Viktor Korchnoi Quotes

Its just you and your opponent at the board and you're trying to prove something

I wonder why I keep playing such intelligent people?

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

I used to come out and say I was targeting certain players in the opposition team, particularly players I had had success against in the past: Gary Kirsten, Brian Lara and Michael Atherton, for example. It is a mental part of the game.

In cricket, there is a lot of psychology in the game, especially if you are watching people who are not top-class.

I don't think I put too much pressure on myself.

The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court, and myself.

The worst enemy of the strategist is the clock. Time trouble... Reduces us all to pure reflex and reaction, tactical play. Emotion and instinct cloud our strategic vision when there is no time for proper evaluation.

Capablanca plays very superficially sometimes, in a way that can only be ascribed to lack of concentration. This is an integral weakness of his make-up and can only be partially compensated by his employing his time allowance to the full.

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.

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.

You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic, clumsy and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.

Which means that in order to defeat her, I have to think of a way to defeat myself. And how can I be a better fighter than myself, if she knows the same strategies I know, and is exactly as resourceful and clever as I am?

I've spent so much time making sure I don't underestimate my opponents that I've forgotten it's just as dangerous to overestimate them as well.

I do not play chess – I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I aim to respond to the demands of each given position.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent's.

Golfers are the greatest worriers in the world of sport.

Tennis is a battle of the minds, just as much as it is a battle of playing ability. Trying to expose your opponent's weaknesses is one of the most vital and fascinating facets of tennis.

Our number one opponents are not Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United. It is ourselves at Chelsea.

The more time you have to think things through, the more you have to screw it up.

For my victory over Capablanca I am indebted primarily to my superiority in the field of psychology. Capablanca played, relying almost exclusively on his rich intuitive talent. But for the chess struggle nowadays one needs a subtle knowledge of human nature, an understanding of the opponent's psychology.

The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves.

When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.

Once you play a tournament, you're playing against the golf course, you're playing against yourself and trying to do the best you can.