Chess Sacrifice Quotes

#1. A Queen's sacrifice, even when fairly obvious, always rejoices the heart of the chess-lover.

Savielly Tartakower

#2. Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.

G.H. Hardy

#3. We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature

Rudolf Spielmann

#4. 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

#5. Chess players do not care about the pawns. They sacrifice the least powerful so they can hold on to their power.Your leaders play chess with your lives,but what the world does not yet know is that someone else whispers the moves as they play...

Catherine Linka

#6. The beauty of a game of chess is usually assessed according to the sacrifices it contains.

Rudolf Spielmann

#7. There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine

Mikhail Tal

#8. The middlegame I repeat is chess itself, chess with all its possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc.

Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

#9. It's always better to sacrifice your opponent's men

Savielly Tartakower

#10. Spying is a like a game of chess: Sometimes you have to withdraw, sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your pieces to win - preferably a knight rather than a king or queen.

John Rhys-Davies

#11. This sacrifice of a pawn nowadays is only played for drawing purposes. Especially against the very strongest masters it has proved to be quite useful to this end.

Jan Hein Donner

#12. It is unjust, and sometimes very untrue, though it is a common theory, to hold that it is sacrifices which make the beauty of a combination, and that the combination is prettier by the magnitude of the sacrifices.

Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

#13. Life isn't always like Chess. But sometimes it is. In a really difficult game, queen leaves board at the end. The difference is, you call it sacrifice in Chess.

Heshan Udunuwara

#14. Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine

Mikhail Tal

#15. Nowadays the dynamic element is more important in chess - players more often sacrifice material to obtain dynamic compensation.

Boris Spassky

#16. It is a delight to watch a young and gifted chess player. To him have come no sinister experiences; to him continual carping care is foreign. Therefore he loves the attack and the bold sacrifice; for theirin lies the shortest way to his ultimate objective.

Richard Reti

#17. The art of chess is in knowing which is the most valuable piece in play, then having the courage to sacrifice it for the win.

Thomm Quackenbush

#18. It so often happens that, after sacrificing a pawn, a player aims not to obtain the initiative for it, but to regain sacrificed material.

Efim Geller