Top Emanuel Lasker Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Emanuel Lasker Biography

Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years (from 1894 to 1921). In his prime, Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the strongest players ever.

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Emanuel Lasker Quotes

He who has a slight disadvantage plays more attentively, inventively and more boldly than his antagonist who either takes it easy or aspires after too much. Thus a slight disadvantage is very frequently seen to convert into a good, solid advantage.

Frequently, Good, Inventively, Play, Psychology, Too Much

Steinitz was a thinker worthy of a seat in the halls of a university. A player, as the world believed he was, he was not; his studious temperament made that impossible; and thus he was conquered by a player and in the end little valued by the world, he died.

Believed, Littles, Player, University, World

The hardest game to win is a won game

Game, Games, Hardest, Success, Winning, Won

By positional play a master tries to prove and exploit true values, whereas by combinations he seeks to refute false values. . . A combination produces an unexpected re-assessment of values.

Assessment, Combination, Play, Positional, Prove, Trying

By what right does White, in an absolutely even position, such as after move one, when both sides have advanced 1. e4, sacrifice a pawn, whose recapture is quite uncertain, and open up his kingside to attack? And then follow up this policy by leaving the check of the black queen open? None whatever!

Move, Moving, Position, Queens, Sacrifice

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long

Chessboard, Hypocrisy, Long, Lying, Truth

To find the right plan is just as hard as looking for its sound justification.

Chess, Justification, Looking, Plan, Sound, Strategy

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 manoeuvres of the position player.

Adventure, Aside, Chess, Men, Player, Young

By some ardent enthusiasts Chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither; but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight.

Art, Chess, Delight, Fight, Fighting, Science

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, not the denouement only. Do not embrace the rag-time and vaudeville of chess.

Entire, Falling In Love, Games, Permit, Play, Story

He who wants to educate himself in Chess must evade what is dead in Chess. . . the habit of playing with inferior opponents; the custom of avoiding difficult tasks; the weakness of uncritically taking over variations or rules discovered by others; the vanity which is self-sufficient; the incapacity for admitting mistakes; in brief, everything that leas to standstill or to anarchy.

Admitting, Custom, Mistake, Self, Vanity, Variations

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

Education, Independent, Judging, Thinking

The range of circumstances in which it is possible to presuppose the presence of a combination is very limited. The presence of such circumstances is the reason for the genesis of the idea in the master's brain.

Ideas, Brain, Chess, Limited, Circumstances

If Steinitz continually took pains to discover combinations, the success or failure of his diligent search could not be explained by him as due to chance. Hence, he concluded that some characteristic, a quality of the given position, must exist that would indicate the success or the failure of the search before it was actually undertaken.

Chance, Diligent, Due, Pain, Quality

In mathematics, if I find a new approach to a problem, another mathematician might claim that he has a better, more elegant solution. In chess, if anybody claims he is better than I, I can checkmate him.

Checkmate, Chess, Claim, Mathematics, Might, Problem

The intelligent perusal of fine games cannot fail to make the reader a better player and a better judge of the play of others.

Games, Intelligent, Perusal, Player

You should keep in mind no names, nor numbers, nor isolated incidents, not even results, but only methods. . The method produces numerous results; a few of these will remain in our memory, and as long as they remain few, they are useful to illustrate and to keep alive the rules which order a thousand results.

Memories, Memory, Numbers, Numerous, Order, Produces

Loss generally occurs when a player overrates his advantage or for other reasons seeks to derive from a minute advantage a great return such as a forced win.

Generally, Loss, Minute, Player, Reasons, Winning

Without error there can be no brilliancy

Beauty, Errors, Chess, Brilliancy, Error

The process of making pieces in Chess do something useful (whatever it may be) has received a special name: it is called the attack. The attack is that process by means of which you remove obstructions.

Making, Mean, Names, Received, Remove, Special

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