Alexander Alekhine Quotes

During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk

Chess demands total concentration

Those who think that it is easy to play chess are mistaken. During a game a player lives on his nerves, and at the same time he must be perfectly composed.

Chess is a matter of daily training.

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life

Chess is a cold bath for the mind

All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him.

I didn't have the same fitness or ability as the other girls, so I had to beat them with my mind.

Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people.

Tennis is mostly mental. Of course, you must have a lot of physical skill, but you can't play tennis well and not be a good thinker. You win or lose the match before you even go out there.

Half this game is 90 percent mental.

I think the biggest part of my game that's underestimated is the mental part of it.

I think the game is so mental. If you sit around and you're mentally strong, you're ready.

I know if I want to have a chance to beat the top players, I need to be mentally ready for that.

The battle to win - on the pitch and in the boardroom - begins and ends in one's head.

I learned very early on once I started boxing as a kid that if you go into the ring emotionally charged you make mistakes. It's a mental game, it's a chess match, you've got to think, you've got to strategise and make tactical decisions.

The more mental strength you have, the better. If you look at some of the best players that we have seen over the years and that I have been playing with, mentally they are the best competitors as well, something I have worked hard on.

Few things are as psychologically brutal as chess.

How do you beat Bobby Fischer? You play him at any game but chess. I try to stay in games where I have an edge.

Chess will always be the master of us all.

Ultimately, what separates a Winner from a Loser at the Grandmaster level is the Willingness to do the Unthinkable.

If you don't have a viable strategy, you will be defeated by someone who does.

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

We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat!

A grandmaster needs to retain thousands of games in his head, for games are to him what the words of their mother tongue are to ordinary people, or notes or scores to musicians.