Garry Kasparov Quotes

#1. Nervous energy is the ammunition we take into any mental battle. If you don't have enough of it, your concentration will fade. If you have a surplus, the results will explode.

Garry Kasparov

#2. One does not succeed by sticking to convention.

Garry Kasparov

#3. Chess is one of the few arts where composition takes place simultaneously with performance

Garry Kasparov

#4. All women are inferior to men.

Garry Kasparov

#5. It's not enough to be talented. It's not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions.

Garry Kasparov

#6. Few things are as psychologically brutal as chess.

Garry Kasparov

#7. The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.

Garry Kasparov

#8. To my surprise I found that when other top players in the precomputer age (before 1995, roughly) wrote about games in magazines and newspaper columns, they often made more mistakes in their annotations than the players had made at the board.

Garry Kasparov

#9. I would like to travel to my country again, to a country without a dictatorship, to a post-Putin Russia.

Garry Kasparov

#10. Attackers may sometimes regret bad moves, but it is much worse to forever regret an opportunity you allowed to pass you by.

Garry Kasparov

#11. Chess is far too complex to be definitively solved with any technology we can conceive of today. However, our looked-down-upon cousin, checkers, or draughts, suffered this fate quite recently thanks to the work of Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta and his unbeatable program Chinook.

Garry Kasparov

#12. [Vladimir] Putin needs wars to legitimize his position.

Garry Kasparov

#13. I now have Croatian citizenship, but I only accepted it because Croatia allowed me to keep my Russian passport.

Garry Kasparov

#14. History does not end; it runs in cycles. The failure to defend Ukraine today is the failure of the Allies to defend Czechoslovakia in 1938. The world must act now so that Poland in 2015 will not be called on to play the role of Poland in 1939.

Garry Kasparov

#15. The regime is in trouble economically and can no longer offer anything to its citizens. That's why [Vladimir] Putin has to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, so he can serve his people the fairy tale of Russian pride and regaining its strength as a major power.

Garry Kasparov

#16. Thanks to the Polgars the adjective 'men's' before events and the 'affirmative action' women's titles such as Woman Grandmaster have become anachronisms.

Garry Kasparov

#17. The Putin regime is and always has been about one thing: money. Specifically, about how to move it into the bank accounts of Putin's

Garry Kasparov

#18. I wouldn't overestimate the importance of my popularity in the country and abroad but at the end of the day it's not as important because I believe that my presence here could make some difference and it could encourage people.

Garry Kasparov

#19. The Western rhetoric of appeasement creates a self-reinforcing loop of mental and moral corruption. Speaking the truth now would mean confessing to many months of lies

Garry Kasparov

#20. Capablanca possessed an amazing ability to quickly see into a position and intuitively grasp its main features. His style, one of the purest, most crystal-clear in the entire history of chess, astonishes one with his logic.

Garry Kasparov

#21. In chess the rules are fixed and the outcome is unpredictable, whereas in Putin's Russia the rules are unpredictable and the outcome is fixed.

Garry Kasparov

#22. A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough.

Garry Kasparov

#23. Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be.

Garry Kasparov

#24. Do as little as necessary to appear to be doing something without actually committing to a cause or course of action.

Garry Kasparov

#25. I'm still number one and I just recently won a major tournament ahead of my toughest rivals so I think I had a few years ahead of me if I decided to stay.

Garry Kasparov

#26. Chess continues to advance over time, so the players of the future will inevitably surpass me in the quality of their play, assuming the rules and regulations allow them to play serious chess. But it will likely be a long time before anyone spends 20 consecutive years as number, one as I did.

Garry Kasparov

#27. I've met enough KGB colonels in my life.

Garry Kasparov

#28. The public must come to see that chess is a violent sport. Chess is mental torture.

Garry Kasparov

#29. His teaching became a turning point in chess history: it was from Steinitz that the era of modern chess began. The contribution of the first world champion to its development is comparable with the great scientific discoveries of the 19th century.

Garry Kasparov

#30. In conclusion, if you want to unravel the multitude of secrets of chess then don't begrudge the time.

Garry Kasparov

#31. Though I would have liked my chances in a rematch in 1998 if I were better prepared, it was clear then that computer superiority over humans in chess had always been just a matter of time.

Garry Kasparov

#32. By strictly observing Botvinnik's rule regarding the thorough analysis of one's own games, with the years I have come to realize that this provides the foundation for the continuous development of chess mastery.

