By what right does White, in an absolutely even position, such as after move one, when both sides have advanced 1. e4, sacrifice a pawn, whose recapture is quite uncertain, and open up his kingside to attack? And then follow up this policy by leaving the check of the black queen open? None whatever!

Emanuel Lasker

Categorized in : Moving Queens Sacrifice

When you see a good move, look for a better one.

Emanuel Lasker

inspirational sports moving

Education in Chess has to be an education in independent thinking and judging. Chess must not be memorized.

Emanuel Lasker

independent judging thinking

The hardest game to win is a won game

Emanuel Lasker

games winning success

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in the checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.

Emanuel Lasker

hypocrisy hypocrite lying

Without error there can be no brilliancy

Emanuel Lasker

errors chess beauty

In mathematics, if I find a new approach to a problem, another mathematician might claim that he has a better, more elegant solution. In chess, if anybody claims he is better than I, I can checkmate him.

Emanuel Lasker

problem chess might

He who wants to educate himself in Chess must evade what is dead in Chess... the habit of playing with inferior opponents; the custom of avoiding difficult tasks; the weakness of uncritically taking over variations or rules discovered by others; the vanity which is self-sufficient; the incapacity for admitting mistakes; in brief, everything that leas to standstill or to anarchy.

Emanuel Lasker

vanity self mistake

Having spent 200 hours on the above, the young player, even if he possesses no special talent for chess, is likely to be among those two or three thousand chessplayers [who play on a par with a master]. There are, however, a quarter of a million chessplayers who annually spend no fewer than 200 hours on chess without making any progress. Without going into any further calculations, I can assert with a high degree of certainty that nowadays we achieve only a fraction of what we are capable of achieving.

Emanuel Lasker

player special two

Of my fifty-seven years I have applied at least thirty to forgetting most of what I have learned or read. Since then, I have acquired a certain ease and cheer which I should never again like to be without. (...) I have stored little in my memory, but I can apply that little, and it is of use in many and varied emergencies. I keep it in order, but resist every attempt to increase its dead weight.

Emanuel Lasker

cheer memories order

By some ardent enthusiasts Chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither; but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight.

Emanuel Lasker

delight fighting art

By positional play a master tries to prove and exploit true values, whereas by combinations he seeks to refute false values ... A combination produces an unexpected re-assessment of values.

Emanuel Lasker

assessment play trying

The most intelligent inspection of any number of fine paintings will not make the observer a painter, nor will listening to a number of operas make the hearer a musician, but good judges of music and painting may so be formed. Chess differs from these. The intelligent perusal of fine games cannot fail to make the reader a better player and a better judge of the play of others.

Emanuel Lasker

learning intelligent player

I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake.

Emanuel Lasker

fighting mistake long

The laws of chess do not permit a free choice: you have to move whether you like it or not.

Emanuel Lasker

choices law moving

The combination player thinks forward; he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind

Emanuel Lasker

player moving thinking

The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'.

Emanuel Lasker

player games giving

He who has a slight disadvantage plays more attentively, inventively and more boldly than his antagonist who either takes it easy or aspires after too much. Thus a slight disadvantage is very frequently seen to convert into a good, solid advantage.

Emanuel Lasker

psychology too-much play

I have known many chess players, but among them there has been only one genius - Capablanca!

Emanuel Lasker

genius player chess

A chess game, after all, is a fight in which all possible factors must be made use of, and in which a knowledge of the opponent's good and bad qualities is of the greatest importance.

Emanuel Lasker

chess-game fighting games

Chess is, above all, a fight.

Emanuel Lasker

fighting chess