Quotes and Sayings about Chess

You know how the game of chess is played. Pieces must be sacrificed!

Orochimaru in Naruto

The only opponents who aren't coming up with excuses for being defeated by me are computers.

Bobby Fischer (World Chess Champion)

Losing & Defeat Excuses

All that matters on the chessboard is good moves.

Bobby Fischer

Chess is life.

Bobby Fischer

Critical thinking is the most important factor with chess. As it is in life, you need to think before you make decisions.

Hikaru Nakamura

Thinking

Chess is a game where all different sorts of people can come together, not a game in which people are divided because of their religion or country of origin.

Hikaru Nakamura

In poker, you want to play the weaker guys. In chess, it's the opposite.

Hikaru Nakamura

Poker

People know three chess players: Magnus, Hikaru and me. That's bad. That's not my fault. And I hope it changes.

GothamChess - Juni 2025

Magnus Carlsen Hikaru Nakamura

What's worth more than a Queen? You are.

GothamChess

Chess is a constant struggle between my desire not to lose and my desire not to think.

Jan Gustafsson

"Checkmate" doesn't mean you've simply cornered the enemy king. It's a declaration that the enemy king is yours.

Sora in No Game No Life

It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to.

Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go

I believe that cheating in chess is a big deal and an existential threat to the game.

Magnus Carlsen - September 2022

Phoenix: "Hey Sova! We're gonna hit the chessboard after this, yeah?"
Sova: "You lack the patience, friend. Learn that first, then we'll approach strategy."

Sova in Valorant

Phoenix: "I should have picked this game."
Cypher: "[playing chess] Winning requires sacrifice. Not really your style."

Cypher in Valorant - Episode 4 Cinematic

I wanted to begin chatting to whoever the chess guy was... oh, it's you? What's your favorite opening? I bet it's not a v*gina.

Tom Cashman

Vaginas

Chess is mental torture.

Garry Kasparov

Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponents mind.

Bobby Fischer

Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport.

Magnus Carlsen

I started by just sitting by the chessboard exploring things. I didn’t even have books at first, and I just played by myself. I learnt a lot from that, and I feel that it is a big reason why I now have a good intuitive understanding of chess.

Magnus Carlsen

The highest art of the chessplayer lies in not allowing your opponent to show you what he can do.

Garry Kasparov

Few things are as mentally brutal as chess.

The Queen's Gambit - Season 1 Episode 5

Mr. Shaibel: "Those things are called openings."
Beth: "Is that one of 'em?"
Mr. Shaibel: "Yeah... the Queen's Gambit."

Mr. Shaibel in The Queen's Gambit - Season 1 Episode 1

Ivana: "Do you know how we keep warm in Russia?"
Austin: "I can guess, baby."
Ivana: "We play chess."
Austin: "I guessed wrong."

Austin Powers in Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me

Russia

You might like these Quotes aswell

Not everything has to make sense. It's totally fine when it's fun.

Meaning Playing

A good player knows how to win the game, a good character knows how to lose it, while smiling.

Character Playing Losing & Defeat

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

George Bernard Shaw

Birthday Age Playing

It's important to have balance in your life between work and play.

Bobby Flay

Work Playing

By playing for one hour, you can get to know someone better, than by talking for a year.

Plato

Playing

The single most important thing in life is to believe in yourself regardless of what everyone else says.

Hikaru Nakamura

What was great about Fischer is that when he became world champion is that chess was being covered everywhere. It was in all the major newspapers, it was on TV.

Hikaru Nakamura

Bobby Fischer

I believe that Niemann has cheated more - and more recently - than he has publicly admitted. His over the board progress has been unusual, and throughout our game in the Sinquefield Cup I had the impression that he wasn't tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions, while outplaying me as black in a way I think only a handful of players can do.

Magnus Carlsen - September 2022

I've withdrawn from the tournament. I've always enjoyed playing in the Saint Louis Chess Club, and hope to be back in the future. If I speak I am in big trouble.

Magnus Carlsen - September 2022

I like the moment when I break a man's ego.

Bobby Fischer

America is totally under control of the Jews, you know. I mean, look what they're doing in Yugoslavia.

Bobby Fischer

Having a dictator rule in Russia is by far the greatest existential threat to humanity.

Garry Kasparov - March 2022

Russia Dictators & Autocrats

For a time, I was all you had. And for a time, you was all I had. We weren't orphans. Not as long as we had each other.

Jolene in The Queen's Gambit - Season 1 Episode 7

There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch.

Nigel Powers in Austin Powers - Goldmember

Funny Quotes Netherlands

It's human nature not to realize the true value of something unless they lose it.

Orochimaru in Naruto

Satisfaction

Sometimes you must hurt in order to know, fall in order to grow, lose in order to gain. Because life's greatest lessons are learned through pain.

Pain / Nagato in Naruto

Life Pain Hurting Falling down

In this world everything is governed by balance. There's what you stand to gain and what you stand to lose. And in this moment they think they have nothing to lose. And when you believe you've got nothing to lose, you're overconfident. We will be the ones that are going to show them just how much they have to lose.

The Professor in Money Heist - Season 3 Episode 3

Losing & Defeat Winning

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded.

Pope Johannes Paul II

Excuses

People spend more time talking than thinking.

Till Lindemann

Thinking Talking

Let the seat back, I'm leanin' all in the Rover
Make a lot of chips, life is a game of poker

Damian Lillard - Money Ball, Album: BIG D.O.L.L.A.

Poker

Accept that because we were born with nothing, we can become anything!

Sora in No Game No Life

Motivation

The natural enemy of the strong is the weak, but the natural enemy of the weak is not the strong - it is the ones that are even weaker.

Sora in No Game No Life

Quotes and Sayings about Chess

You might like these Quotes aswell

Related pages to Chess