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Talking about chess:-
"Chess is not a fixed or static body of knowledge. It is dynamic"
Talking about concentration:-
"The point about concentration is that it is the only way to find something new and unusual at the chessboard, the only way to create surprise with fresh ideas"
Talking about women's concentration:-
"Men are also less affected by what are known in computer language as 'interrupts'. This means, for example, that a women's train of thought can be broken more easily by extraneous events, such as a baby crying upstairs. This is not part of their environmental conditioning, but organic, part of their genetic molecular structure. The effect, in computer terms, is to overload their memory banks with a series of little events to which they are programmed to respond, thereby limiting their powers of concentration"
Talking about memory:-
"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.."
Of experience:-
"Only a few people can understand what this actually means. Before this match, I had only a vague idea myself. There are so many imponderables. The skill is in organising one's forces correctly, finding the critical moment in the game, and then not losing your nerve."
Of character:-
"In fact you could say that all the failures in this match, his as well as mine, can be attributed to character. For my part, I admit to being impulsive. My capacity to remain steady over a long period was, and is, under-developed."
Of FIDE:-
"..FIDE has come to resemble, almost exactly, the United Nations itself. Squabbles, power blocs, international rivalries, lobbying of votes and behind-the-scense intrigues - the whole diplomatic way of life is there."
Of Kortchnoi:-
"There were thirty-two years between us, which gave me a great advantage in creative energy, but the old fox still knew many chess tricks..."
Of Kortchnoi Karpov match
"He (referring to Karpov) had arranged for top soviet grandmasters to help with his preparation. we must all provide him with information about our openings and variations, all our professional secrets. It was made clear that this was our patriotic duty to the Motherland, for the traitor must be destroyed. Many grandmasters duly obliged and submitted to this official harassment."
Of Karpov:-
"We are players of totally different chess tendencies. Karpov's purely competitive approach is based on a deep knowledge and understanding of his favourite set-ups, as well as on the maximal exploitation of the minimal resources in a position. I opposed this with a continual creative search, exploring the unlimited possibilities of chess."
Of Olympiads:-
"The sight of an Olympaid never fails to excite me. All those people from all those countries- some very rich, some very poor, some Communist, some capatilist - but all sharing a common enthusiasm for chess... At first sight it seems to offer a perfect example of how the people of the world can compete with each other in amity and peace. Then all the bickering starts ..."
Of fate:-
"I have always felt that some people are fated to become world champions and some people are not. If you are destined to become world champion, you will. if not, like Bronstein, Larsen and Kortchnoi, then that's destiny too."
Of Fischer's victories:-
"Fischer's victories brought problems for many people in the Soviet camp, because it was thought there had been failures of training or discipline that should be corrected. No one could accept that it was simply Fischer's genius that was causing the trouble."
Of Fischer's will to win
"People fondly remember the days of Bobby Fischer and say he played to win everything. Karpov wants to win only as much as he needs to. I belong somewhere in the middle. Deep down I am a maximalist too. But I haven't got Fischer's decisiveness to the same degree. Of course I regret that, but it can't be helped. I have other qualities that maybe Fischer lacked.."
A Barnet chess club production
