White places the f-pawn on the best square for the king's knight. Why? To support a unit on e4 or g4. Perhaps f3 is best used to prevent Black from the pawn advance f4-f3.

"and a most curious country it was. There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side, and the ground between was divided up into squares by a number of little green hedges, that reached from brook to brook. I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard!' Alice said at last. 'There ought to be some men moving about somewhere--and so there are!' she added in a tone of delight, and her heart began to beat quick with excitement as she went on. 'It's a great huge game of chess that's being played--all over the world--if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!" ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

Thomas Hardy's grim irony in Tess of the D'Urbervilles was hovering:

"Justice was done, and the President of the Immortals (in Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess. And the d'Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained there a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.

The Lark And Her Young Ones With The Owner Of A Field

"Depend on yourself alone,"
Has to a common proverb grown.
It's thus confirmed in Aesop's way:
The larks to build their nests are seen
Among the wheat-crops young and green;
That is to say,
What time all things, dame Nature heeding,
Betake themselves to love and breeding –
The monstrous whales and sharks,
Beneath the briny flood,
The tigers in the wood,
And in the fields, the larks.
One she, however, of these last,
Found more than half the spring-time past
Without the taste of spring-time pleasures;
When firmly she set up her will
That she would be a mother still,
And resolutely took her measures; –
First, got herself by Hymen matched;
Then built her nest, laid, sat, and hatched.
All went as well as such things could.
The wheat-crop ripening before the brood
Were strong enough to take their flight,
Aware how perilous their plight,
The lark went out to search for food,
And told her young to listen well,
And keep a constant sentinel.
"The owner of this field," said she,
"Will come, I know, his grain to see.
Hear all he says; we little birds
Must shape our conduct by his words."
No sooner was the lark away,
Than came the owner with his son.
"This wheat is ripe," said he: "now run
And give our friends a call
To bring their sickles all,
And help us, great and small,
Tomorrow, at the break of day."
The lark, returning, found no harm,
Except her nest in wild alarm.
Says one, "We heard the owner say,
Go, give our friends a call
To help, tomorrow, break of day."
Replied the lark, "If that is all,
We need not be in any fear,
But only keep an open ear.
As gay as larks, now eat your victuals. – "
They ate and slept – the great and littles.
The dawn arrives, but not the friends;
The lark soars up, the owner wends
His usual round to view his land.
"This grain," says he, "ought not to stand.
Our friends do wrong; and so does he
Who trusts that friends will friendly be.
My son, go call our kith and kin
To help us get our harvest in."
This second order made
The little larks still more afraid.
"He sent for kindred, mother, by his son;
The work will now, indeed, be done."
"No, darlings; go to sleep;
Our lowly nest we'll keep."
With reason said; for kindred there came none.
Thus, tired of expectation vain,
Once more the owner viewed his grain.
"My son," said he, "we're surely fools
To wait for other people's tools;
As if one might, for love or pelf,
Have friends more faithful than himself!
Engrave this lesson deep, my son.
And know you now what must be done?
We must ourselves our sickles bring,
And, while the larks their matins sing,
Begin the work; and, on this plan,
Get in our harvest as we can."
This plan the lark no sooner knew,
Than, "Now's the time," she said, "my chicks;"
And, taking little time to fix,
Away they flew;
All fluttering, soaring, often grounding,
Decamped without a trumpet sounding.

for reference...

Eugene Znosko-Borovsky in "The Art of Chess Combination" wrote:

Some players believe that a combination is a spontaneous creation, that the possibility of a sacrifice springs up in the mind like a flash of genius, as surprising to the player as to his opponent. The truth is that combinations due to pure chance are not merely fantastic. There are combinations based on the opponent's errors; and most "traps" may be classed among these. There is even the type of player, the coffee-house expert, who speculates on the ignorance and inexperience of his adversaries. But this is detestable and inglorious style of play, based on others; weaknesses, no one one's own strength. True combination is quite another matter. The crown of a fine player's logical chess, it must be prepared, and not left to chance.

Fred Wilson explains in "303 Tricky Chess Tactics":

A combination is a tactical maneuver in which you sacrifice material to obtain an advantage, or at least to improve your position. So, strategy then, is your general plan, while tactics are your specific means of carrying it out.

