playing in a tournament to paint pictures, but to win points. – C. J. S. Purdy

In chess, logical thinking is more valuable than inspiration. – C. J. S. Purdy

In life, as in chess, forethought wins. – Charles Buxton

Never is cold reason and clear thinking more necessary than when victory is in sight. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Who does not take a risk will never win a game. – Paul Keres

If one does not play dynamically, one fails to obtain the best of the deep dialectics of chess art, which inseparably unites the elements of logic and fantasy. – Alexei Suetin

Games like this (Penrose-Botvinnik) impressed on me that 'wanting to win' was perhaps more important than 'playing good moves'. – Raymond Keene

Competitive players should treat their motivation very seriously indeed and look for ways to improve it. It is not only intelligence, talent for the game, knowledge and understanding or physical fitness that count; will to win, pure unadulterated motivation can also count for enormous variation in the levels that different players reach. – Jonathan Levitt

Most motivation could be described either as type A (competitive) or type B (aesthetic). I am not trying to argue that type B is 'better' than type A. I do not go along with 'It's not winning that matters, its taking part' - in fact I regard that as unprofessional and dilettante - but nor do I endorse 'Winning isn't the main thing, it's the only thing!' That is simply unrealistic. The point is that type B motivation exists and is very important for many reasons, not least that it can help you gain type A success!
– Jonathan Levitt

Great help can be got from solving studies from a diagram without setting up the position on the board. – Alexander Kotov

Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing chess positions accurately. – Mikhail Botvinnik

Of course, the essence of chess is not to be found in the opening of the game. The basic ingredient of chess is that in a complex, original situation, where no source of help is apparent, a player must find the correct solution or move. Anyone who is able to do this can feel confident at the board. – Mikhail Botvinnik

In some books you can read that the process of evaluating a position consists in isolating and weighing up all the positional factors that play a part in it. Nonsense! In actual fact, most of this task is performed subconsciously. The art of evaluation lies in understanding the essence of a position - identifying the crucial problem (either positional or tactical) that needs solving - sensing the right direction for our investigations and detecting the desirability or otherwise of a particular operation.
– Mark Dvoretsky

Take a hard look at your game. If the position is hopeless, resign; if not, then play like the fate of the world depends on its outcome. – Rolf Wetzell

Don't resign until your position is absolutely, definitely hopeless. Keep on fighting, never mind whether analysis can show that the situation is dismal. Don't cling to any sort of stereotyped dogma. Believe firmly that in chess there are no rules without exceptions, this is what we learn from studying Lasker's games. – Reuben Fine

I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake. – Emanuel Lasker

Nobody ever won a chess game by resigning. – Saviely Tartakower

Every so often your opponent just self-destructs. If you don't resign but hang around and watch this can be fun. – Dave Regis

A defeatist spirit must inevitably lead to disaster. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Against a Grandmaster, relax! Something different which is your own specialty gives you a much better chance than just churning out 1 e4 etc., etc. You are the favorite to lose anyway but you are adjusting the odds in the right direction. – Andrew Martin

Many players, sacrificing a pawn, lose because they play as if they had lost it, rather than deliberately parted with it. – Source Unknown

To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game. – Saviely Tartakower

A player who starts off with a slight disadvantage is thereby stimulated to work harder and often achieves a good result; whereas a player with a slight advantage may overestimate it, become careless and get a really bad game. – Emanuel Lasker

Good positions don't win games, good moves do. – Gerald Abrahams

What is important, is not what you play, but how you play. – Alexander Suetin

It is not enough to be a good player; you must also play well. – Siegbert Tarrasch

One doesn't have to play well; it's enough to play better than your opponent. – Source Unknown

If you think that the move is good, play it! That which we think is good and correct should be made without any hesitations. – Jose R. Capablanca

Excessive subjectiveness disturbs the logical development of a game of chess. – Vasily Smyslov

When you see a good move, sit on your hands and see if you can find a better one. – Siegbert Tarrasch

When you see a good move, wait - look for a better one. – Emanuel Lasker

Time management is an important skill in chess; Having 15 minutes left when your opponent has 5 is worth about 200 rating points! – Dan Heisman

The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime. – Alexander Alekhine

The effects of personality on your chess are subtle, elusive, yet far-reaching. Look hard, study, and ask to discover them. Then evaluate and take action. – Rolf Wetzell

Avoid marriage and family life if you want to keep improving. – Lev Psakhis

Fatigue and failure, more than other factors, influence the mood and competitiveness of a player after a game. A bottle of good wine may help to cope with fatigue, but, in order not to become dispirited by the result, you should seek inspiration from the thoughts of Seneca. – Alexander Beliavsky

Whosoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate to one’s opponent, will never become a good chessplayer. – Max Euwe

Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate but not the first object of the game. – Wilhelm Steinitz

The real goal of a chess game is to create an imbalance and try to build a situation in which it is favorable for you. – Jeremy Silman

Play the opening like a book, the middlegame like a magician, and the endgame like a machine. – Rudolf Spielmann

Play the opening like an elephant, the middlegame like a wolf, and the endgame like a python. – Kelly Atkins

The game might be divided into three parts, the opening, the middle-game and the endgame. There is one thing you must strive for: to be equally efficient in the three parts. – Jose R. Capablanca

Certainly with regard to opening play, I believe most amateurs are far too conventional in their approach. Learn from the grandmasters maybe, but don't necessarily copy them! In the end imitation leads only to stagnation and there is no satisfaction in that. An individual has to feel that he or she gives something of themselves to the game. Originality and creativity is paramount for most players, NOT results. Strange, isn't it, but that's the conclusion I have come to after many years of top-level coaching. Individuality of expression is the key to rapid improvement. – Andrew Martin

Whatever your playing strength, nothing will improve your opening results more than home preparation - your own work in your own home over your own board. – Lev Alburt

In the long run, true chess connoisseurs realize that the secret of success does not depend only on intensive preparation, but on the way this preparation is transformed within the chessplayer, in the way it lets him develop his chess horizons. – Garry Kasparov

Switching from opening to opening, memorizing and getting discouraged, and never making much use of all the time you’ve invested - this syndrome is as impractical as it gets. – Lev Alburt

Studying the lines given in a book is usually only 20% percent of the work in studying an opening. The remaining 80% is doing you own analysis of the lines in the book and playing and analyzing your own games. – Carsten Hansen

If you can honestly conclude that the reason for a loss is that your opponent played the better chess (on that day at least) the learning process speeds up considerably. By showing greater perseverance with your opening preferences you will get a feel for the positions that arise. Eventually you'll develop a repertoire which fosters self-confidence, saves some time on the clock and hopefully brings about positions that suit you. – Nigel Davies

The main problem in studying the opening is to understand the positional essence of certain 'key position' as Bronstein calls them. Once a player has studied the key positions of certain openings he will find it easier to understand key positions in other openings, which differ slightly; then little by little he will come to understand the whole opening. – Alexander Kotov

To study opening variations without reference to the strategy that applies to the middlegame is, in effect, to separate the head from the body. – Tigran Petrosian

One of the most common explanations for a loss at club level is that the player concerned "didn't know the opening" though in actual fact this is very rarely the real reason for a defeat. Games in which 'a lack of opening knowledge' was responsible for the loss are few and far between. The chances are that it was early tactical miscalculation or a failure to understand the essentials of a position and formulate a half-decent plan going into the middlegame. – Nigel Davies

A solid opening repertoire fosters self-confidence. – Lajos Portisch

It is advisable to confine one's opening repertoire to three opening systems. While studying those systems one should strive to establish a close link between the opening stage and typical plans in the middlegame. A thorough use should be made both of opening manuals and of the games played in the latest tournaments. – Mikhail Botvinnik

Most amateur players devote the majority of their study time to openings. There's a term for players who do this - they're called perpetual novices. – Kelly Atkins

We beg students who are addicted to opening manuals to remember that most players who spend their time studying theory never reach A-level. – Lev Alburt

