Alexander Alekhine Quotes

During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life

Chess is a cold bath for the mind

In chess, you should be as cool as a cucumber.

I still love to play chess. So I do not even spend a minute on the possibility to step back.

The bigger the game, the better I liked it. Not that I was about to let anybody know I was excited. I approached every game the same way. One pitch, one hitter at a time.

I didn't have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind.

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far.

Behind every kick of the ball there has to be a thought.

The most interesting thing to me in chess are not the gambits. Or the moves. It's the mental toughness.

Once you are on court, everything is different. I focus on the match.

Being patient has made me a more precise fighter.

It's all a mind thing, just all mental. You have to know going into the game you have to play at a high level, as many minutes, stuff like that. It's just all mental. You get yourself mentally prepared for it and go out there and play.

I can't be getting off my game. I need to be getting teams off their games.

You don't win games by being aggressive. You win by being relaxed.

I would say I stay pretty calm. Don't let the game get too fast on me. I try to keep my emotions in check, I guess, so I don't show that anything fazes me out there. And I try to take it one pitch at a time.

Nothing goes through your head when you're playing except who you are playing against and what you can do to affect the game.

Ninety percent of my game is mental. It's my concentration that has gotten me this far. I won't even call a friend on the day of a match. I'm scared of disrupting my concentration. I don't allow any competition with tennis.

Chess demands total concentration

There's no luck involved in chess. You just have to work at it.

Those who think that it is easy to play chess are mistaken. During a game a player lives on his nerves, and at the same time he must be perfectly composed.

That's what Chess is all about. One day you give your opponent a lesson, the next day he gives you one

It's a horrible and wonderful battle with yourself, to stay calm, stay in the moment. My coach said, "Stay here, not at the target. Don't be down there." It's why they call it the Zen art.

No - I'm quite calm inside during the game for most of the time - not 100%, but generally very calm.

Chess is mental torture.