In "The Game of Chess" by Siegbert Tarrasch we are told:

Tactics are the most important element of the Middle Game. We must above all "see" what is more or less hidden. We must exploit opportunities for combinations wherever they are offered. Here there is only an illusory guard, there our opponent has a man quite unguarded, or a double attack, etc., is possible. Over and over again there occur the tactical maneuvers ... and these opportunities must frequently be created by a sacrifice. Mistakes by our opponent must be recognized as such, and also those that we ourselves are about to make.

Irving Chernev quoted Emanuel Lasker in "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played":

In the beginning of the game ignore the search for combinations, abstain from violent moves, aim for small advantages, accumulate them, and only after having attained these ends search for the combination - and then with all the power of will and intellect, because then the combination must exist, however deeply hidden.

Al Horowitz gave his own uniquely expressed thoughts on combinations in "Chess for Beginners":

The word "combination" can be taken to have two meanings. We think of a combination as being a series of moves, at least one of which is a sacrifice, to reach a certain goal. The word "combination" also conveys that the pieces are acting in concert, each participating piece contributing some necessary element to the plan. The "sacrifice" is the surprise "gimmick" which.... gives away some material in astonishing fashion in order to gain something of even greater value later on. The astonishment we feel lends a very pleasant quality to the process; but the success of the scheme gives us a lordly feeling of successful achievement. Of course, when a clever scheme is upset by an even more ingenious rejoinder, our delight is often met with chagrin.

Chessgames.com will be unavailable December 7, 2024 from 2:00PM through 2:45PM(UTC/GMT) for maintenance. We apologize for this inconvenience.

"Chess not only teaches us to analyze the present situation, but it also enables us to think about the possibilities and consequences. This is the art of forward-thinking." ― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

"Chess is all about maintaining coherent strategies. It's about not giving up when the enemy destroys one plan but to immediately come up with the next. A game isn't won and lost at the point when the king is finally cornered. The game's sealed when a player gives up having any strategy at all. When his soldiers are all scattered, they have no common cause, and they move one piece at a time, that's when you've lost." ― Kazuo Ishiguro, A Pale View of Hills

"On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite." ― Emanuel Lasker

"Fighting was chess, anticipating the move of one's opponent and countering it before one got hit." ― Holly Black, The Wicked King

"Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be." ― Garry Kasparov

"The most helpful thing I learnt from chess is to make good decisions on incomplete data in a limited amount of time." ― Magnus Carlsen

"I am not the piece, I am not of the piece, I am not in the piece. I am the move" ― Niranjan Navalgund

"Gameplay is all our life. Either we guard, attack or develop pieces." ― Vineet Raj Kapoor, UNCHESS: Untie Your Shoes and Walk on the Chessboard of Life

"Remember that in chess, it's only the square you land on that matters." ― Bill Robertie, Beginning Chess Play

"The pieces are connected to each other and the King and they are in this dynamic rhythm amongst themselves and with the opponent's pieces, wherein lies their purpose. Each move is an attempt to change that balance and to establish a new, more favorable balance and that is why in chess (and in life) we are most vulnerable when we are most aggressive—the aggressive move essentially causes us to lose balance." ― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

"To free your game, take off some of your adversary's men, if possible for nothing." ― Captain Bertin, The Noble Game of Chess (1735)

"Chess enjoys a not wholly undeserved reputation for psychic derangement. It is an endeavor associated, when not with frank madness, with oddness and isolation. I remember a psychiatrist friend visiting me at a chess club in downtown Boston once. He walked in, sat down, looked around and said, ‘Jeez, I could run a group here." ― Charles Krauthammer, The Point of It All: A Lifetime of Great Loves and Endeavors

"There is profound meaning in the game of chess. The board itself is life and death, painted as such in black and white. The pieces are those that make a life fundamentally healthy. The pawns are attributes we gather with nourishment and significance. The knight is our ability to be mobile and travel in whatever form it takes. The rook or castle is a place we can call home and protect ourselves from the elements. The bishop is that of our community and our belonging. The king is our mortal body; without it, we can no longer play the game. The queen is the spirit of the body - what drives our imagination, urges, a life force. A captured queen removes energy from the game, and the player may become complacent. A crowning reminder of the game is that the spirit can be possessed again through our attributes." ― Lorin Morgan-Richards

"I thought you wanted me to teach you how to play (chess).