It is indeed impossible to exaggerate the profit and enlightenment to be derived from an earnest wooing of the Principle of Development. – William Norwood Potter

To be ahead in development is the ideal to be aimed for. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

Development is better than riches - Fred Reinfeld

Never move a piece twice before you have moved every piece once. – Source Unknown

Until you can develop ALL your pieces every game during the opening, you are not ready for intermediate play. – Dan Heisman

Don’t start an attack until your entire army is ready. – Dan Heisman

Tactics early in the game will tend to favor White, because he has the initiative. This suggests that what you want to do, where possible, is to play open games/gambits with White, and closed games with Black. As well as being a strategy aimed at winning games (always good) it gives you experience with a wide range of positions. You learn that a "weak square" doesn't always mean f7. – John Sargeant

In the beginning of the game ignore the search for violent combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination - and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden. – Emanuel Lasker

The player who is ahead in development has no need of complicated positions and ferocious attacks in order to drive home his advantage. In spite of the simplification of means, this potential advantage can be turned into one of material, requiring in the end nothing more than a technical performance of adequate skill. – Saviely Tartakower

The prime consideration in one’s choice of an opening plan should be the harmonious development of the pieces, but sometimes we forget about the development of the Queen. Since the Queen is, after all, the most important and the most valuable of the pieces, the success of the whole piece configuration may depend on how well the Queen plays its part. – David Bronstein

One has to work really hard in order to be good in acute modern openings. This demands immense energy consumption both before and during the game. Of course, one could reject this approach, but that would immediately reduce one’s creative potential. – Garry Kasparov

There is no opening that guarantees quiet and serenity. – Irving Chernev

The choice of an aggressive opening does not secure in all circumstances a monopoly of aggressiveness for the first player. It rather tends to make the situation hazardous for both players. The slightest lack of precision or energy, any momentary relaxation, and the roles of attacker and defender are reversed. – Saviely Tartakower

Any tense position is fraught with disaster. – Siegbert Tarrasch

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

Help your pieces so they can help you. – Paul Morphy

The pieces must breathe deeply and with a full chest! – Mikhail Tal

I have added these principles to the law: get the Knights into action before both Bishops are developed. – Emanuel Lasker

Proper development does not concern itself merely with placing the pieces where they are effective for attack. It is equally important to interfere with the range of influence of the opponent's pieces. – Irving Chernev

A non-developing move in the opening, however attractive, should always be regarded as guilty until is proven innocent. The moral: Suspect any non-developing move in the opening unless it forces a non-developing move in reply. – Source Unknown

Premature attacks and early Queen forays tend to generate tactical opportunities for the opponent. – Bruce Moon

Bd2 is usually bad for White in almost any opening. – Dan Heisman

The most important feature of the chess position is the activity of the pieces. This is absolutely fundamental in all phases of the game (opening, middlegame and especially endgame). The primary constraint on a piece's activity is the pawn structure. – Michael Stean

The key to understanding the opening and in particular the middlegame, is to have a deep knowledge of the endgame. – Carsten Hansen

If your opponent seems to be following a theoretical line disadvantageous to him, bitter experience teaches that he has probably seen the theory and found an antidote. – Adrian Hollis

We should like to emphasize the well-known fact that the best variation to use in a tournament is not a merely good line, but more exactly a line which, though good, is considered to be bad. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

The gambit player in the opening furthers his attack by preventing his opponent from developing normally. The defender against a gambit can often secure the better position by returning the extra material at an opportune moment. – Reuben Fine

A 1500 player will lose a pawn anyway about every 15 moves, so you might as well invest a pawn to sharpen your tactics. – Tim Sawyer

Now is the time the boys will be separated from the men. It is the biggest decision you must be willing to make in your chess career. YOU MUST ADD GAMBITS TO YOUR OPENING SYSTEM (Note: I said ADD-NOT GIVE UP your basic system). You must play them, win with them, and lose with them. There is no substitute. Being a pawn down, you will have to dig into each position on each move. You will learn to use that extra space and tempo. You will develop that "killer instinct" and learn to handle open positions-being ready when that closed position will surely become open. Those than cannot stand to lose games and rating points because they are converting to gambit play ARE HOPELESS in my book. Do not cry with them when they are on "that chess hill they can't climb", and do not feel sorry when they start slipping backward. For with stubbornness and cowardice, they did not play gambits and dug their own chess graves! – Ken Smith

P-Q4 is the antidote to the poison in gambits. – Source Unknown

It is a very well known matter of experience that losing a pawn in the opening by a mistake is often the involuntary equivalent of playing a quite promising gambit. – Jacques Mieses

The delight in gambits is a sign of chess youth. In very much the same way as the young man, on reaching his manhood years, lays aside the Indian stories and stories of adventure, and turns to the psychological novel, we with maturing experience leave off gambit playing and become interested in the less vivacious but withal more forceful maneuvers of the position player. – Emanuel Lasker

There is no point thinking for half an hour about a possible advantage or disadvantage of what the computer calls "0.1 of a pawn". This almost certainly is not going to cost you a half-point. The piece you hang later during time-trouble probably is. – John Nunn

In the Minor section of weekend congresses one can witness players trying to ape the openings of players like Kasparov. Other players will desperately try to get their 'surprise' in first through fear of their opponent's 'preparation'. I really find all this quite amazing, not least because the games concerned are almost invariably decided much later on and often by rather unsophisticated means. – Nigel Davies

For people playing over-the-board against human opponents, or on real-time Internet servers, tactical alertness and a good general understanding of the opening is of much more practical value than encyclopedic reference works that you can only consult after the game, to see what you forgot or where the opponent improved! – Tim Harding

If you want to play combinations on a regular basis, you have to play the right openings - ones where some of the pre-conditions for combinations are present from the outset. Books have been written about the sacrifices available in the King's Indian Defence or Sicilian. The main strategy is to pick an opening which is unbalanced, play through some sharp games in it, and keep playing the opening. If you want to develop a feel for when a sacrifice might be correct, you must know a lot about the positions you reach. – Peter Lane

Tactics flow from imbalances, so if you tend to balance the position (symmetric pawns, castling same side, etc.), there will be comparatively less tactical opportunities. – Dan Heisman

The purpose of the opening is to destroy your opponent's center. – Jose R. Capablanca

The true purpose of the opening is to create imbalances and develop your army in such a way that your pieces, working together, can take advantage of them. – Jeremy Silman

Choose an opening which is sound, regardless of fluctuations in current theory. – Al Horowitz & Fred Reinfeld

Any opening is good enough to be played if its reputation is bad enough. – Saviely Tartakower

If an opening is dubious, it is playable. – Saviely Tartakower

Dubious, therefore playable! Obvious, therefore dubious! – Saviely Tartakower

What is lost at master level is often worth plugging away in at club level. – Dave Regis

Any opening that you know well is good no matter what its reputation. – Dan Heisman

All openings are sound below master level. – William Lombardy

Your only task in the opening is to reach a playable middlegame. – Lajos Portisch

If you like an opening keep playing it and don't be ridiculed into thinking that you can play the Gruenfeld and the Najdorf like Kasparov, because only he can play it like Kasparov. – Carsten Hansen

If you do not play what you like, you will never be able to play well. – Walter Browne

The point is, if you feel comfortable with something, and you get decent games, play it. – Bob Long

Good offense and good defense both begin with good development. – Bruce Moon

The first principle of attack - don't let the opponent develop! – Reuben Fine

Tactics flow from a superior position. – Bobby Fischer

Sound positional play provides the necessary foundation for effective tactics. Incorrect of inferior positional play is seldom redeemed by tactical salvation. Positional superiority precedes and supports effective tactics. – Source Unknown

Tactics have been overemphasized in contemporary chess literature. Understanding tactical elements will help a player improve, but a deep understanding of strategical elements is essential for mastery. – Tom Unger

The purely tactical player, when playing someone with strategic and positional knowledge - and the tactical skills to back them up - will constantly find himself in bad positions with no tactical opportunities and will usually not understand how he ended up in such a rotten state of affairs. – Kelly Atkins

