Emanuel Lasker Quotes

When you see a good move, look for a better one.

Education in Chess has to be an education in independent thinking and judging. Chess must not be memorized.

The hardest game to win is a won game

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in the checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.

Without error there can be no brilliancy

I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake.

By some ardent enthusiasts Chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither; but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight.

The laws of chess do not permit a free choice: you have to move whether you like it or not.

The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind

I have added these principles to the law: get the Knights into action before both Bishops are developed

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long

I have known many chess players, but among them there has been only one genius - Capablanca!

The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'.

To find the right plan is just as hard as looking for its sound justification.

To refer to the oft mooted question, "Which piece is stronger, the Bishop or the Knight?" it is clear that the value of the Bishop undergoes greater changes than that of the Knight.

By positional play a master tries to prove and exploit true values, whereas by combinations he seeks to refute false values ... A combination produces an unexpected re-assessment of values.

Loss generally occurs when a player overrates his advantage or for other reasons seeks to derive from a minute advantage a great return such as a forced win.

Chess is, above all, a fight.

A chess game, after all, is a fight in which all possible factors must be made use of, and in which a knowledge of the opponent's good and bad qualities is of the greatest importance.

An advantage could consist not only in a single important advantage but also in a multitude of insignificant advantages.

Vanity should never tempt a player to engage in a combat at the risk of loss of health. It is bad enough to lose without the additional annoyance of paying doctors' bills.

Without error, there is no brilliancy.

In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated.

The attack is that process by means of which you remove obstructions.

Chess is neither a science nor an art. It is what human nature most delights in--a fight.

Our efforts in chess attain only a hundredth of one percent of their rightful result... Our education, in all domains of endeavour, is frightfully wasteful of time and values.

I believe in magic ... There is magic in the creative faculty such as great poets and philosophers conspicuously possess, and equally in the creative chessmaster.

The intelligent perusal of fine games cannot fail to make the reader a better player and a better judge of the play of others.

Show me three variations in the leading handbook on the openings, and I will show you two of those three that are defective.

Show me three lines of the opening theory moves and I will prove to you that two of them are incorrect.