Mikhail Tal Quotes
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For pleasure you can read the games collections of Andersson and Chigorin, but for benefit you should study Tarrasch, Keres and Bronstein.
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It's funny, but many people don't understand why I draw so many games nowadays. They think my style must have changed but this is not the case at all. The answer to this drawing disease is that my favorite squares are e6, f7, g7 and h7 and everyone now knows this. They protect these squares not once but four times!
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First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns.
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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.
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Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens.
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The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it.
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I'd like to always be romantic in chess. Sadly, this doesn't always work like that.
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Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without ant errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless.
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Planning anything is hopeless.
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Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.
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Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight!
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Many Chess players were surprised when after the game, Fischer quietly explained: 'I had already analyzed this possibility' in a position which I thought was not possible to foresee from the opening
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I will not hide the fact that I love to hear the spectators react after a sacrifice of a piece or pawn. I don't think that there is anything bad in such a feeling; no artist or musician is indifferent to the reactions of the public.
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I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind.
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I believe most definitely that one must not only grapple with the problems on the board, one must also make every effort to combat the thoughts and will of the opponent.
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I have always thought it a matter of honour for every chess player to deserve the smile of fortune.
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To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess.
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It is difficult to play against Einstein's theory -on his first loss to Fischer
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Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine
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I can take care of myself! But the "external barriers", my opponents, do indeed concern me.
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Without technique it is impossible to reach the top in chess, and therefore we all try to borrow from Capablanca his wonderful, subtle technique.
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There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine
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Just as one's imagination is stirred by a girl's smile, so is one's imagination stirred by the possibilities of chess.
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Playing in your home city is very special. You feel the support and attention. When everything goes well, it's very great, but when it doesn't, you might as well turn off your phone: the advices seem endless.
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As long as my opponent has not yet castled, on each move I seek a pretext for an offensive. Even when I realize that the king is not in danger.
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I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player.
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When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our game, he replied: 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!'
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If (Black) is going for victory, he is practically forced to allow his opponent to get some kind of well-known positional advantage.
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If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring.
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You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one
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