Positional superiority is almost always a necessary prerequisite to decisive tactics. – Source Unknown

Positional sense should free you from the slavery of `variations'. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

He who cannot improve his positional skills, simply cannot play good chess! – Anatoly Karpov

It is an understanding of positional play that restrains the master from embarking on premature, foolish attacks and that checks the natural impulse to hunt for combinations at every turn. It counsels him in the placing of his pieces where they have the greatest potential for attack and tells him how to seize the vital central squares, to occupy the most territory and to cramp and weaken the enemy. And it is positional play that assures him that definite winning opportunities will then disclose themselves, and decisive combinations will appear on the board. The master does not search for combinations. He creates the conditions that make it possible for them to appear. – Irving Chernev

Make the moves that conform with the requirements of the position, and you will be suitably rewarded. Play the moves necessary to establish a superior position! Develop your pieces so that they enjoy maximum mobility and control most of the territory. Direct your efforts to weakening the enemy position, cramping the movements of his pieces, and reducing the capacity of his resistance before you make the first move of a combination. When the time is ripe, the attack will play itself. The decisive combination will stare you in the face. – Irving Chernev

Positional play is what one uses to create the proper conditions for tactical play. – Kelly Atkins

Play for a positional advantage and the tactics will look after themselves. – Alex Bellinger

Whereas the tactician knows what to do when there is something to do, it requires the strategist to know what to do when there is nothing to do. – Gerald Abrahams

Tactics is what you do when there is something to do; strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do. - Saviely Tartakower

Strategy requires thought, tactics requires observation. – Max Euwe

Strategy is the imaginary garden; tactics are the real toads. – Bruce Moon

Strategy is tactics with long-term consequences. – Ignacio Marin

Although to many this seems strange, in general I consider that in chess everything rests on tactics. If one thinks of strategy as a block of marble, then tactics are the chisel with which a master operates, in creating works of chess art. – Tigran Petrosian

However obviously the majority of Chess-players may be divided into two big classes of combination and position-players, in the Chess-master this antagonism is transformed into a harmony. In him combination play is completed by position play. – Emanuel Lasker

With masters, combinative play and positional play complement one another. It is with the aid of combinations that they seek to overturn false evaluations; and it is by means of positional play that they seek to secure and exploit true evaluations. – Emanuel Lasker

Even the most scintillating combinatorial imagination requires a solid foundation of pattern recognition. – Bruce Moon

The scheme of a game is played on positional lines; the decision of it is, as a rule, effected by combinations. This is how Lasker's pronouncement that positional play is the preparation for combinations is to be understood. – Richard Reti

Tactics decide all chess games. Successful tactical play involves recognizing, creating, and attacking weaknesses to win material, achieve a positional advantage, or to force checkmate. ALWAYS be alert for tactical opportunities and threats. One combination can be, and usually is, the difference between winning and losing a game. – Kelly Atkins

A knowledge of tactics is the foundation of positional play. This is a rule, which has stood its test in chess history and one which we cannot impress forcibly enough upon the young chess player. A beginner should avoid the Queen's Gambit and French Defense and play open games instead! While he may not win as many games at first, he will, in the long run, be amply compensated by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the game. – Richard Reti

He who relies solely upon tactics that he can wholly comprehend is liable, in course of time, to weaken his imagination. And he is at a disadvantage against an opponent who tries to win through bold venture, yet does not step beyond the finely drawn boundary of what is sound. – Emanuel Lasker

By far the most critical feature is tactical skill. For the 1600 player everything else is secondary. The faster you spot tactics, the more accurately you calculate them, the more sensitive and creative you are in using them to your own ends, and the more alert you are to warding them off, the better all-around player you’ll be and the more success you’ll have. Most games between 1600 players are decided tactically in the opening or early middlegame and typically wrapped up by tactical simplification to a winning endgame. Of course you should also think strategically, with concern for space, pawn structure, and so on. But too often 1600 players exaggerate the importance of strategy, thereby blundering material and hanging mate. – Bruce Pandolfini

It does not matter who gets the advantage out of the opening if one of the players is likely to lose a piece to a simple tactic in the middlegame. Losing a piece from an advantageous position will almost always result in a losing position. So study tactics, not openings, until you almost never lose pieces to simple tactical motifs. – Dan Heisman

Take a 1600 player and make him play an opening he never has before in his life – he still plays close to 1600; take a 1200 and let him play his favorite opening and he still usually plays like a 1200. – Dan Heisman

Most games between lower rated players are won or could be won on tactics, so studying tactics when you are lower rated is much more important than anything else. – Dan Heisman

While it is true that most players under 1400 don’t know a great deal about openings, endgames, or positional play, a great majority of their games are (or could have been!) lost not because of some opening trap, bad plan, endgame subtlety, or complex combination, but because of some basic tactical oversight. That is why the repetitious practice of basic tactical motifs, in all their guises, is by far the most important thing you can do when first studying chess. – Dan Heisman

There is a population of chessplayers who know about mysterious Rook moves, Super-Quart Grips, the Inverse Phalanx, and the latest wrinkles in the Sicilian, but who cannot reliably spot three-move tactics or win Lucena's Rook Ending. – Dave Regis

First, you should learn to make combinations. – Richard Reti

At the heart of every combination there shines an idea, and though combinations are without number, the number of ideas is limited – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

It is not enough to recognize tactics. You must recognize them quickly enough that you will see them even without knowing they are there - during the short time you have to move in a normal game. – Dan Heisman

The very foundation for becoming a strong chessplayer is the ability to recognize and take advantage of tactical situations when they occur in your games. No amount of opening, strategic or endgame study can overcome a lack of combinational skill. – Lou Hays

It is a mistake to think that combination is solely a matter of talent, and that it cannot be acquired. – Richard Reti

Until you are at least a high class A player, your first name is “Tactics”, your middle name is “Tactics”, and your last name is “Tactics”. – Ken Smith

The most important goal of studying tactics is to be able to spot the elementary motifs VERY quickly, so studying the most basic tactics over and over until you can recognize them almost instantly is likely the single best thing you can do when you begin studying chess! – Dan Heisman

Learning and applying tactics is just that: you learn to recognize a pattern, you see it coming if someone tries it on you, and you can apply it in similar positions in your own games. In fact, once you know the patterns, a lot of the calculation comes pretty easily. – Dave Regis

Getting from expert to master is a difficult transition, but getting to expert is about grasping tactics. – Robert Fischer

A thorough understanding of the typical mating combinations makes the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Let us repeat once more the methods by which we can increase our combinative skill:
1) By careful examination of the different types and by a clear understanding of their motives and their premises
2) By memorizing a number of outstanding as well as of common examples and solutions
3) Frequent repetition (in thought, if possible) of important combinations, so as to develop the imagination.
– Max Euwe

Many amateurs think that master games are usually decided by some deeply laid plan covering all possibilities for at least ten moves. That is what they conceive the grand strategy of tournaments to be. Actually, however, strategical considerations, while quite important, do not cover a range or depth at all comparable to the popular notion. Very often, in fact, sound strategy can dispense with seeing ahead at all, except in a negative or trivial sense. And it is still true that most games, even between the greatest of the great, are decided by tactics or combinations, which have little or nothing to do with the fundamental structure of the game. – Reuben Fine

To take one striking example, look at the games of the Euwe-Alekhine matches. Euwe is a player who analyzes openings ad infinitum, i.e., one who wants to settle everything strategically. Alekhine is likewise adept at the art of building up an overwhelming position. And yet in almost all cases the outcome depended not on the inherent structure of the play, but on some chance combination, which one side saw and the other side did not. Tactics is still more than 90% of chess. – Reuben Fine