Each possible move represents a different game - a different universe in which you make a better move.

By the second move there are 72,084 possible games.

By the 3rd - 9 million. By the 4th….

There are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the universe. No one could possibly predict them all, even you. Which means that first move can be terrifying. It's the furthest point from the end of the game.

There's a virtually infinite sea of possibilities between you and the other side but it also means that if you make a mistake, there's a nearly infinite amount of ways to fix it so you should simply relax and play." ― Person of Interest s04e11

"At the beginning of a game, there are no variations. There is only one way to set up a board. There are nine million variations after the first six moves. And after eight moves there are two hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions. And those possibilities keep growing. ... In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything. Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living. (p.195)" ― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

"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, Common Sense in Chess

"In life, as in chess, learning must be constant - both new things and fresh ways of learning them. The process will invariably involve a certain degree of unlearning, and possessing the readiness to that is utterly important. If your way of doing things isn't working, clinging to your conclusions is only going to hold you back. You have to get to the root of a snag in order to make a breakthrough, because it's possible that what you thought you knew isn't actually the way it is. Unlearning is perhaps the hardest thing to do, but it is a necessity if growth and success are your goals." ― Vishwanathan Anand

The US nickname <Uncle Sam> was derived from Uncle Sam Wilson, a meat inspector in Troy, New York.

"Life is like a game where pawns can become queens, but not everyone knows how to play. Some people stay pawn their whole lives because they never learned to make the right moves." ― Alice Feeney, Rock Paper Scissors

"I always plan for longterm, life to me is a never ending chess match" ― James D. Wilson

"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game." ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"It's an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it; I can dominate it. And it's predictable. So, if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame." ― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

"It was like when you make a move in chess and just as you take your finger off the piece, you see the mistake you've made, and there's this panic because you don't know yet the scale of disaster you've left yourself open to." ― Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

"She had heard of the genetic code that could shape an eye or hand from passing proteins. Deoxyribonucleic acid. It contained the entire set of instructions for constructing a respiratory system and a digestive one, as well as the grip of an infant's hand. Chess was like that. The geometry of a position could be read and reread and not exhausted of possibility. You saw deeply into the layer of it, but there was another layer beyond that, and another, and another." ― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

"If one reads attentively, Wittgenstein writes as much in one of the rare pas- sages in which he makes use (in English) of the term "to constitute" with respect to the rules of chess: What idea do we have of the king of chess, and what is its relation to the rules of chess? . . . Do these rules follow from the idea? No, the rules are not something contained in the idea and got by analyzing it. They constitute it. . . . The rules constitute the "freedom" of the pieces. (Wittgenstein 5, p. 86) Rules are not separable into something like an idea or a concept of the king (the king is the piece that is moved according to this or that rule): they are immanent to the movements of the king; they express the autoconstitution process of their game. In the autoconstitution of a form of life what is in question is its freedom." ― Giorgio Agamben, The Omnibus Homo Sacer

"What I wanted to tell you about Philidor was that Diderot wrote him a letter. You know Diderot?" "The French Revolution?"
"Yeah. Philidor was doing blindfold exhibitions and burning out his brain, or whatever it was they thought you did in the eighteenth century. Diderot wrote him: 'It is foolish to run the risk of going mad for vanity's sake.' I think of that sometimes when I'm analyzing my ass over a chessboard." ― Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit

"I prefer to make my annotations 'hot on the heels', as it were, when the fortunes of battle, the worries, hopes and disappointments are still sufficiently fresh in my mind. Much as I would like to, I cannot say this about these few games which will be given below. In fact, if the annotator should begin to use phrases of the type: 'in reply to...I had worked out the following variation...', the reader will rightly say 'Grandmaster, you are showing off', since the 'oldest' of these games is now more than 25 years old, and even the 'newest' more than 20. Therefore, I would ask you not to regard the following 'stylised' annotations too severely." ― Mikhail Tal, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal

"In general, the side with less space tries to exchange pieces to release some of the pressure that the opponent's pieces exert on him." ― IM Asaf Givon

* 99 Luft Balloons: Game Collection: 99 Schönheitspreise (Steinkohl)

* Colorado Gambit: https://chessmood.com/blog/complete...

