"Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I [...] assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chess
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Chess
40 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Chess →
Related Quotes
"Chess is so characteristic a product of the legacy of Islam that it deserves more than a passing mention. Modern Euro…"
"It is an abomination to play at chess, dice, or any other game, for if anything be staked it is gambling (maisir), wh…"
"Life's too short for chess."
"A friendship across sectarian lines is not a common phenomenon, in his experience. In the past, it has struck him tha…"
"Amberley excelled at chess—one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind."
"Fancy what a game at chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; …"
"In my opinion, the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force."
"I have played over several hundred of Morphy's games, and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity."
"You know I'm finished with the old chess because it's all just a lot of book and memorization you know."
"That which has reached us from the discoveries of their clear thinking and the marvels of their inventions is the (ga…"