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“You cannot win games only by following Steinitz's or Nimzowitsch's principles, but you will certainly lose games if you don't know these principles!”
GM, trainer and author Lars Bo Hansen
For more quotations see "Quotes" pages 2, 3 and 4
Quotes from 3Cs' founder, Steve Rigby
"Don't play with your heart, play with your brain".
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"Teamwork makes the dream work"
“If you don’t have a clear head at the crucial moment, all your previous exertions can be reduced to nothing.”
GM Max Euwe, World Champion, 1935-37
“In positions with opposite-coloured bishop, activity is always more important than the number of pawns.”
GM and author Valeri Beim
“Better understanding doesn’t directly transfer to better decision-making at the board. The latter requires practice of decision-making and that type of work is the actual calculation of variations.“
GM Alexander Colovic“
"The result of a game depends primarily on our ability to analyse variations.”
GM, author and coach Valeri Beim
“These days many chess-players believe the best way to improve their game is to sit in front of the computer and learn never-ending theoretical opening lines, but they forget that a chess game is normally defined by events not in the opening but nearer its conclusion, as the result of a long fight in the late middlegame or endgame.”
GM and author Valeri Beim
“To improve at chess you should in the first instance study the endgame.”
José Raúl Capablanca, World Chess Champion 1921-1927.
“You should analyse your games on your own first, and only then check it with an engine. This way you'll get the maximum benefit from analysis of your games.”
GM, author and coach Gregory Serpe
“People who want to improve should take their defeats as lessons, and endeavour to learn what to avoid in the future. You must also have the courage of your convictions. If you think your move is good, make it.”
José Raúl Capablanca, World Chess Champion 1921-7.
“When playing weaker players, motivation is a big problem for the stronger player. There is nothing to prove and there is pressure to win because that would be the ‘normal’ thing to happen. Compare that to the maximum motivation of the weaker player, who still knows how to play some chess, and you have the stronger player drop their level while the weaker player raises his, thus increasing his chances.”
GM Alexander Colovic
“The game is not over until the opponent resigns”.
(The famous US grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992), noted for his strong fighting spirit and tenacity.)
“Playing White in the Sicilian is like riding a bicycle. You have to keep moving forward, otherwise you fall off.”
Nigel Short, English Grandmaster
The great Danish grandmaster and world championship candidate Bent Larsen wrote:
"If you study modern opening theory you may well conclude that if Black does not want to have to defend carefully during the first part of the game he must give White something: more space, heathier pawn structure, the bishop pair - or simply a pawn!"
... But Larsen also wrote:
"If you are a good defensive player, don't pay anything for the initiative! Your opponent will probably overreach himself if you defend wall for a couple of hours."
In order to score against higher rated opponents, you need to play against them in basically the same way you’d play against an opponent of your level or lower, and have the same confidence in your ability to win.”
IM Max Gedajlovic
"I get the feeling that having certain computer knowledge in specific positions is possibly worse than not having any. Often (also for me, but much more often for my opponents) you get into a position and your opponent makes a move that the computer at home has not specified. You then know that your opponent's move is usually not good, but if it is not immediately clear why it is not good, it can be very difficult or even impossible to find the rebuttal at the board. Weak moves of this kind according to the computer can suddenly get you into big trouble because you obviously cannot use a computer at the board .
Magnus Carlsen (Former World Champion)
“I believe it is very important not to over-dramatize the concept of “mistake”. We make mistakes, and if we make a habit of correcting them, without feeling too bad about them, that will improve anyone’s life.”
(GM, author and trainer Tiger Hillarp Persson.
“Look wide before you look deep!”
Wise advice on choosing ‘candidate moves’ from the famous Australian IM, author and trainer Cecil Purdy (1906-79)”
"Plans that look advantageous from the viewpoint of the general laws of strategy sometimes meet with unexpected refutations based on the tactical peculiarities of the position.”
GM Efim Geller (1825-1998), one of the strongest players never to win the world championship.
"If you do not check what your opponent is doing, you will end up complaining about bad luck after every game."
Former World Championship challenger, GM Viktor Korchnoi
“It is not bad to move quickly, but it is bad to move hastily.”
GM José Raúl Capablanca, World Chess Champion 1921-7
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