* 200 Modern Brilliancies: Game Collection: 0

* 2000#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2000

* Informant 22: Game Collection: Chess Informant 22

* 2002#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2002

* Short History: https://chessmart.com/pages/history...

* Informant 21: Game Collection: Chess Informant 21

* 2001#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2001

* Chess Terms: https://chessmart.com/pages/chess-t...

* Informant 23: Game Collection: Chess Informant 23

* 2003#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2003

* Three of the Greatest: https://chessmart.com/pages/chess-m...

* 2004#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2004

* 2005#: Game Collection: Checkmate 2005

* The Lion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgI...

* Lasker's Manual: Game Collection: Manual of Chess (Lasker)

* Lasker-Pelikan: https://www.expert-chess-strategies... The Sveshnikov Sicilian is a popular chess variation of the Sicilian Defense and starts as follows: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 This variation was originally called the Lasker-Pelikan Variation but was researched and revitalized from Evgeny Sveshnikov and Gennadi Timoshchenko and is now named after Sveshnikov.

* Mona Lisa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJi...

"The Great Escape" by Charles Bukowski

listen, he said, you ever seen a bunch of crabs in a bucket?
no, I told him.
well, what happens is that now and then one crab will climb up on top of the others
and begin to climb toward the top of the bucket, then, just as he's about to escape
another crab grabs him and pulls him back
down.
really? I asked.
really, he said, and this job is just like that, none of the others want anybody to get out of
here. that's just the way it is
in the postal service!
I believe you, I said.
just then the supervisor walked up and said,
you fellows were talking.
there is no talking allowed on this
job.
I had been there for eleven and one-half
years.
I got up off my stool and climbed right up the
supervisor
and then I reached up and pulled myself right
out of there.
it was so easy it was unbelievable.
but none of the others followed me.
and after that, whenever I had crab legs
I thought about that place.
I must have thought about that place
maybe 5 or 6 times
before I switched to lobster.

Your feet contain a quarter of your bones.
Human feet contain 52 bones (26 for each foot). That's nearly a quarter of all the bones in your whole body! Each also contains 33 joints and more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Are your dogs barking?

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je d‚fendrai jusqu'... la mort le droit que vous avez de le dire/ I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire

The smallest bone in your body is in your ear.
No named bone in your body is smaller (or lighter) than the stapes, a bone in the middle ear that's actually shaped like a stirrup. It's complete with a base and an oval window, which is covered with a membrane that measures sound vibrations.

<Page 166 of The Personality of Chess by I.A. Horowitz and P.L. Rothenberg (New York, 1963) gave ‘a hitherto unpublished limerick-acrostic:

Caissa, the goddess of Chess,
Has this task, no more and no less;
Every game, match and damn bit,
Sicilian and gambit
She must ever be ready to bless.>

"Chess is life in miniature. Chess is a struggle, chess battles." — Garry Kasparov

"Sometimes in life, and in chess, you must take one step back to take two steps forward." — IM Levy Rozman, GothamChess

So much, much, much better to be an incurable optimist than deceitful and untrustworthy.

"Don't blow your own trumpet." — Australian Proverb

Old Russian Proverb: "Scythe over a stone." (Нашла коса на камень.) The force came over a stronger force.

"Continuing to play the victim is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blaming others for your station in life will indeed make you a victim but the perpetrator will be your own self, not life or those around you." — Bobby Darnell

* What is my opponent aiming at? How many times? Always COUNT Attackers vs Defenders (exclude defenders that can be eliminated/removed, such as a strong pin, undermining the defender by capturing it first, or advancing pawn poke displacement taking flight from the fight to save itself). Can the defender be removed? Can a new attacker pile on? Of course, an undefended piece is a good target if the attacker plies a worthwhile double attack when only one of the targets can be saved per turn. A mere single threat (just one target) to the undefended piece merely gives it a choice of how to protect itself, including moving to a better square with its own threat. Double attacks are double the trouble, if not more. The relative values of the units must always be considered when threats to capture exist; if a lowly pawn defends, the opposing queen won't likely initiate the capture sequence because she's so valuable. Furthermore, an "equal" exchange of like pieces (same relative value) is not necessarily an even trade, as one of the pieces was likely more valuable to its army in a positional sense than the other. This falls under the art of exchange. Always know what happens AFTER an exchange sequence has occurred that rearranges/empties the board! The last piece to capture in an exchange sequence is NOT necessarily the last word on the matter, as the opponent may now respond to a square that was previously unprofitable before the trading.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNF...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BER...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VN...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npN...

