52 Bobby Fischer Quotes on Chess

Bobby Fischer quotes on chess

1. Tactics flow from a positionally superior game.

3. I have never opened with the QP - on principle.

4. Patzer sees a check, gives a check.

5. They have nothing on me, those guys. They can't even touch me. Some people rate them better than me. That really bugs me. They think that no Americans play chess. When I meet those Russian patzers I'll put them in their place.

6. (Capablanca) wanted to change the rules already back in the 1920's, saying that chess was getting played out. And he was right. Now it's completely dead, it's a joke. It's all just memorization and prearrangement. It's a very uncreative game now.

7. I usually never stay at the board after a game. Especially against Spassky. I made a dumb suggestion and he refuted it instantly! I know I'm going to have to play him some day and it was really stupid to look like such a jerk in front of him.

8. Americans like a winner. If you lose, you're nothing. I'm going to win, though. It's good for the match that Spassky has a plus score against me. We've met five times. He's won three times and we've drawn twice. But I'm a stronger player and a long match favors me.

9. I'll play a lot, stake matches. Not like the Russians. They win the championship and then hide for three years. Every few months, anyway twice a year, I'd like to get up a purse and meet a challenger. It's good for the game, keeps up interest in chess, and it's good for the bank account. I want to get some money together. Like take professional football. All these athletes making hundreds of thousands of dollars. Contracts, endorsements. If there's room for all of them, there ought to be room for one of me. I mean, after all, I'm a great goodwill ambassador for the United States!

10. I have a minus score (against Spassky). I lost 3 and drew 2. I was better than him when I lost those games. I pressed for the win. My overall tournament record is much better than his. I'm not afraid of him, he's afraid of me.

11. I'm not afraid of Spassky. The world knows I'm the best. You don't need a match to prove it.

12. Morphy and Capablanca had enormous talent, Steinitz was very great too. Alekhine was great, but I am not a big fan of his. Maybe it's just my taste. I've studied his games a lot, but I much prefer Capablanca and Morphy. Alekhine had a rather heavy style, Capablanca was much more brilliant and talented, he had a real light touch. Everyone I've spoken to who saw Capablanca play still speak of him with awe. If you showed him any position he would instantly tell you the right move. When I used to go to the Manhattan Chess Club back in the fifties, I met a lot of old-timers there who knew Capablanca, because he used to come around to the Manhattan club in the forties - before he died in the early forties. They spoke about Capablanca with awe. I have never seen people speak about any chess player like that, before or since. Capablanca really was fantastic. But even he had his weaknesses, especially when you play over his games with his notes he would make idiotic statements like 'I played the rest of the game perfectly.' But then you play through the moves and it is not true at all. But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt.

13. Yeah, there are too many Jews in chess. They seem to have taken away the class of the game. They don't seem to dress so nicely, you know. That's what I don't like.

39. Sometimes girls write me. One girl in Yugoslavia sent me a whole slew of love letters. I don't know how she got my address. She was in a crowd watching me play. She says when I left there the stars fell out of the sky over Yugoslavia, or something like that.

40. They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat.

46. Chess is life.

47. My sister bought me a set at a candy store and taught me the moves.

48. When I was eleven, I just got good.

49. The turning point in my career came with the realization that Black should play to win instead of just steering for equality.

50. All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.

51. All I want to do, ever, is play chess.

52. I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.

55. There are tough players and nice guys, and I'm a tough player.

57. Chess demands total concentration and a love for the game.

58. I give 98 per cent of my mental energy to chess. Others give only two per cent.

63. It's just you and your opponent at the board and you're trying to prove something.

67. That's chess, you know. One day you give a lesson, the next day your opponent gives you a lesson.

68. I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it.

69. You know, I can beat all those guys.

71. Let's play. I'm willing to play anywhere.

76. Chess is a matter of delicate judgment, knowing when to punch and how to duck.

77. I know people who have all the will in the world, but still can't play good chess.

79. It's pretty tough because of all the tension and all the concentration, sitting there hour after hour. It's...exhausting.

80. Theoretically, I think the game is a definite draw.

81. I wanted to give them something to think about when they prepare for me in future tournaments. (on why he played 1.d4, 1.c4 & 1.Nf3 a few times)

82. It's just a matter of throwing in a few sacrifices, then checkmate! (on playing against the Sicilian Dragon)

83. For the first lesson, I want you to play over every column of Modern Chess Openings, including the footnotes. And for the next lesson, I want you to do it again.

84. Concentrate on material gains. Whatever your opponent gives you take, unless you see a good reason not to.

85. My opponents make good moves too. Sometimes I don't take these things into consideration.

86. It's like taking a five hour final examination.

94. You know I'm finished with the old chess because it's all just a lot of book and memorization you know.

95. The old chess is too limited. Imagine playing cards, black jack for example, and every time the dealer has the same starting hand you have the same starting hand. What's the point?

96. I don't play the old chess. But obviously if I did, I would be the best.

97. I don't play the old chess any more. The old chess is dead, it's been played out.

98. I'm finished with the old chess, it's rotten to the core

99. I love chess, and I hate the Russians because they've almost ruined it.

104. Karpov, Kasparov, Korchnoi have absolutely destroyed chess by their immoral, unethical, prearranged games. These guys are really the lowest dogs around, and if people knew the truth about them, they would be held in more contempt than Ben Johnson, the runner, and they're going to know the truth when I do this book!

114. Morphy was really the world champion. That's also a Jewish conspiracy, because he was a Catholic and they tried to say he wasn't the world champion so they could promote Steinitz, who was a Jew, as the first world champion... There was a huge conspiracy against Paul Morphy... He has no stamp! Paul Morphy has no stamp. This Jewish bitch I Love Lucy. She got a stamp! And nobody compared to Paul Morphy. All kind of Jewish actors, comedians, doctors... but Paul Morphy has never gotten a stamp. Obviously the Jews have an insane hatred toward him.

123. Well, I kind of split my life into two pieces. One was where my chess career lies. There, I kept my sanity, so to speak, and my logic. And the other was my religious life. I tried to apply what I learned in the church to my chess career too. But I still was studying chess. I wasn't just 'trusting in God' to give me the moves.

129. They constantly use the words eccentric, eccentric, eccentric, weird. I am boring. I am boring!

132. His chess technique is nearly a miracle. In their youth, only a few players could handle the endgame so precisely. Only two such players are known to me, Smyslov and Capablanca.

133. I would not like to defend or justify Bobby Fischer. He is what he is. I am asking only for one thing. For mercy, charity. If for some reason it is impossible, I would like to ask you the following: Please correct the mistake of President Francois Mitterrand in 1992. Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess-set.

137. Article on Fischer and links to interviews and other material