In the following game (which we will not give) we have a good illustration of the interplay of strategy and tactics in the practice of two outstanding contemporary masters. The opening results in a position which is dynamically in Botvinnik's favor; yet because he is, for purely tactical reasons, unwilling to adopt the maneuver which best answers the needs of the position, he drifts into a situation where Lilienthal has the initiative. Lilienthal tries his hardest to increase his advantage, and succeeds to a certain extent. Then he makes a slight error, which gives his opponent adequate chances. Finally Botvinnik, faced by a difficult choice, picks the wrong alternative. And thereby both again demonstrate the wisdom of Tartakower's adage that a winner in a game of chess is the man who made the next to the last blunder. – Reuben Fine

One frequently must make a combination, in order to repair mistakes made earlier. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Tactical success in chess depends partly on knowing when to apply which maxim or tip. These tips are general heuristic principles or rules of thumb. It takes experience to recognize when a tip should or shouldn't be applied and which maxim should be used in any particular situation. Some tips even seem contradictory. – John W. Collins

In some positions a player’s skill consists in knowing a win MUST be there. He can leave the finding of the moves till the situations arise, saving much labor. The combinations will be there. You must have faith. – Source Unknown

Sometimes, you have to rely on your intuition when you can't calculate a combination clearly to the end, especially when a sacrifice is involved. Just knowing that a win is there, somewhere, is all you need. – Source Unknown

When I am trying to find the best move, I just look at the position, trying to find the general idea. I follow my intuition. After that, when I think that this is the best move, I start to calculate variations. You must calculate and you must also use your intuition. – Boris Spassky

Combinations are different, not only in type, but also in spirit. There are more or less complicated, forced combinations, which can be calculated till mate or till the achievement of a very substantial advantage. In other words, combinations which are designed for victory. That such a combination can be very complicated is shown, for example, by the famous game Botvinnik-Capablanca, in which the main variation runs to fifteen moves. But we cannot always make so long a trip. Every chess player is familiar with the situation in which you become aware of an attractive combination, but are unable to calculate the consequences in full. Often such attempts are without success and consume a great deal of energy. That is why experienced players trust their feelings and terminate the calculation at some definite position. If they like this position, then they look at it as a kind of `springboard’ for the further conduct of the fight. – Mikhail Tal

Many players throughout the whole five hours of play, occupy themselves in the main with calculations, and their work during a game reduces approximately to the following: 'If I go here, he goes there,' and so on, as much as strength will permit. More experienced players, who have deeply studied the secrets of their art, frequently do not tire themselves with such a lengthy process, and being guided, in the main, by unshakable principles, they plan their subsequent play. – Mikhail Tal

Many sacrifices don’t require concrete calculation at all. It is sufficient to only glance at the arising position to convince us that the sacrifice is correct. – Mikhail Tal

The secret is that in chess, you can only choose one course of attack; you cannot try both this and that. And if the planned method of overcoming the defense looks sufficiently strong and convincing, there is no reason, and often no time to look for something better. – David Bronstein

If the student forces himself to examine all the moves that smite, however absurd they look at first glance, he is on the way to becoming a master of tactics. – C. J. S. Purdy

Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more important than a knowledge of strategical principles. – C. J. S. Purdy

Take it first and philosophize afterward! – Saviely Tartakower

Seeing the idea precedes the logical argument. – Gerald Abrahams

The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind. – Emanuel Lasker

A combination must be sound. An unsound combination is no combination at all. It is merely an attempt, an error, a failure, a nonentity. – Emanuel Lasker

A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it. – Wilhelm Steinitz

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused. – Rudolf Spielmann

If you can't beat 'em with accuracy, kill 'em with fear and confusion! – Kelly Atkins

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one. – Mikhail Tal

A sacrifice is proof that either White or Black made a mistake on the chessboard. – Saviely Tartakower

Chess is a game of sacrifice and in each game you MUST sacrifice a piece or pawn. – Alexander Tolush

Botvinnik once said that a combination is a forced variation with a sacrifice, but this statement is not complete. One should add that a sacrifice is always risky. – David Bronstein

An advantage in development is turned into a grand assault by means of a sacrifice. – Rudolf Spielmann

If the defender is forced to abandon the center, then the attacks almost play themselves. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Control of the center brings the possibility of influencing activity on both flanks simultaneously. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

I like flank attacks because they rarely lead to a change for the worse in the position. If the attack is repulsed, many opportunities still remain to initiate a battle on other sectors of the board. – Bent Larsen

As much choice as possible in intervening on one or on the other wing - a discussion on the center. – Max Euwe

The attack often becomes irresistible when the defense has to attend to more than one weakness at the same time. – Saviely Tartakower

Conduct the attack so that when the fire is out... it isn't! – Harry Nelson Pillsbury

The secret of successful liquidation is, in the last instance, one of pawn management. The player who has succeeded in preserving dynamic resources in his pawn structure (as, for example, the greater number of reserve moves or the possibility of rupturing the enemy front) maintains the advantage to the end. – Saviely Tartakower

No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King. – Alexander Koblentz

Exchanging pieces and pawns to open a vital diagonal is a deadly device. – John W. Collins

An open line is frequently like an open wound. – Saviely Tartakower

A quiet move in the midst of an attack is the sign of the master. – DuMont

A quiet move often makes the earth shake. – Richard Reti

Nothing freaks out the amateur player more than the threat of an attack against the King. Funnily enough, it is then not the opponent's King's-side attack that wins the game but rather the amateur's lack of threats due to his having given up on his own plans. – Jeremy Silman

The King should not be checked to death, or it may escape alive. – William Pollock

A game of chess is not generally won with one crushing tactical blow but rather through a combination of various tactics that blend together into one sustained attacking sequence. – Sunil Weeramantry

Snap off the buttons and the pants fall by themselves. – Samuel Reshevsky

Let it be the first object of your attack to create strong points as near your opponent's camp as possible, and occupy them with pieces which have from there a large field of action. Corollary: Try to force your opponent's pawns to advance on the side where you attack. – Emanuel Lasker

To know how to conduct an attack on the hostile king's field, and how to create breaches there, is part and parcel of the attacking player's equipment. A rare gift is to be able to foresee where the opponent is going to castle and to weaken that side beforehand. – Saviely Tartakower

An inventive mind will nearly always find attacking possibilities in the opposing King’s field, when that King has castled on the Q-side. – Saviely Tartakower

It is seldom prudent in an inexperienced player to advance the pawns on the side on which his king has castled. – Howard Staunton

The secret of conducting a successful kingside attack is to create a breach in the cordon pawns surrounding the enemy king; to induce or force one of the pawns to move. The change in the line-up of pawns fixes the defense with a permanent weakness. – Irving Chernev

Touch the pawns before your king with only infinite delicacy. – Tony Santasiere

If the enemy King is still in the center and you have a lead in development, consider these factors an invitation to rip the opponent's head off! – Jeremy Silman

What is immobile must suffer violence. The light-winged bird will easily escape the huge dragon, but the firmly rooted big tree must remain where it is and may have to give up its leaves, fruit, perhaps even its life. – Emanuel Lasker

It is always better to sacrifice your opponent's men. – Saviely Tartakower

When protecting a piece, always ask whether it might be captured anyway. – Siegbert Tarrasch

In the beginning of the game, ignore the search for combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends, search for the combination - and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply. – Emanuel Lasker

No combination without a considerable plus; no considerable plus without a combination. – Emanuel Lasker

The master should not look for winning combinations, unless he believed, unless he could prove to himself that he held the advantage. – Emanuel Lasker

You can't attack where you don't have an advantage. – Dan Heisman

In level positions the two sides will maneuver, trying to tilt the balance of the position, each in their own favor. With correct play on both sides, level positions keep on leading to further level positions. Any attempt to undertake an attack without an adequate positional basis should lead to a disadvantage, if parried properly. – Emanuel Lasker

