Bobby Fischer Quotes And Sayings

by allinspiration.com

“If I win a tournament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me. I win the tournament myself, with my own talent.” – New York, 1959″
– Bobby Fischer

“If Spassky were not a Russian citizen, we’d probably be friends.” – Reykjavik 1972″
– Bobby Fischer

“In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory.” – radio interview, 2006″
– Bobby Fischer

“In this tournament, I am the youngest, but also the strongest! I want to take first place.” – Buenos Aires 1960 (Fischer tied for 13th-16th place)”
– Bobby Fischer

Morphy and Capablanca had enormous talent, they are two of my favorites. 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. – radio interview, 2006
– Bobby Fischer

“People have been calling me arrogant for many years, but lately they haven’t been calling me arrogant. Why? Because I have been winning all these matches and doing what I have always said I was.” – 60 Minutes interview April, 1972″
– Bobby Fischer

“Someday computers will make us all obsolete.” – said to Larry Evans 1975″
– Bobby Fischer

“The guys who reach the top are the ones who keep at it and have the character. They don’t get distracted by other things in life until they’ve got the title. – Dick Cavett interview 1971″
– Bobby Fischer

“The reason that I did not play [in the U.S. championship] last year and will not play this year is the same – the tournament is too short. I feel the tournament should be 22 rounds as it is in the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania, and other East European countries where chess is taken seriously, rather than 11 rounds that the present U.S. Championship is.” – letter to Ed Edmondson, 1969″
– Bobby Fischer

“The Russians are really going to be in for it when I win the title” – 1971″
– Bobby Fischer

“The system set up by FIDE insures that there will always be a Russian world champion because only a Russian can win the preliminary tournament that determines the challenger. The Russians arranged it that way. I will never again play in one of these tournaments.” Sports Illustrated, August 20, 1962″
– Bobby Fischer

“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 all and still beat.” – Ginzburg interview, Harper’s Magazine 1962″
– Bobby Fischer

“Throughout my career I have always insisted on optimal conditions for my participation in chess competitions. I will not compromise on this principle for the 1975 world championship match.” – Fischer’s cable to FIDE, Pasadena, 1974″
– Bobby Fischer

“When I was eleven, I just got good.” – New York, 1957″
– Bobby Fischer

“When I first started playing chess, for me, the Russians were heroes.”
– Bobby Fischer

“You can only get good at chess if you love the game.”
– Bobby Fischer

“A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best contemporary players, he would come out the loser, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today …”
– Bobby Fischer

“A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great chess player.”
– Bobby Fischer

“After his trip to Havana to play chess, Fischer said, The Cubans seem to take chess more seriously. They feel more the way I do about chess. Chess is like fighting, and I like to win. So do they.” – New York, 1956″
– Bobby Fischer

“After winning the 1957-58 U.S. Championship, a reporter asked Fischer if he was the best player in the United States. Fischer responded, No. One tournament doesn’t mean that much. Maybe Reshevsky is better.” – New York, 1958″
– Bobby Fischer

“Alekhine developed as a player much more slowly than most. In his twenties, he was an atrocious chess player, and didn’t mature until he was well into his thirties.”
– Bobby Fischer

“Alekhine is a player I’ve never really understood. He always wanted a superior centre; he maneuvered his pieces toward the kingside, and around the 25th move, began to mate his opponent. He disliked exchanges, preferring to play with many pieces on the board. His play was fantastically complicated, more so than any player before or since.”
– Bobby Fischer

“All I ever want to do is just play chess.”
– Bobby Fischer

“All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.”
– Bobby Fischer

“America is totally under control of the Jews, you know. I mean, look what they’re doing in Yugoslavia.”
– Bobby Fischer

“Americans really don’t know much about chess. But I think when I beat Spassky, that Americans will take a greater interest in chess. Americans like winners.”
– Bobby Fischer

“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. He wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative.”
– Bobby Fischer

“Chess demands total concentration.”
– Bobby Fischer

“Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck.”
– Bobby Fischer

“Chess is life.”
– Bobby Fischer

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