If you don’t look, you can’t see!
I won't play more than 20 contemporary games. Much time is needed to see something good, especially in dark chess variants :P
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You have to have the fighting spirit. You have to force moves and take chances. - Bobby Fischer
There came a time when I realized that the ability to defend was - for a good chess player - insufficient. You can't be dependent upon your opponent's will, but must try to impose your will on him. - Victor Kortchnoi
Ultimately, what separates a winner from a loser at the grandmaster level is the willingness to do the unthinkable. A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough. Given the opportunity, I must have the guts to explode the game, to upend my opponent's thinking and, in so doing, unnerve him. So it is in business: One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized. - Garry Kasparov
A great chess player always has a very good memory. - Leonid Shamkovich
A Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe that you have an advantage, and the third … when you know you're going to lose ! - Savielly Tartakower
First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game. - Siegbert Tarrasch
I played like a child. (13 year old Magnus after a loss in the second game of a rapid chess match with Kasparov - after having drawn the first game) - Magnus Carlsen
Once when Blackburne was giving a simultaneous exhibition, his opponent had ordered and just been served a glass of whisky. Instead of making his move, Blackburne drank the whiskey and went on to the next board. How I would have loved to have known him personally! - Tony Santasiere
My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant'. - Henry Blackburne