Garry Kasparov

#33. If you're already in a fight, you want the first blow to be the last and you had better be the one to throw it.

Garry Kasparov

#34. Chess is not dominoes

Garry Kasparov

#35. Chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing.

Garry Kasparov

#36. There are fixed rules in chess, and no one knows how the game will end.

Garry Kasparov

#37. I'm not paranoid, but I am cautious. I don't drink tea with strangers, I don't fly Aeroflot and I avoid certain countries with close ties to Russia.

Garry Kasparov

#38. I started playing chess when I was five years old. I learned the moves from my mother, then worked with my father - and later trainers. My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I'd forget about my other pieces.

Garry Kasparov

#39. The real political life in Russia unfortunately is not in the parliament but on the streets and in the media.

Garry Kasparov

#40. It was not about losing my mental power; it's about not feeling good about my contribution to the game.

Garry Kasparov

#41. The loss of my childhood was the price for becoming the youngest world champion in history. When you have to fight every day from a young age, your soul can be contaminated. I lost my childhood. I never really had it. I have to be careful not to become cruel, because I became a soldier too early.

Garry Kasparov

#42. It's quite difficult for me to imagine my life without chess.

Garry Kasparov

#43. A championship contender in the early twentieth century needed charisma and a knack for cultivating sponsorship, and Rubinstein was the epitome of the shy and unsocial chess player. Now matter how great his chess skills, he lacked the people skills to be a self-promoter and fund-raiser.

Garry Kasparov

#44. You cannot say, 'Go! Go! Rah! Rah! Good move!' People want some emotion. Chess is an art and not a spectator sport.

Garry Kasparov

#45. I learned that fighting on the chess board could also have an impact on the political climate in the country.

Garry Kasparov

#46. It is not what a government does with data that defines it; it is what it does to human beings. Any

Garry Kasparov

#47. You can't overestimate the importance of psychology in chess, and as much as some players try to downplay it, I believe that winning requires a constant and strong psychology not just at the board but in every aspect of your life.

Garry Kasparov

#48. Russia was allowed to inherit the Soviet Union's seat on the UN Security Council when that organization, which had been designed to preserve the Cold War status quo, should instead have been reformed to reflect the new primacy of the free world.

Garry Kasparov

#49. Repression may begin as a means to an end, but it always ends up being an end unto itself

Garry Kasparov

#50. All that now seems to stand between Nigel and the prospect of the world crown is the unfortunate fact that fate brought him into this world only two years after Kasparov.

Garry Kasparov

#51. Democracies get the leaders they deserve, as

Garry Kasparov

#52. Dictators seem to learn from history much better than democrats

Garry Kasparov

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

Garry Kasparov

#54. Vladimir Putin mainly has friends in Europe among the extreme right, such as Marine Le Pen's Front National in France.

Garry Kasparov

#55. The highest Art of the Chess player lies in not allowing your Opponent to show you what he can do.

Garry Kasparov

#56. The most hopeful approach to peace in Ukraine is the Minsk Agreement, which includes Moscow.

Garry Kasparov

#57. I certainly want to be involved in politics and help shape the transition. I am in contact with regime critics who had to leave for the West. One of them is Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former businessman, who had to endure 10 years in a prison camp.

Garry Kasparov

#58. I want to serve chess through games, books that are works of art. I would like to bring the game closer to many people all over the world.

Garry Kasparov

#59. 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..

Garry Kasparov

#60. The ability to work hard for days on end without losing focus is a talent. The ability to keep absorbing new information after many hours of study is a talent.

Garry Kasparov

#61. I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy.

Garry Kasparov

#62. When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method.

Garry Kasparov

#63. 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.

Garry Kasparov

#64. I think that it's a vital moment now for Russian democracy to convince people that it's only our actions, our joined actions and protests that could force Kremlin to reconsider its plans to abolish presidential elections.

Garry Kasparov

#65. I organize a chess festival in Hungary. I support chess in schools, and I have my own chess foundation. And I started writing books.

Garry Kasparov

#66. Results show that just one year of chess tuition will improve a student's learning abilities, concentration, application, sense of logic, self-discipline, respect, behavior and the ability to take responsibility for his/her own actions.

Garry Kasparov

#67. The legend of the best player of chess has been destroyed.