Chess is a game of small advantages. It all goes back to Wilhelm Steinitz, the first great modern chess teacher. Steinitz developed the theory of positional chess, which assumes that, to get an advantage, you have to give up something in return. The question then becomes "How can anyone win? Why isn't the game always held in dynamic balance?" The answer is that you play for seemingly insignificant advantages - advantages that your opponent doesn't notice or that he dismisses, thinking, "Big deal, you can have that." It could be a slightly better development, or a slightly safer king's position. Slightly, slightly, slightly. None of those "slightlys" mean anything on their own, but add up seven or eight of them, and you have control. Now the only way that your opponent can possibly break your control is by giving up something else. Positional chess teaches that we are responsible for our actions. Every move must have a purpose. – Bruce Pandolfini

Steinitz taught that launching Kingside attacks out of thin air was unsound in most instances. Because a properly played game of chess ought to end in a draw, one cannot expect to defeat an opponent by force majeure unless he has destroyed the inherent positional equilibrium by committing errors, which one should try to induce by applying pressure through artful positional maneuvers. – Larry Parr

Direct and violent attacks against the King must be carried en masse, with full force, to ensure their success. – Jose R. Capablanca

It is well known that an attack undertaken without adequate means must result in loss of the initiative, if parried properly. – Irving Chernev

Never start an attack until your queen's rook is developed. – Henry Blackburne

Don’t attack in an area where you don’t have superiority. – Dan Heisman

When we have the better development and our pieces display more activity, then these circumstances must be exploited at once. – Alexander Kotov

Sometimes 'natural' moves suffice, but against able and determined defence the attack may need to be pursued along a tightrope of 'only' moves. – David Bronstein

Dynamic positions require the player to make the absolutely best move on each occasion. – Garry Kasparov

Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack. – Wilhelm Steinitz

As a matter of fact, the fight for initiative is the basic law of the chess game! – Vlastimil Hort

The first essential for an attack is the will to attack! – Saviely Tartakower

In chess, only the attacker wins. – Alexander Kotov

Overcaution in chess is the height of recklessness. The gods do not forgive those who scorn their favors. It is unforgivable to throw away good attacking chances. – Source Unknown

When we have the better development and our pieces display more activity, then these circumstances must be exploited at once. – Alexander Kotov

When you have an advantage, you are obliged to attack; otherwise you are endangered to lose the advantage. – Wilhelm Steinitz

Thou shalt not shilly-shally! – Aaron Nimzowitsch

Logical sequels are often fatal, but on the whole it pays, once you have embarked on an unsound attack, to carry on regardless. If you shilly-shally you are almost sure to lose, whereas an unsound attack boldly executed will often fool the defender. – Source Unknown

In my opinion, a master is morally obliged to seize every sort of opportunity and to try to solve the problems of the position without fear of some simplifications. To play for complications is a violent measure on which a player must resolve only if there is no clear and logical plan. – Alexander Alekhine.

The effectiveness of a double check lies in the fact that of the three possible parries to a check, two are migratory, namely the capture of the piece giving check and the interposition of a piece. Flight is the one and only resource. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

All combinations are based on a double attack. – Reuben Fine

Discovered check is the dive-bomber of the chessboard. – Reuben Fine

The pin is mightier than the sword. – Fred Reinfeld

When it comes to tactical weapons, there is nothing like a pin! Nothing in this world. – Irving Chernev

Don't assume a pinned piece can't move. – Kelly Atkins

The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

The formula that three pawns are the equivalent of a piece must be taken with circumspection. In the endgame it will frequently be true, in the middlegame only in certain circumstances - there must at least be some prospects of attack. This is more important as the adversary, with an extra piece, has attacking chances. As a rule, three pawns provide a better compensation for a Knight, than for a Bishop. – Rudolf Spielmann

In speed chess it is easier to attack with a piece less, than to defend with an extra piece. – Mikhail Tal

Every move played disturbs the balance of time, force, and space - but not always in equal proportion or direction. It is possible to give up something in one element while gaining "adequate compensation" from the other two. This underlying interaction mechanism is what makes sacrifices possible. – Bruce Moon

Every important exchange of material alters in some way the character of the position and necessitates a change in the strategical and tactical conduct of the game. – Ludek Pachman

A disturbance of material equality often mentally upsets the “fortunate” possessor of the extra material. – Alexander Alekhine

A tactical situation demands a counterattack, not defense! – Rudolf Spielmann

There’s no such thing as a premature counterattack. – Saviely Tartakower

It is hard to do much against strong opponents unless you “sail close to the wind.” Always look for ways of ignoring threats. – C. J. S. Purdy

When defending, always be on the lookout for a zwischenzug or a chance to counterattack. Tactics are not the sole possession of the attacker. – Source Unknown

The best defense is a good offense. Look for counterattacks. If you must defend, try to combine protection with counterplay, making sure to reply to all enemy threats. Issue threats of your own to seize the initiative. The best way to upset your opponent’s plans is to become menacing. – Bruce Pandolfini

Offense sells the tickets. Defense wins the games. – Source Unknown

There is a certain kind of chess player who believes that almost all positions are in his or her favor; it is only necessary to find the right solution. Surprisingly, in practice it is often the case that the optimist is able to find a successful, usually tactical solution, even in situations that appear to be hopeless. – Nikolay Minev

Never give up! This is the main motto for a successful defense. When a player decides to fight back no matter how damaged his position is he can perform miracles. Sometimes there isn’t a safe route home, but nevertheless, one should try to do his best. Make your opponent’s task as difficult as possible, and then with a ‘little help’ from him, coast to safety or even achieve glory. Don’t forget how many opportunities slipped through your fingers throughout your chess games, why shouldn’t this one happen to your adversary? – Yona Kosashvili

Lack of patience is probably the most common reason for losing a game. – Bent Larsen

However bad the position, or strong the attack, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, care and patience will find a way out. – James Mason

If a player believes in miracles he can sometimes perform them. – Viktor Korchnoi

If there is any difference in the class of various chess players, this difference is based on the level of their resistive capacity. – Garry Kasparov

The basic principle of defense consists in making the opponent's task as difficult as possible, creating ever new obstacles in his path. If you can succeed in abruptly changing the situation on the board (even by choosing a continuation which is objectively not the strongest, associated with a degree of risk), your opponent, having already envisaged a particular pattern of play, will frequently not manage to reorganize his thoughts and will begin to make mistakes. – Mark Dvoretsky

Practical play adduces evidence that errors occur far more frequently in defense than in attack. – Rudolf Spielmann

There's no use in waiting until the savages are over the wall before you start defending. – Kelly Atkins

It can't hurt to arm before the barbarians get to the gate. – Bruce Pandolfini

Many players look with boredom on a drawn game. They want blood, and not enough flows if neither side wins. Yet frequently the skill required in holding off an attacking opponent is much greater than that needed to beat a weak defense. – Reuben Fine

Think not of defense as drudgery one is forced to suffer through from time to time in lieu of an offense; think of defense as offense in close quarters. – Bruce Moon

I can't play chess; therefore, the best I can hope to accomplish is to give my opponents opportunities to go wrong. – Bruce Moon

The rule for playing lost positions is this: continuously present your opponent with difficult problems! This was a big part of the secret to Lasker’s success. Give your opponent every opportunity to go wrong, and he often will. – Source Unknown

The search for forcing lines very often leads us to forget about the basics like occupation of the center, pressing against weaknesses etc. – Nigel Davies

When your intuition tells you that there should be a forcing combination in the position, but your concrete analysis can't make it work, try the brainstorming technique of reversing the move order. – Lev Alburt

When you don't know what to do, wait for you opponent to get an idea; it is sure to be bad. – Siegbert Tarrasch

When in doubt...
...move a Pawn. - Gene Ramage
...develop. - Source Unknown
...take more time. - John Zimmerman
...offer a draw. - William H. Nulf
...resign. - Bruce Moon
...find a new hobby. - Mark Pasternak
...attack! - Source Unknown
...retreat! - Source Unknown
...play any old move and
blame it on Nimzowitsch! - Bruce Moon
...exchange. - John Zimmerman
...seek a lost position. - Bruce Moon

It often happens that a player carries out a deep and complicated calculation, but fails to spot something elementary right at the first move. – Alexander Kotov

