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

Emanuel Lasker

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Emanuel Lasker
Age: 72 †
Born: 1868
Born: December 24
Died: 1941
Died: January 11
Bridge Player
Chess Composer
Chess Player
Mathematician
Philosopher
Move
Choices
Law
Whether
Free
Permit
Moving
Chess
Like
Laws
Choice

More quotes by Emanuel Lasker

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In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated.
Emanuel Lasker
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The range of circumstances in which it is possible to presuppose the presence of a combination is very limited. The presence of such circumstances is the reason for the genesis of the idea in the master's brain.
Emanuel Lasker
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... in itself the title of world champion does not give any significicant advantages, if it is not acknowledged by the entire chess world, and a champion who does not have the chess world behind him is, in my view, a laughing-stock.
Emanuel Lasker
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I believe in magic ... There is magic in the creative faculty such as great poets and philosophers conspicuously possess, and equally in the creative chessmaster.
Emanuel Lasker
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Show me three lines of the opening theory moves and I will prove to you that two of them are incorrect.
Emanuel Lasker
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If Steinitz continually took pains to discover combinations, the success or failure of his diligent search could not be explained by him as due to chance. Hence, he concluded that some characteristic, a quality of the given position, must exist that would indicate the success or the failure of the search before it was actually undertaken.
Emanuel Lasker
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Chess is, above all, a fight.
Emanuel Lasker
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I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake.
Emanuel Lasker
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On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long
Emanuel Lasker
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The combination player thinks forward he starts from the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind
Emanuel Lasker
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Loss generally occurs when a player overrates his advantage or for other reasons seeks to derive from a minute advantage a great return such as a forced win.
Emanuel Lasker
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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
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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
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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
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Truth derives its strength not so much from itself as from the brilliant contrast it makes with what is only apparently true. This applies especially to Chess, where it is often found that the profoundest moves do not much startle the imagination.
Emanuel Lasker
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Do not permit yourself to fall in love with the end-game play to the exclusion of entire games. It is well to have the whole story of how it happened the complete play, not the denouement only. Do not embrace the rag-time and vaudeville of chess.
Emanuel Lasker
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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
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When you see a good move, look for a better one.
Emanuel Lasker
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To refer to the oft mooted question, Which piece is stronger, the Bishop or the Knight? it is clear that the value of the Bishop undergoes greater changes than that of the Knight.
Emanuel Lasker
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An advantage could consist not only in a single important advantage but also in a multitude of insignificant advantages.
Emanuel Lasker