Chess is a game of choices. Take a minute or two and quickly consider all the forcing moves: checks and cut-offs, captures, threats/aims (tactics, pile on a current target, gain of tempo), pawn promotions. If the forcing moves are not profitable, then correct your problem spot, or seek to develop/mobilize: blockade weak pawns, infiltrate weak squares, seize open lines and form batteries and/or crossfires, etc. Consider each of the pieces and move possibilities to improve their production or to do a necessary job/prevention, especially outnumbering on a square or line, advancing/permanent penetration, and watch those tricky knights changing colors! Where can they go next? Would that present a problem for me? Remember, king safety and piece activity are paramount. Pawn moves are slow and weakening; use them sparingly w/a clear purpose -- never randomly for no particular reason. Don't leave your king exposed to check. Don't leave your minor pieces (knights and bishops) sleeping on the back row. The center pawns and minor pieces do the early fighting. Do aim at your own units for their protection. Don't automatically play the first or second move that you see -- consider the best option for each of the pieces and then compare/contrast, starting with the opponent's army first, and then your own army. What will my opponent do next if I allow it? If I do this, will my piece get pinned or forked? The best plan of choice might have more than one purpose and usually generates ideas of two or three future moves as a follow up/strongest continuation. One thing leads to another, and another. This is a lot to think about, and there's plenty of strategical concepts not listed (analyze forcing moves/tactics to checkmate or gain material before general strategy to correct or improve one's position), so one must develop the habit of looking for candidate moves at a glance. Otherwise, s/he falls into time trouble on the clock spending too much time looking at all the options. Pace yourself! If it is a casual game without a clock, taking too much time to make your next move will eventually cause your opponent not to bother playing you again.

"It's a great huge game of chess that's being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn't mind being a Pawn, if only I might join—though of course I should like to be a Queen, best." — Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898)

"Tis action moves the world....in the game of chess, mind that: ye cannot leave your men to stand unmoving on the board and hope to win. A soldier must first step upon the battlefield if does mean to cross it." ― Susanna Kearsley, The Winter Sea

"They say that chess was born in bloodshed." ― Paolo Maurensig, La variante di Lüneburg

"No battle can be won in the study, and theory without practice is dead." ― Alexander Suvarov

"The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." ― Colin Powell

"The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one's country" ― George S. Patton Jr.

"One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today." ― Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos

"World-class chess players, in addition to being considered awesomely smart, are generally assumed to have superhuman memories, and with good reason. Champions routinely put on exhibitions in which they play lesser opponents while blindfolded; they hold the entire chessboard in their heads. Some of these exhibitions strike the rest of us as simply beyond belief. The Czech master Richard Reti once played twenty nine blindfolded games simultaneously. (Afterward he left his briefcase at the exhibition site and commented on what a poor memory he had.)" ― Geoff Colvin, Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

"We do not remember days, we remember moments." ― Cesare Pavese

"I believe that, not only in chess, but in life in general, people place too much stock in ratings – they pay attention to which TV shows have the highest ratings, how many friends they have on Facebook, and it's funny. The best shows often have low ratings and it is impossible to have thousands of real friends." ― Boris Gelfand

"Many have become chess masters, no one has become the master of chess." – Siegbert Tarrasch

"Chess, it's the struggle against error." ― Johannes Zukertort

"You can only get good at chess if you love the game." ― Bobby Fischer

"Chess is an infinitely complex game, which one can play in infinitely numerous & varied ways." ― Vladimir Kramnik

"When you don't know what to do, wait for your opponent to get an idea — it's sure to be wrong!" ― Siegbert Tarrasch

"What is a weak pawn? A pawn that is exposed to attack and also difficult to defend is a weak pawn. There are several varieties: isolated, doubled, too advanced, retarded." ― Samuel Reshevsky, Art of Positional Play

