Siegbert Tarrasch

"Ich habe ein leises Gefühl des Bedauerns für jeden, der das Schachspiel nicht kennt, ungefähr so, wie ich jeden bedaure, der die Liebe nicht kennengelernt hat. Das Schach hat wie die Liebe, wie die Musik die Fähigkeit, den Menschen glücklich zu machen."

"Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."

"Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness, therein lies, its peculiar charm. Intellectual productiveness is one of the greatest joys -if not the greatest one- of human existence. It is not everyone who can write a play, or build a bridge, or even make a good joke. But in chess everyone can, everyone must, be intellectually productive and so can share in this select delight. I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of chess, just as I would pity for the man who has no knowledge of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy."

"The rooks belong behind passed pawns, behind their own in order to support their advance, behind the enemy's in order to impede their advance."

"Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player."

"To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game."

"He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess."

"Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game."

"Many have become Chess Masters, no one has become the Master of Chess."

"In tournaments it is not enough to be a connoisseur of chess; one must also play well."

"Up to this point White has been following well-known analysis, but now he makes a fatal error - he begins to use his own head."

"The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it."

"From Anderssen I learned the art of making combinations; from Tarrasch I learned how advantageously to avoid making them."