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Young players expose themselves to grave risks when they blindly imitate the innovations of masters without themselves first checking all the details and consequences of these innovations.

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
Risk
Graves
Innovations
Player
Consequences
Blindly
Young
Chess
Checking
Firsts
Innovation
Youngsters
Without
Players
Expose
First
Details
Imitate
Consequence
Risks
Masters
Grave

More quotes by Alexander Alekhine

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Play on both sides of the board is my favourite strategy.
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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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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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A lifetime in not enough to learn everything about chess.
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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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Chess, like other arts, must be practiced to be appreciated.
Alexander Alekhine
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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.
Alexander Alekhine
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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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As a rule, so-called positional sacrifices are considered more difficult, and therefore more praise-worthy, than those which are based exclusively on an exact calculation of tactical possibilities.
Alexander Alekhine
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Chess first of all teaches you to be objective.
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Playing for complications is an extreme measure that a player should adopt only when he cannot find a clear and logical plan.
Alexander Alekhine
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You can become a big master in chess only if you see your mistakes and short-comings. Exactly the same as in life itself.
Alexander Alekhine
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I did not believe I was superior to him. Perhaps the chief reason for his defeat was the overestimation of his own powers arising out of his overwhelming victory in New York, 1927, and his underestimation of mine.
Alexander Alekhine
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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.
Alexander Alekhine
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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.
Alexander Alekhine
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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.
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.
Alexander Alekhine
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I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees.
Alexander Alekhine
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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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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.
Alexander Alekhine