Top 42 Alekhine's Quotes
#1. I can comprehend Alekhine's combinations well enough; but where he gets his attacking chances from and how he infuses such life into the very opening - that is beyond me.
Rudolf Spielmann
#2. Alekhine's real genius is in the preparation and construction of a position, long before combinations or mating attacks come into consideration at all.
Max Euwe
#3. When I was a child I liked the games of Capablanca, and later I was captivated by Alekhine's play.
Vladimir Kramnik
#4. I see my own style as being a symbiosis of the styles of Alekhine, Tal and Fischer.
Garry Kasparov
#6. Alekhine evidently possesses the most remarkable chess memory that has ever existed. It is said that he remembers by heart all the games played by the leading masters during the last 15-20 years.
Jose Raul Capablanca
#7. If you have seen one Alekhine game you've seen them all.
Bobby Fischer
#8. Oh! this opponent, this collaborator against your will, whose notion of beauty always differs from yours and whose means are often too limited for active assistance to your intentions!
Alexander Alekhine
#9. You can become a big master in chess only if you see your mistakes and short-comings. Exactly the same as in life itself.
Alexander Alekhine
#10. The purpose of human life and the sense of happiness is to give the maximum what the man is able to give.
Alexander Alekhine
#12. Capablanca was snatched too early from the chess world. With his death we have lost a great chess genius, the like of whom we will never see again.
Alexander Alekhine
#14. I did not believe I was superior to him. Perhaps the chief reason for his defeat was the overestimation of his own powers arising out of his overwhelming victory in New York, 1927, and his underestimation of mine.
Alexander Alekhine
#16. Chess for me is not a game, but an art. Yes, and I take upon myself all those responsibilities which an art imposes on its adherents.
Alexander Alekhine
#17. I believe that true beauty of chess is more than enough to satisfy all possible demands.
Alexander Alekhine
#18. I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees.
Alexander Alekhine
#19. Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art out of something that would hardly inspire another man to send home a picture post card
Max Euwe
#20. As a rule, so-called "positional" sacrifices are considered more difficult, and therefore more praise-worthy, than those which are based exclusively on an exact calculation of tactical possibilities.
Alexander Alekhine
#21. I think that for the highest achievements nowadays ... need to have the stable as a rock scientific base. And also need to own modesty.
Alexander Alekhine
#22. Never before and never since have I seen - and I cannot even imagine, such an amazing rapidity of chess thinking that Capablanca possessed in 1913-14. In blitz games he gave all the St. Petersburg players odds of five minutes to one - and he won.
Alexander Alekhine
#23. I have had to work long and hard to eradicate the dangerous delusion that, in a bad position, I could always, or nearly always, conjure up some unexpected combination to extricate me from my difficulties.
Alexander Alekhine
#24. That which Steinitz gave to the theoretical aspect of the game when he was at his best is very remote to all out home-bred chess philosophers, but with his views on Morphy, whom he tries to discredit completely, it is of course impossible to agree.
Alexander Alekhine
#26. The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my mind, as little to be considered an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime.
Alexander Alekhine
#27. Play the move that forces the win in the simplest way. Leave the brilliancies to Alekhine, Keres and Tal.
Irving Chernev
#28. Alekhine developed as a player much more slowly than most. In his twenties, he was an atrocious chessplayer, and didn't mature until he was well into his thirties.
Bobby Fischer
#29. In my opinion, a master is morally obliged to seize every sort of opportunity and to try to solve the problems of the position without fear of some simplifications.
Alexander Alekhine
#31. During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk
Alexander Alekhine
#33. Playing for complications is an extreme measure that a player should adopt only when he cannot find a clear and logical plan.
Alexander Alekhine
#34. Botvinnik's right! When he says such things, then he's right. Usually, I prefer not to study chess but to play it. For me chess is more an art than a science. It's been said that Alekhine and I played similar chess, except that he studied more. Yes, perhaps, but I have to say that he played, too.
Mikhail Tal
#35. The infallible criterion by which to distinguish the true from the would-be strategist is the degree of originality of his conceptions. It makes little difference whether this originality is carried to excess, as was the case with Steinitz and Nimzowitsch.
Alexander Alekhine
#37. When asked, -How is that you pick better moves than your opponents?, I responded: I'm very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens, there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I make my opponent think up his
Alexander Alekhine
#38. The retreat of a minor piece to the back rank, where it cuts the lines of communication between the rooks, is permissable only in exceptional cases.
Alexander Alekhine
#39. It would be idle, and presumptuous, to wish to imitate the achievements of a Morphy or an Alekhine; but their methods and their manner of expressing themselves are within the reach of all.
Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
#41. During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.
Alexander Alekhine
#42. Young players expose themselves to grave risks when they blindly imitate the innovations of masters without themselves first checking all the details and consequences of these innovations.
Alexander Alekhine
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
