“If I win a tournament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me”

A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player

Romance is an illusion. Well, romance is not a complete illusion, but it’s ephemeral. It does not last.

Now my only income is a few royalty cheques from my books.

I prepare myself well. I know what I can do before I go in. I’m always confident.

I’ve always been very interested in fashion, but it is extremely important to me that the social and environment issues associated with the production of fashionable clothing are addressed.

I felt that chess… is a science in the form of a game… I consider myself a scientist. I wanted to be treated like a scientist.

People have been playing against me below their strength for fifteen years.

There’s no luck involved in chess. You just have to work at it.

I think it’s almost definite that the game is a draw theoretically.

Nobody has single-handedly done more for the US image than me…

When I won the World Championship in ’72, the United States had an image of, you know, a football country, baseball country, but nobody thought of it as an intellectual country.

I studied that first Karpov-Kasparov match for a year and a half before I cracked it, what they were doing, and discovered that it was all prearranged move-by-move. There’s no doubt of it in my mind.

Genius. It’s a word. What does it really mean? If I win I’m a genius. If I don’t, I’m not.

A piece of garbage like Kasparov might be called a chess genius, but he’s like an idiot savant. Outside of chess he knows nothing.

I want to see the U.S. wiped out. Death to the U.S.

Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact.

In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.

Chess has this in common with making poetry; that the desire for it comes upon the amateur in gusts.

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted.

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted.

There is nothing like chess to keep the brain smart, and give it a workout.

In life, play chess not checkers.

It is impossible to win gracefully at chess.

These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.