Bobby Fischer Quotes

I do not play chess – I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I aim to respond to the demands of each given position.

For the moment, I am more focused on classical chess rather than rapid and blitz, as I am hoping to make my move in the classical World championship cycle.

I am acutely conscious, from vast experience in opens, that guys around, say 2100 or more can definitely play chess and that one often has to work very hard to beat them.

Fighting for me is a chess game. I'm not angry with my opponent. I just want to go in there and win.

Playing black, I put great stake in the Ruy Lopez: I liked it, feel it, and understand it; in matches with Hjartarson and Timman it served me well. - on preparing for World Championship versus Garry Kasparov

I may play some exhibition games so I don't want to quit the game of chess completely. I just decided and it's a firm decision not to play competitive chess anymore.

My job is to play chess, the game that I love. I achieve what I can in chess. That is what I focus on. Basically, I am always focused on playing the game, and this is important to me.

I played tournament chess from fifth grade up into high school.

I don't know how many calories an average chess player burns per game, but it often exceeds that of a player in ball games. It is not only the chess as such: You need to be fit and undergo complicated preparation.

Every time I win a tournament I have to think that there is something wrong with modern chess.

I felt that chess... is a science in the form of a game... I consider myself a scientist. I wanted to be treated like a scientist.

Professional players work almost every day, for hours on end, and the emphasis is on the word 'work.' It can be with a partner or it can be alone, but professional chess is always a pursuit of something new and surprising.

When I was about six, I saw my elder siblings play chess and pestered my mother into teaching me. Very soon, I was beating everyone at home, and they thought it would be good to join a club. So my sister would take me to the Tal chess club on Thursdays and weekends.

I am thinking about chess in schools in particular. In the USA more than 3200 children competed in an event.

On the other hand, chess is a mass sport now and for chess organisers shorter time control is obviously more attractive. But I think that this control does not suit World Championship matches.

When I played Bobby Fischer, my opponent fought against organizations - the television producers and the match organizers. But he never fought against me personally. I lost to Bobby before the match because he was already stronger than I. He won normally.

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

I think for me the main goal that I have, or at least what I really aspire to, is to raise the level of chess.

If you are serious about being a professional chess player, do know what your parents think and what their expectations are from you.

Like MCs, each chess player has his own style: how he likes to open, when he likes to attack. Just like we face off with each other lyrically, we challenge each other's minds on the chessboard. Sharpen each other's swords.

Online chess is very popular and cool, don't get me wrong, but it is a different discipline.

When you first start playing, that's your aim obviously, to win the world title.

If you talk to some of the older players, they definitely say they see beauty in certain games. In my case, there are certain times when I think, 'Wow, that's so amazing, chess is so full of ideas.' But most of the time I tend to be much more pragmatic about it, as opposed to thinking about it as art or something exquisite.

No matter how badly you play, unless you make a flat-out blunder, there's always going to be some narrow path to being able to save the game and draw instead of losing.

I tried to take every little thing and use it as an advantage. People were asking me how it felt to be in the UFC, and I wasn’t thinking about that. All that mattered was Alessio Sakara. I had to win that fight. Even now I still haven’t got time to sit back. Again, this is a must win, must dominate, fight for me in my eyes, and I won’t be happy unless that’s the way it goes.