Top 36 Steinitz Quotes
#1. 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
#2. Wilhelm Steinitz was the first man to appreciate the inherent logic behind the game of chess.
William Hartston
#3. Once upon a time supporters of the Steinitz-Tarrasch school had a very high opinion of a queen-side pawn majority. Modern strategy on the other hand categorically denies that such a majority is an independent factor of any importance.
Alexander Kotov
#4. The great World Champions Morphy, Steinitz, and Lasker were past masters in the art of Pawn play; they had no superiors in their handling of endgames. The present World Champion has not the strength of the other three as an endgame player, and is therefore inferior to them.
Jose Raul Capablanca
#5. During that year at Harvard learning with Carl Steinitz, I had the feeling that I was drinking knowledge out of a fire hose. I learned more in that year than I had learned in the previous ten years of my education.
Jack Dangermond
#6. Place the contents of the Chess box in a hat, shake them up vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of two feet, and you get the style of Steinitz
Henry Bird
#7. The greatest development after age 21 was shown by Steinitz, who increased his rating by more than a full class interval. Steinitz was the deep student and fierce competitor to the end of his career.
Arpad Elo
#8. Steinitz was a thinker worthy of a seat in the halls of a university. A player, as the world believed he was, he was not; his studious temperament made that impossible; and thus he was conquered by a player and in the end little valued by the world, he died.
Emanuel Lasker
#9. It was Steinitz who was the first to establish the basic principles of general chess strategy. He was a pioneer and one of the most profound researchers into the thruth of the game, which was hidden from his contemporaries.
Jose Raul Capablanca
#10. 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
#11. I think it is widely agreed that Carl Steinitz, over the 50 years he taught at Harvard, has been one of the most important figures in influencing the theory and practice of landscape architecture and the application of computer technology to planning.
Jack Dangermond
#12. The proponents of Steinitz' theory - Tarrasch and his supporters - tried to express Steinitz' teaching in the form of laconic rules, and as often happens in such cases, they went too far. The laconic tended to become dogmatic, and chess began to lose its freshness, originality and charm.
Alexander Kotov
#13. 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
#14. Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of having an evil thought during the game.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#16. I have never in my life played the French Defence, which is the dullest of all openings.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#18. A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#19. Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate but not the first object of the game
Wilhelm Steinitz
#21. Unfortunately, many regard the critic as an enemy, instead of seeing him as a guide to the truth.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#22. I would rather die in America than live in England. I would rather lose a match in America than win one in England. I have come to the conclusion that I neither mean to die soon or to lose the match!
Wilhelm Steinitz
#23. When you have an advantage, you are obliged to attack; otherwise you are endangered to lose the advantage.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#26. I am fully and entirely concentrated on the board. I never even consider my opponent's personality. So far as I am concerned, my opponent might as well be an abstraction or an automaton.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#27. I shall accord to myself the honor of inscribing myself as an applicant for the American citizenship which according to law I can obtain only after five years residence in this country. And I shall yield to no one of my future countrymen in patriotism. I consider America now my real home.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#28. In the ending the king is a powerful piece for assisting his own pawns, or stopping the adverse pawns.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#29. The king pawn and the queen pawn are the only ones to be moved in the early part of the game.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#30. The task of the positional player is systematically to accumulate slight advantages and try to convert temporary advantages into permanent ones, otherwise the player with the better position runs the risk of losing it.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#31. Chess is not for the faint-hearted; it absorbs a person entirely. To get to the bottom of this game, he has to give himself up into slavery. Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#33. I am not a chess historian - I myself am a piece of chess history, which no one can avoid. I will not write about myself, but I am sure that someone will write ...
Wilhelm Steinitz
#35. Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack.
Wilhelm Steinitz
#36. I may be an old lion, but I can still bite someone's hand off if he puts it in my mouth.
Wilhelm Steinitz
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