American Chess Player Quotes

Bobby Fischer

Paul Morphy

Samuel Reshevsky

Reuben Fine

Larry Evans (chess grandmaster)

Joshua Waitzkin

Maurice Ashley

I see myself more as an ambassador of the game. And I hope to bring chess to a higher level in the United States. Making bigger tournaments, more interesting events. Making it a respectable profession for young people to be able to pursue in the future.

They have nothing on me, those guys. They can't even touch me. Some people rate them better than me. That really bugs me. They think that no Americans play chess. When I meet those Russian patzers I'll put them in their place.

Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations.

My first goal is to create an attractive, interactive website that forms a community of chess lovers. I want to keep it light and keep people coming back ⎯ heavy on photos, humor, and simple chess tactics and strategies. I want to promote our top players to increase their visibility and their chances to make a living at chess.

Jennifer Shahade

While some are as loathe to trade a Bishop for a Knight as a Cadillac for a Chevrolet, others are prepared to do so without hesitation.

Larry Evans (chess grandmaster)

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 practise it.

My first teachers were street players, guys who would hustle you, get in your head, break you down mentally before they did it over the board.

Joshua Waitzkin

The world is not likely to tire of an amusement which never repeats itself, of a game which today presents features as novel and charms as fresh as those with which it delighted, in the morning of history, the dwellers on the banks of the Ganges and Indus.

Chess is a great game. No matter how good one is, there is always somebody better. No matter how bad one is, there is always somebody worse.

Israel Albert Horowitz

Objectivity and presence of mind are essential in such positions where sacrificial temptations are not always resistable.

Leonid Shamkovich

Chess is like a delicious drug which offers such heavenly delights that they can never tear themselves away from it completely.

Chess reflects the real world in miniature. Endeavor, struggle, success, and defeat - they are part of each game ever played.

Bruce Pandolfini

Your practical results will improve when you play what you know, like and have confidence in.

By playing slowly during the early phases of a game I am able to grasp the basic requirements of each position. Then, despite being in time pressure, I have no difficulty in finding the best continuation. Incidentally, it is an odd fact that more often than not it is my opponent who gets the jitters when I am compelled to make these hurried moves.

Samuel Reshevsky