"You need to realise something if you are ever to succeed at chess,' she said, as if Nora had nothing bigger to think about. ‘And the thing you need to realise is this: the game is never over until it is over. It isn't over if there is a single pawn still on the board. If one side is down to a pawn and a king, and the other side has every player, there is still a game. And even if you were a pawn – maybe we all are – then you should remember that a pawn is the most magical piece of all. It might look small and ordinary but it isn't. Because a pawn is never just a pawn. A pawn is a queen-in-waiting. All you need to do is find a way to keep moving forward. One square after another. And you can get to the other side and unlock all kinds of power.' Mrs. Elm"
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

"In chess a combination is a forced sequence of moves that begins with a sacrifice." ― Howcast video

"The game gives us a satisfaction that life denies us. And for the chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'." ― Emanuel Lasker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0H...
- https://thechessworld.com/articles/... - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show... - https://www.chess.com/article/view/... - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzg...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boR...

"It is a profound mistake to imagine that the art of combination depends only on natural talent, and that it cannot be learned." ― Richard Reti

"Tactics is knowing what to do when there's something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there's nothing what to do." ― Savielly Tartakower

"A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it." ― Wilhelm Steinitz

"Chess is all about stored pattern recognition. You are asking your brain to spot a face in the crowd that it has not seen." ― Sally Simpson

"The pin is mightier than the sword." ― Fred Reinfeld

"There are more adventures on a chessboard than on all the seas of the world." ― Pierre Mac Orlan

MasterCard was originally called MasterCharge.

"I remember, back in college, how many possibilities life seemed to hold. Variations. I knew, of course, that I'd only live one of my fantasy lives, but for a few years there, I had them all, all the branches, all the variations. One day I could dream of being a novelist, one day I would be a journalist covering Washington, the next - oh, I don't know, a politician, a teacher, whatever. My dream lives. Full of dream wealth and dream women. All the things I was going to do, all the places I was going to live. They were mutually exclusive, of course, but since I didn't have any of them, in a sense I had them all. Like when you sit down at a chessboard to begin a game, and you don't know what the opening will be. Maybe it will be a Sicilian, or a French, or a Ruy Lopez. They all coexist, all the variations, until you start making the moves. You always dream of winning, no matter what line you choose, but the variations are still … different." … "Once the game begins, the possibilities narrow and narrow and narrow, the other variations fade, and you're left with what you've got - a position half of your own making, and half chance, as embodied by that stranger across the board. Maybe you've got a good game, or maybe you're in trouble, but in any case there's just that one position to work from. The might-have-beens are gone." (Unsound Variations)"
― George R.R. Martin, Dreamsongs, Volume II

"Life is an exchange; you'd think a chess player would know that." ― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

"Whereas a novice makes moves until he gets checkmated (proof), a Grand Master realizes 20 moves in advance that it's futile to continue playing (conceptualizing)." ― Bill Gaede

"A great chessplayer is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it." ― William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, Essays on Men and Manners

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born, is to remain always a child." ― Cicero

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, "Don Quixote"

"There is no moral outcome of a chess match or a poker game as long as skill and stealth rather than cheating have been used." ― Francis P. Karam, The Truth Engine: Cross-Examination Outside the Box

Due to earth's gravity, it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 49,000 feet (15,000 metres).

"Papi taught me every piece
has its own space.

Papi taught me every piece
moves in its own way.

Papi taught me every piece
has its own purpose.

The squares do not overlap.
& neither do the pieces.

The only time two pieces
stand in the same square

is the second before one
is being taken & replaced."
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

"The final aim of all of us playing on the board of life is to somehow break out of this board and be free" ― Vineet Raj Kapoor, UNCHESS: Untie Your Shoes and Walk on the Chessboard of Life

Diamonds are the hardest natural substance.
Diamonds are not the hardest substance of all-time, but it is the strongest substance naturally found on Earth.

Chessgames.com will be unavailable Friday, February 17, 2023 from 11AM through 11:30AM(UTC/GMT) for maintenance. We apologize for this inconvenience.

The only letter that doesn't appear on the periodic table is J. Out of 118 chemical elements, only this letter feels left out.

A piece of cake: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/che...

Doinysius1: I had basil on the pub's potage du jour yesterday. Soup herb!

* Riddle-free-zool: https://chessimprover.com/chess-rid...

