"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." -- Paul Morphy

"A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise." -- George Steiner

"A game, the philosopher Bernard Suits wrote, is 'the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.' It is one thing to shove a fistful of chess pieces across the board to surround the enemy king. It is quite another to get them there in accordance with the ancient game's intricate rules, and while your grandmaster opponent tries to do the same." -- Oliver Roeder

"The impression of chess as an art connected me forever with the game. I wanted to get into chess, to understand its laws, its secrets." -- Yuri Averbakh