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Never before and never since have I seen - and I cannot even imagine, such an amazing rapidity of chess thinking that Capablanca possessed in 1913-14. In blitz games he gave all the St. Petersburg players odds of five minutes to one - and he won.

Alexander Alekhine

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Alexander Alekhine
Age: 53 †
Born: 1892
Born: October 10
Died: 1946
Died: March 24
Chess Player
Chess Theoretician
Jurist
Translator
Writer
Moscow
Russian SFSR
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine
Five
Amazing
Petersburg
Cannot
Gave
Capablanca
Even
Minutes
Rapidity
Never
Player
Blitz
Thinking
Seen
Odds
Imagine
Possessed
Since
Chess
Games
Players

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Chess will always be the master of us all.
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During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk
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The retreat of a minor piece to the back rank, where it cuts the lines of communication between the rooks, is permissable only in exceptional cases.
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I think that for the highest achievements nowadays... need to have the stable as a rock scientific base. And also need to own modesty.
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I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees.
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During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.
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Chess, like other arts, must be practiced to be appreciated.
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Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.
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Capablanca was snatched too early from the chess world. With his death we have lost a great chess genius, the like of whom we will never see again.
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I have had to work long and hard to eradicate the dangerous delusion that, in a bad position, I could always, or nearly always, conjure up some unexpected combination to extricate me from my difficulties.
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In my opinion, a master is morally obliged to seize every sort of opportunity and to try to solve the problems of the position without fear of some simplifications.
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Deux fous gagnent toujours, mais trois fous, non!
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When asked, -How is that you pick better moves than your opponents?, I responded: I'm very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens, there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I make my opponent think up his
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The infallible criterion by which to distinguish the true from the would-be strategist is the degree of originality of his conceptions. It makes little difference whether this originality is carried to excess, as was the case with Steinitz and Nimzowitsch.
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Oh! this opponent, this collaborator against his will, whose notion of Beauty always differs from yours and whose means (strength, imagination, technique) are often too limited to help you effectively! What torment, to have your thinking and your phantasy tied down by another person!
Alexander Alekhine
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Play on both sides of the board is my favourite strategy.
Alexander Alekhine
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The fact that a player is very short of time is to my mind, as little to be considered as an excuse as, for instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was drunk at the time he committed the crime.
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For my victory over Capablanca I am indebted primarily to my superiority in the field of psychology. Capablanca played, relying almost exclusively on his rich intuitive talent. But for the chess struggle nowadays one needs a subtle knowledge of human nature, an understanding of the opponent's psychology.
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I do not play chess – I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I aim to respond to the demands of each given position.
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A lifetime in not enough to learn everything about chess.
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