All candidate moves should be identified at once and listed in one's head. This job cannot be done piecemeal, by first examining one move and then look at another. – Alexander Kotov

There must be no reasoning from the past moves, only the present position. Logically, the previous moves in a game should not affect one’s play in the slightest, as each move creates a new position. – Alexander Alekhine

No one ever won a chess game by betting on each move. Sometimes you have to move backward to get a step forward. – Amar Bose

The question that matters to you in actual play is simply, 'What is my best move?', and if you can decide without being sure who has the theoretical advantage, so much the better. – C. J. S. Purdy

It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a realizable plan. - Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

All operations should be undertaken with a certain goal - the object of attack - in mind. To swim without a goal is strategic confusion. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

A bad plan is better than none at all. – Frank Marshall

Plans are usually based on the pawn structure. – Jack Peters

One must avoid dumping a plan for baubles lying on the side of the road. – Jeremy Silman

Short-term solutions to long-term problems on the chessboard rarely succeed. – Kelly Atkins

A sound plan makes us all heroes, the absence of a plan, idiots. – Alexander Kotov

A plan is made for a few moves only, not for the whole game. – Reuben Fine

Short-term plans pay best. It is even more important to look around than look ahead. – C. J. S. Purdy

You cannot base your game around one-idea plans like c3 Bc2 Qd3 Qxh7#. This takes four moves to threaten and only one move (...g6) to defend. – Jeremy Silman

The prelude to a decisive mistake is often a series of planless or passive moves that can be induced by factors such as trying to play it safe or showing too much respect for the opposition. The 'blunder' or more obvious error often turns out to be the icing on the cake. – Nigel Davies

In every game we ought to have a single basic plan, and by carrying out this plan we ought to get a prolonged initiative. The initiative so gained will tend to increase until it reaches the stage where it is sufficient to force a win. – Peter Romanovsky

My own reaction was immense admiration. Everything foreseen and planned from the first move to the last. I tried to start playing in a planned fashion, but I got precisely nowhere! I would envisage a long siege of my opponent's pawn at a6 but was distracted by threats on the f-file. My games still consisted of isolated episodes, which I feverishly tried to knit together into a harmonious whole. It was only much later that the question of a single plan became clear to me. In the Vilner game it was a struggle between unequal sides. When, however, you meet a strong inventive opponent and he counters every one of your intentions not only by defensive but also by counter-attacking measures, then it is far from simple to carry out a single plan. I finally concluded: A single plan is the sum total of strategic operations which follow each other in turn and which each carry out an independent idea that arises logically from the demands of a given position. – Alexander Kotov (on a game between Romanovsky & Vilner)

Whoever constantly endeavours to economize moves will undoubtedly find himself becoming more and more strong. – William Norwood Potter

Everybody can play well in better positions, but to be a good player it is necessary to also play well in bad positions. – Emanuel Lasker

It’s much easier to play for a win from an equal position than from a bad position! – Tigran Petrosian

If you want to play for a win, give your opponent some counterplay. – Anatoly Karpov

The winner of a game is the one who has made the next to last blunder. – Saviely Tartakower

Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it - checkmate ends the game. – Nigel Short

It does not matter what we are doing - sacrificing the material, creating a weakness in the opponent’s camp, or getting rid of a weakness in our own camp - all of these have only one goal: to achieve harmony in our own position and create chaos in our opponent’s. – Garry Kasparov

If the means are subordinate to the aim, then, conversely, this aim must conform completely with the available means. If a player devises a strategic plan, he should be convinced of the attainability of the fixed aims and their conformity with the essential particularities of the position. Too ambitious aims, or the search after them without regard to the actual requirements of the position, are refuted by the logic of the struggle. – Alexei Suetin

We may all learn from Morphy and Anderssen how to conduct a King's side attack, and perhaps I myself may not have learnt enough. But if you want to learn how to avoid such an attack, how to keep the balance of the position on the whole board and how to expose the King and invite a complicated attack that cannot be sustained in the long run, then you must go to the modern school for information. – Wilhelm Steinitz

Your plan must be based on the actual features of the position. Work out what each side should be up to. You can't attack the King just because you want to. – Dave Regis

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. – Richard Reti

It is one of the insights of modern players, and especially of the best ones, that one has to play the position itself, not some abstract idea of the position. – John Watson

If you don't do what the position needs, bad things will happen to you. – Jeremy Silman

Nowadays, the play is to let the chief pieces roam across the whole board. That way, you have enough space and can plan ahead. If you live grandly enough, you can afford to sweep the board. One has to move with the times gentlemen, not just hugging the coasts; sooner or later one has to venture out. - Galileo

Keep freedom of maneuver while hampering your opponent. – Jose R. Capablanca

Don't get hung up on static formations. In chess, all things are fluid, because mobility is everything. Formations are only valid as part of a sequence or plan, not as goals. – Bruce Moon

Geniuses do not have to capture toward the center. – Irving Chernev

It is by no means easy to detect those chance factors which are not based on obvious strategic factors. – Source Unknown

During the last few years instead of the Steinitzian static positional judgment (weak points, etc.), or rather as a supplement to it, dynamic positional judgment has emerged more and more strongly. Apparently bad, cramped positions can turn out to be good if hidden strengths lie in them, which permit one to conceive a good plan. On the other hand, superior positions can turn out to be bad if they offer no possibility for further improvement. – Richard Reti

This wonderful property of chess, to be able to translate matter into strength, powerfully enriches the methods of struggling to obtain positional advantage. – Rudolf Spielmann

Weak points or holes in the enemy position must be occupied by pieces, not pawns. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Strategically important points should be overprotected. If the pieces are so engaged, they get their reward in the fact that they will then find themselves well posted in every respect. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

Overprotection of strong points is often good. Overprotection of weak points is rarely so. – Source Unknown

When a poor player asks a stronger one why one move is better than another in a particular position, and no convincing tactical reason is available, the stronger player may select a handful of appropriate slogans from his collection that appear to justify it, but it is very unlikely that such rules formed part of his reasoning in selecting the move in the first place. He didn't put his pawn on a black square because he had a white-squared bishop; he played the pawn move because it felt the right thing to do. That particular ladder, of rules relating to pawns and bishops, has been kicked away and replaced by a higher level of understanding. The principles of positional chess are by no means as absolute as we are led to believe. – Dan Heisman

An advantage could consist not only in a single important advantage but also in a multitude of insignificant advantages.– Emanuel Lasker

Position play is concerned with very minute advantages and has meaning only among players sufficiently advanced to see and avoid all the little traps. – C. J. S. Purdy

One of the hallmarks of very strong players is the ability to recognize when they should try to do something and when it is better to play a move which just simply improves their position. This is why top class games often give the impression that nothing is really happening whilst in reality their outwardly innocuous moves represent a cagey struggle to outmaneuver their opponent. The two adversaries are working towards the right moment to strike, knowing full well that a premature attempt to force matters could simply lose the advantage or even totally rebound. – Nigel Davies

For a great player, the actual execution of the attack is relatively simple. What is more challenging is being able to reach such a position in the first place. Therein lies the real mark of the master. – Sunil Weeramantry

Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few. – George Kieninger

It is almost always unwise to yield any positional advantage for the sake of simplifying. – C. J. S. Purdy

Rather than submit to a marked disadvantage, always give up material. The loss of a pawn, the exchange for a pawn, or queen for a rook, bishop and pawn - all these cause absurdly disproportionate alarm in the majority of players. So long as you have a little positional superiority in compensation, there is not the slightest need to become timorous or desperate. – C. J. S. Purdy

In practical play, the question of how big or how small a theoretical advantage one side has is not important. If one side’s moves are easy and the other’s hard, that is important. To have an easy game means to have a clearly good aim or strategy and no difficult tactical problems to solve in achieving it. – C. J. S. Purdy

One should not allow oneself to be cramped for the sake of avoiding a very small theoretical disadvantage. A small advantage in development will usually compensate for such slight troubles. Play a game of mobility and do not be scared by small theoretical weaknesses of whose actual significance you are not fully aware. – C. J. S. Purdy

