Patience is the most valuable trait of the endgame player.
The only positive contribution to chess from Fischer in the last 20 years.
Sir, the slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is insufferable.
Why are most chess masters under 30?
The middlegame I repeat is chess itself, chess with all its possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc.
The study of typical plans is something that the leading grandmasters devote a great deal of time to. I would say that the most far-seeing of them devote as much time to this as to the study of openings.
In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn't do well. They'd get bad openings.
I was a terrible father. The most I ever did for my children was to teach them chess. At least they got that.
If you are going to make your mark among masters, you have to work far harder and more intensively, or, to put it more exactly, the work is far more complex than that needed to gain the title of Master.
You bring to chess facets of your personality and what you are. I have interests other than chess, like music and world and current affairs. I also have many friends around the world with whom I like to keep in touch.
I know that with perfect play, God versus God, Fritz versus Fritz, chess is a draw.
Psychology is the most important factor in chess.
No pawn exchanges, no file-opening, no attack.
As a rule, so-called "positional" sacrifices are considered more difficult, and therefore more praise-worthy, than those which are based exclusively on an exact calculation of tactical possibilities.
A pawn, when separated from his fellows, will seldom or never make a fortune.
Chess, like other arts, must be practiced to be appreciated.
It was not until I got my first job, at the University of Washington in Seattle, and began playing chess with Don Gordon, a brilliant young theorist, that I learned economic theory.
A great chess player always has a very good memory.
India and China are improving by leaps and bounds and it will be their chess players who will lead the revolution of the XXI century.
I have frequently stated that I regard chess as an art form, where creativity prevails over other factors.