Anatoly Karpov Quotes

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.

Chess is a matter of daily training.

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 started playing chess when I was five years old. I learned the moves from my mother, then worked with my father - and later trainers. My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I'd forget about my other pieces.

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.

It's important, according to me, to train in small doses so as to not lose the joy of playing chess. I personally think too many coaching and training classes may take away a child's interest in the game itself. The essential thing to do is practise often and, in case of a doubt, to consult a trainer.

My challenge when I came back was to face the young talent, dissect their games, and show them maybe that they needed to learn more about the game than just the money aspect.

Right now I'm really happy with how things are going with my chess career, so I'm not thinking of doing anything else.

I play chess badly and I've been beaten by my 10-year old son.

My former coach, Simen Agdestein, used to be the best player in Norway.

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.

I grew up with a father who taught me chess at the age of 6 or 7. He'd always beat me. Of course. I was a kid of 6 or 7. After he won, he'd look at me and say, 'It's good to be king.' And then he'd say, 'But you know what's even better? To rule the world.'

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

I barely know what my plans are for tomorrow, but I hope chess will remain a major part of my life.

I did take part in a couple of Vishy Anand's training camps. The experience has truly been invaluable. I saw from up close the level of preparation that I should be striving for.

Well, I think, in large part, when I first began playing chess at seven years old, I was quite bad at it. I lost a lot of games when I first started.

I started doing a Ph.D., and then I thought, 'I don't really want to spend all this time on my own in the library.'

I soon found an opportunity to be introduced to a famous professor Johann Bernoulli. ... True, he was very busy and so refused flatly to give me private lessons; but he gave me much more valuable advice to start reading more difficult mathematical books on my own and to study them as diligently as I could; if I came across some obstacle or difficulty, I was given permission to visit him freely every Sunday afternoon and he kindly explained to me everything I could not understand.

My very first book was a games collection of Anatoly Karpov. On the whole I was attracted by positonal play with some tactics, and already then I was aiming for universality.

It was a day and age that saw no reason why one could not learn whatever was required - learn vitally anything - by the close study of books.

The first great chess players, including the world champion, got by perfectly well without constant coaches.

The only positive contribution to chess from Fischer in the last 20 years.

I study chess eight hours a day, on principle.

I feel that my chess strengths are still here, .. I believe I can still improve.

I am absent altogether too much to be a suitable instructor for a law-student. When a man has reached the age that Mr. Widner has,and has already been doing for himself, my judgment is, that he reads the books for himself without an instructor. That is precisely the way I came to the law.