You need not fear to create a weakness in your own position if it creates or preserves worse ones in the opponent’s position. – Source Unknown

Except for the mating move, there is no move that does not weaken some part of a position. – Siegbert Tarrasch

A weakness is not a weakness unless the opponent is able to take advantage. In fact, such a weakness - one which is theoretical as opposed to actual - can sometimes be useful as a tactical decoy, beguiling the opponent into pressing for an advantage which does not exist. – Bruce Moon

The aim of all maneuvers on an open file is the ultimate intrusion along this file onto the seventh or eighth rank, i.e., into the enemy position. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

It is worth giving up a pawn to get a rook on the seventh rank. – Reuben Fine

Open files can be used by both players. The chess player, not being an unselfish advocate of equal opportunity, naturally prefers a one-way system. – Michael Stean

When you have two rooks opposing each other on an open file, with each defended by another rook, it’s usually best to let the opponent initiate the exchange. That way, after recapturing, you’ll be the one controlling the file with a rook. – Kelly Atkins

The Queen's-side majority, the outside passed pawn, the 'good' and 'bad' bishop have all become standard reference terms. Many players still commit the error of extrapolating these notions to the middlegame where in most cases endgame principles are reversed. Alekhine warned that a Queen's-side majority can be an advantage in the ending but that a central majority is far more important in the middlegame. The outside passed Pawn is more of a weakness in the middlegame when the fight is concentrated on the center and King's side. – Mikhail Suba

The dimensions of a chessboard are not large. Space is a very relative notion. You can play on a pocket chess set or on a demonstration board, but in either case you will have no more that 64 squares at your disposal. It goes without saying, that if you want to win the battle, you will need to control as much space as possible. To achieve this, it is logical to use far-reaching pieces such as bishops. – David Bronstein

If once a man delays castling and his king remains in the center, files will open up against him, bishops sweep the board, rooks will dominate the seventh rank, and pawns turn into queens. – Irving Chernev

Castle when you will, or if you must, but not when you can. – William Napier

The most powerful weapon in chess is to have the next move! – David Bronstein

An opponent surprised is half beaten. – French proverb

The ability to steer clear of apparently advantageous continuations in order to find the single move, which really maintains the pressure, is one of the hallmarks of a great master. – Fred Reinfeld

Sometimes it is more difficult to avoid the worst continuation than to find the best continuation. – Vlastimil Hort

If you must leave your opponent a good move, leave him more than one. Not only will this consume time on his clock, but his choice may not be the best one. – C. J. S. Purdy

When your opponent is in severe time pressure, it can be amazingly effective to make a move that threatens nothing. He’s so geared up to meet concrete threats that often he will instantly reply so as to meet a threat you didn’t make - with disastrous results. – Mike Franett

The attack of a tactician can be troublesome to meet - that of a strategist even more so. Whereas the tactician's threats may be unmistakable, the strategist confuses the issue by keeping things in abeyance. He threatens to threaten! – Irving Chernev

The opponent is threatening. . . nothing. This is the most terrible threat, because it cannot be evaded. – Siegbert Tarrasch

If your opponent cannot do anything active, then don't rush the position; instead you should let him sit there, suffer, and beg you for a draw. – Jeremy Silman

There is an art in obtaining a draw from a critical position, and this art is part and parcel of chess player's strength. Psychologically, it is a question not only of nerve, but also of recognizing in good time that the situation is serious before it is definitely beyond repair. – Saviely Tartakower

If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off. – Nigel Short

If you want to win at chess, begin with the ending. – Irving Chernev

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame. – Jose R. Capablanca

If you have any doubt what to study, study endgames. Openings teach you openings. Endings teach you chess. – Stephan Gerzadowicz

The reason many masters advise studying endgames first, is not primarily to make one an endgame expert, but instead to teach one basic mating patterns & basic tactics (since these things are simpler to grasp when only a few pieces are on the board), and - maybe most important of all - to learn, in simplified positions, how the pieces coordinate their actions and work together. Specific endgame skill from this study is only a secondary benefit. – Kelly Atkins

Do not permit yourself to fall in love with the end-game play to the exclusion of entire games. It is well to have the whole story of how it happened; the complete play. Do not embrace the rag-time and the vaudeville of chess. – Emanuel Lasker

The best way to learn endings, as well as openings, is from the games of masters. – Jose R. Capablanca

In the ending, we must convert into a win any advantages won during the opening or middlegame. – Paul Keres

One should always take a little walk about the room after exchanging queens, so that one can remind oneself that the middlegame is ending, and get into an endgame frame of mind. – Andrew Soltis

The basic rule of endings is not to hurry. If you have the chance to advance a Pawn one square or two, then first of all advance only one square, have a good look round, and only then play it forward one more square. Repeating moves in an ending can be very useful. Apart from the obvious gain of time on the clock one notices that the side with the advantage gains psychological benefit. The defender who has the inferior position often cannot stand the strain and makes new concessions, so easing the opponent's task. Apart from this, repetitions clarify the position in your mind to the greatest possible extent. We know that certain devotees of the 'pure' art of chess will criticize us for this piece of advice, but we cannot help but advise chess players to repeat moves in the endgame. You have to take all the chances you get in a game, and there is nothing ugly or unethical about the repetition of moves. – Sergey Belavenets

In some positions, especially in the endgame, you won’t find the right move even if you can see 20 moves ahead. You simply have to "know” what to do and you can’t calculate it. – Stefan Meyer-Kahlen

The endgame is real swindler's territory. – Dave Regis

Rook endings are the most democratic endings of all; every player gets a chance to badly misplace his Rook. – Source Unknown

All rook endgames are drawn. – Saviely Tartakower

Rook endgames a pawn up are drawn. Rook endgames a pawn down are lost. – Chris Walsh

Rook endings are never easy. – C. J. S. Purdy

Zugzwang is the great enemy of knights and kings in the endgame. – Bruce Pandolfini

Pawn endings are the irreducible wins, losses, and draws of chess. They are the atoms of chess physics, the foundation of endgame play. – Lev Alburt

Pawn endings are to chess what putting is to golf. – C. J. S. Purdy

When a central passed pawn can be well blockaded, it is of no use to its owner at all. – Source Unknown

The passed pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

A passed pawn increases its strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. – Jose R. Capablanca

Every healthy, uncompromised majority must be able to yield a passed pawn. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

A pawn majority on one wing can be of more value than a single passed pawn, provided that the foremost pawn is sufficiently advanced. – DuMont

Endgames with Queen and pawns on both sides are among the most difficult in chess. – Paul Keres

The endgame is the North Star by which a course may be set in both the opening and middlegame. – Mortimer Collins

If you want to work on your endgame theory, it is vitally important to lay a solid foundation - to focus on the most important theoretical positions, ideas and technical tools. As a rule, this fundamental knowledge consists of a small number of fairly simple positions; but these positions must be understood completely and securely memorized. – Mark Dvoretsky

Let us enumerate again the ways of playing that are specific to the endgame phase:
1. Think in terms of schemes
2. Do not be in a hurry
3. Bring the King as quickly as possible to the center of the board.
– Alexander Kotov

The chess space forming the battlefield has its own properties, which are inseparable from the values of the chessmen in use - the material aspect. A player soon learns that the ratio of value between the pieces is often only a relative concept, and the strength of a unit engaged in the struggle constantly changes according to the situation on the board and the way in which this affects one's own and one's opponent's pieces. – Alexei Suetin

The chessplayer's greatest art lies in creating positions in which the normal relative values cease to exist. – Mikhail Botvinnik

It isn't important what comes off the board, but what stays on! – Yasser Seirawan

A big part of what makes a sacrifice work, is that what's important isn't the material on the board, but the material that's available at the scene of the battle. A piece that's unable to involve itself in the action is so much dead wood just taking up space. In fact, it may actually interfere with its possessor's efforts. Any general knows that having a thousand tanks more than his opponent, doesn't mean diddly if they're stranded 50 miles from the battle. – Kelly Atkins