Garry Kasparov

#68. Things are currently the other way around in [Vladimir] Putin's realm. But it won't stay that way forever.

Garry Kasparov

#69. With this mistake I deprived myself of the possibility to make a contribution to the treasury of chess art.

Garry Kasparov

#70. If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.

Garry Kasparov

#71. Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are then refined and improved by experience.

Garry Kasparov

#72. Enormous self-belief, intuition, the ability to take a risk at a critical moment and go in for a very dangerous play with counter-chances for the opponent - it is precisely these qualities that distinguish great players.

Garry Kasparov

#73. Perfectly correct chess exists only in theory.

Garry Kasparov

#74. A moral foreign policy means your positions on certain matters are clear no matter what, and that you won't forget about them when it's convenient.

Garry Kasparov

#75. Chess is life in miniature. Chess is struggle, chess is battles

Garry Kasparov

#76. Vladimir Putin uses fascist propaganda to do so. From Ukraine to Syria, he is behaving like the world's new general and celebrating victories, while the American president sits on the sidelines and Europe sleeps. The West's behavior toward Putin is political and moral capitulation.

Garry Kasparov

#77. There is no doubt that Putin is responsible for this crime, whether or not he gave the order to commit the murder [of Boris Nemtsov] himself. Putin created the conditions and atmosphere that have made this kind of thing possible.

Garry Kasparov

#78. I feel that my chess strengths are still here, .. I believe I can still improve.

Garry Kasparov

#79. Weaknesses of character are normally shown in a game of chess.

Garry Kasparov

#80. Putin is like Al Capone.

Garry Kasparov

#81. The stock market and the gridiron and the battlefield aren't as tidy as the chessboard, but in all of them, a single, simple rule holds true: make good decisions and you'll succeed; make bad ones and you'll fail.

Garry Kasparov

#82. We think about time as something not to waste, not as something to invest.

Garry Kasparov

#83. the gravity of past success.

Garry Kasparov

#84. I try to play, always, beautiful games ... always I wanted to create masterpieces.

Garry Kasparov

#85. There are many facts showing that Putin's people enriched themselves by using power mechanisms so that's why for them losing power means losing their fortunes.

Garry Kasparov

#86. Next to the intellectual stimulation of chess, the educational value is of great importance. Chess teaches logic, imagination, self-discipline, and determination.

Garry Kasparov

#87. Throughout my chess career I sought out new challenges, looking for things no one had done before.

Garry Kasparov

#88. At the end of the day, it's all about money.

Garry Kasparov

#89. I dropped the King's Indian in 1997 after one too many bad experiences against Kramnik.

Garry Kasparov

#90. I am lucky, .. that the popular sport in the Soviet Union was chess and not baseball.

Garry Kasparov

#91. Ukraine had quite serious impact on the many Russians. They could see that ordinary people in Ukraine which is a bordering state, very close to Russia, the people of this state are, they didn't want to tolerate anymore the power abuse by Ukrainian officials.

Garry Kasparov

#92. Russia is a mafia state today, and Putin is its top godfather.

Garry Kasparov

#93. By the time a player becomes a Grandmaster, almost all of his training time is dedicated to work on this first phase. The opening is the only phase that holds out the potential for true creativity and doing something entirely new.

Garry Kasparov

#94. Russian Parliament today is a bunch of puppets that just fall in with the instructions from Kremlin.

Garry Kasparov

#95. Losing can persuade you to change what doesn't need to be changed, and winning can convince you everything is fine even if you are on the brink of disaster.

Garry Kasparov

#96. It is foolish to let down our defenses against an attack simply because we will be in the moral right should that attack come.

Garry Kasparov

#97. Setbacks and losses are both inevitable and essential if you're going to improve and become a good, even great, competitor. The art is in avoiding catastrophic losses in the key battles.

Garry Kasparov

#98. But evil does not die, just as history does not end. Like a weed, evil can be cut back but never entirely uprooted. It waits for its chance to spread through the cracks in our vigilance. It can take root in the fertile soil of our complacency, or even the rocky rubble of the fallen Berlin Wall.

Garry Kasparov

#99. I may play some exhibition games so I don't want to quit the game of chess completely. I just decided and it's a firm decision not to play competitive chess anymore.

Garry Kasparov

#100. I like to say that the attacker always has the advantage.

Garry Kasparov