It's not the material on the board that counts, it's the material at the scene of the action. If your opponent's pieces are far away from the area of your attack and unable to participate in the defense, especially when you're attacking the castled king, sacrifices are almost always warranted. – Source Unknown

Three pieces are a mate. – Folke Ekstrom

If the enemy king is cut off from most of his defenders, it may be well worth sacrificing a lot of material to get at him. It is the local superiority of force that counts in a successful attack. – Source Unknown

In positions of strategic maneuvering (where time is not of decisive importance) seek the worst placed piece. Activating that piece is often the most reliable way of improving your position as a whole. – Mark Dvoretsky

Move that one of your pieces, which is in the worst plight, unless you can satisfy yourself that you can derive immediate advantage by an attack. – Adolf Anderssen

Pawns are the soul of the game. They alone create attack and defense; the way they are deployed decides the fate of the game. – Andrι Philidor

The pawns are the steel structure of the position and ordinarily dictate the course of events. – Rudolf Spielmann

The positional sacrifice of a pawn must be included in the arsenal of every chess player. – Vlastimil Hort

A rough and ready rule is that it nearly always pays to advance the front member of a doubled pawn. – Cecil Purdy

Pawns are born free, yet are everywhere in chains. – Andrew Soltis

As a rule, the worst way of taking advantage of a weak pawn is to capture it, because then the opponent no longer has to worry about it. – C. J. S. Purdy

Don’t take weak pawns; instead take strong pawns - things that can bite if not eaten first. – Source Unknown

A pawn, when separated from his fellows, will seldom or never make a fortune. – Andrι Philidor

The isolated pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

The average player thinks an isolated pawn has to be won, but that is not till the endgame. It must rather be made an obstacle to the opponent’s forces. – Source Unknown

Many players with an isolani proceed much too violently, but it seems to me that there is no objective motive for "plunging" on a desperate attack. At first the utmost solidity is called for. The attack will come of itself in good time, for instance when Black has withdrawn his Nf6, which he will at some time naturally do, since the N wants to get to d5. In the development stage, we would therefore recommend the solid construction, Be3 (not Bg5), Qe2, R's c1 and d1 (not d1 and e1), further Bd3 or b1 (not b3). A solid position aimed at maintaining the security of the Pd4 is the one and only right course, and it must ever be remembered that the Be3 belongs to the Pd4, as does a nurse to a suckling child! It is only when Black has withdrawn his pieces from the K-side that White may sound the attack, and this, if he will, he may carry out in sacrificial style. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

The strength of an isolani lies is its lust to expand. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

He who fears an isolated queen's pawn should give up chess. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Hanging pawns, although weak, are better than one isolated pawn, because as long as they are both abreast, neither of them can be blockaded. The thing is not to defend them with miserly pusillanimity, but to capitalize on the control of center squares, which they provide - try to attack. – Source Unknown

In general, a pawn center is a good thing not in itself but in its usefulness for concrete ends. – Mark Dvoretsky

Now we'll tell you what the fianchetto is really all about. Don't think about the Bishop move; think about the pawn move. Bishops, after all, can move backwards; pawns cannot. So the more significant move is that of the pawn. – Bill Hartston

Distrust a pawn move - examine carefully its balance sheet. – Emanuel Lasker

Every pawn move loosens the position. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Nothing so easily ruins a position as pawn moves. – Siegbert Tarrasch

The pawn move is a capital investment. Every one of the forty-eight should, from the beginning, be spent as if it were one of the last forty-eight apprehensive and responsible dollars between yourself and starvation. – William Napier

Every pawn is a potential queen. – James Mason

Pawns and children want nothing more than to be loved and guided to their grandest fulfillment. Therefore, in the heat of battle, the vengeance of children is a thing to be feared above all things. – Donald McLean

Take care of the pawns and the queens take care of themselves. – Sam Loyd

A piece in the hand is worth a mate in the bush. – Sam Loyd

In blitz, the knight is stronger than the bishop. – Vlastimil Hort

A knight on the rim is dim. – Siegbert Tarrasch

Some Knights don't leap - they limp. – Saviely Tartakower

Knights are 'Path' pieces. Have an idea of where you want one to go! – Dan Heisman

The knight at QB3 is under obligation, the moment the enemy gives him the chance, of undertaking an invasion of the center by Kt-Q5. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

A knight in the center, supported by its own pawn and not subject to attack from enemy pawns, is no weaker than a Rook. – Siegbert Tarrasch

A powerful knight, centrally posted in the enemy camp, pawn-supported, and immune to being dislodged by an enemy pawn is often worth as much as a rook. – C. J. S. Purdy

The great master places a Knight at e5; mate follows by itself. – Source Unknown

Once you get a Knight firmly posted at King 6 you may go to sleep. Your game will play itself. – Adolf Anderssen

A knight on K6 and the game is won. – Siegbert Tarrasch

To have a knight planted in your game at K6 is worse than a rusty nail in your knee. – Efim Bogoljubow

The pair of bishops in the hands of a strong player is an awesome weapon. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

Only a good bishop can be sacrificed, a bad bishop can only be lost. – Yuri Razuvayev

Bad bishops protect good pawns. – Mihail Suba

From my own experience, I have learned that in a complicated middlegame position, when pawns and pieces are engaged in battle, it is often wise to sacrifice a Rook for an enemy Bishop. – David Bronstein

As far as I have observed from thousands of games, if both white and black rooks are still in quiet positions on a1 and a8, the rook that centralizes first usually helps to decide the battle. – David Bronstein

All things being equal, the player will prevail who first succeeds in uniting the efforts of both rooks in an important direction. – Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Whenever you have to make a rook move and both rooks are available for said move- you should evaluate which rook to move and, once you have made up your mind... MOVE THE OTHER ONE!!! – Oscar Panno

Take much thought, rather than a distant pawn, with your Queen. – James Mason

Never pay too high a price for a queen. – Siegbert Tarrasch

The Queen in chess loves company; it must have an attendant, a fellow piece, as otherwise it will not be at its best. And these other pieces should be able to cooperate with their mistress, and not stand around merely as onlookers. – Vladimir Vukovic

The king is a strong piece - use it! – Reuben Fine

With every step nearer the endgame the power of the King increases. You should throw him without fear for his safety where the battle is thickest. – Aaron Nimzowitsch

The ability to garnish strategic ideas with concrete points, and to place tactical enterprises in the service of a big general idea, marks the artist in chess. – Saviely Tartakower

General principles can be a good guide, but there is no substitute for sound analysis based on concrete variations. – Source Unknown

Success in chess depends partly on knowing when to apply which maxim or tip. These tips are general heuristic principles or rules of thumb. It takes experience to recognize when a tip should or shouldn't be applied and which maxim should be used in any particular situation. – Source Unknown

These are general pieces of advice and you never have a general position in front of you. You always have a specific one with its own needs and wants that must be discovered as best as you are able during the course of the game. Chess is a game of ideas, of thinking, of creating and of discovering. Making your moves based on hackneyed and inaccurate generalizations from the past negates the very nature of the game and is anathema to it. – Richard Rose

The rook on the seventh rank, pawns on the opposite color square to one's bishop, weak squares, bad bishops and most of the other handy clichιs we embrace to save us from positional howlers are all specific examples of far more general rules of piece coordination that one can learn only through experience. – Dan Heisman

While a stockpile of principles, guidelines, rules, and basic positions can be very useful in any chess player’s arsenal, one should never forget that there is no substitute for analysis. A general idea or guideline is not the end, but the means to an end. – Source Unknown

There are no hopeless positions; there are only inferior positions that can be saved. There are no drawn positions; there are only equal ones in which you can play for a win. But at the same time, don't forget that there is no such thing as a won position in which it is impossible to lose. – Grigory Sanakoev

Play as if the future of humanity depends on your efforts. It does. – Bruce Pandolfini

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