"Chess is an infinitely complex game, which one can play in infinitely numerous & varied ways." ― Vladimir Kramnik

"If you're too open-minded; your brains will fall out." ― Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Song of Heroes
by Anonymous

Our country calls for heroes,
And who is a hero now
With no fear in his eyes,
With no shade of disguise,
With a purpose upon his brow?
The wide world calls for heroes,
And who will a hero be.
With a love for the whole
And a clear, steady soul
And a spirit brave and free?
High heaven calls for heroes,
And who is a hero there,
With a will for the best,
And a mind for the test,
And a heart that knows to dare?
But never mind the heroes,
Nor herald the hero's worth:
For our land we will die
And for God on high,
And for all the groaning earth!

"Whatever you are doing in the game of life, give it all you've got." — Norman Vincent Peale

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." — Ralph Marston

Psalm 96: 1-3
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

WISE OLD OWL
A wise old owl lived in an oak.
The more he saw the less he spoke.
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

Best Jean De La Bruyere Quotes
"Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The unnamed should not be mistaken for the nonexistent." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"If poverty is the mother of all crimes, lack of intelligence is their father." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"As favor and riches forsake a man, we discover in him the foolishness they concealed, and which no one perceived before." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other's little failings." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"We are afraid of the old age which we may never attain." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Most men make use of the first part of their life to render the last part miserable." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The pleasure of criticizing takes away from us the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things." ― Jean De La Bruyere

"Such a great misfortune, not to be able to be alone." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value they put on themselves." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"If some persons died and others did not die death would indeed be a terrible affliction." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Out of difficulties, grow miracles" ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Not to be able to bear with all bad-tempered people with whom the world is crowded, shows that a man has not a good temper himself." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"There are only three events in a man's life; birth, life, and death; he is not conscious of being born, he dies in pain and he forgets to live." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its shortness. " ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The most exquisite pleasure is giving pleasure to others." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Grief at the absence of a loved one is happiness compared to life with a person one hates." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Many people perceive the merit of a manuscript which is read to them, but will not declare themselves in its favor until they see what success it has in the world when printed, or what intelligent men will say about it. They do not like to risk their opinion, and they want to be carried away by the crowd and dragged along by the multitude. Then they say that they were amongst the first who approved of that work, and the general public shares their opinion. Such men lose the best opportunities of convincing us that they are intelligent, clever, and first-rate critics, and can really discover what is good and what is better. A fine work falls into their hands; it is an author's first book before he has got any great name; there is nothing to prepossess anyone in his favor, and by applauding his writings one does not court or flatter the great. Zelotes, you are not required to cry out: "This is a masterpiece; human intelligence never went farther; the human speech cannot soar higher; henceforward we will judge of no one's taste but by what he thinks of this book." Such exaggerated and offensive expressions are only employed by postulants for pensions or benefices and are even injurious to what is really commendable and what one wishes to praise. Why not merely say—"That's a good book?" It is true you say it when the whole of France has approved of it, and foreigners as well as your own countrymen, when it is printed all over Europe and has been translated into several languages, but then it is too late." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Time, which strengthens friendship, weakens love." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"If it is true that one is poor on account of all the things one wants, the ambitious and the avaricious languish in extreme poverty." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"There is no road too long to the man who advances deliberately and without undue haste; there are no honors too distant to the man who prepares himself for them with patience." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others; he who leaves you after a long conversation, pleased with himself and the part he has taken in the discourse, will be your warmest admirer. Men do not care to admire you, they wish you to be pleased with them; they do not seek for instruction or even amusement from your discourse, but they do wish you to be made acquainted with their talents and powers of conversation, and the true man of genius will delicately make all who come in contact with him feel the exquisite satisfaction of knowing that they have appeared to advantage." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"We can recognize the dawn and the decline of love by the uneasiness we feel when alone together." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"A fool is an automaton, a machine with springs which turn him about always in one manner and preserve his equilibrium. He is ever the same and never changes. If you have seen him once you have seen him at every moment and period of his life. He is at best but as the lowing ox or the whistling blackbird. He is fixed and obstinate, I may say, by nature. What appears least in him is his soul; that has neither activity nor energy; it reposes." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect" ― Jean de La Bruyère

"The very essence of politeness is to take care that by our words and actions we make other people pleased with us as well as with themselves." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Everything has been said, and we are more than seven thousand years of human thought too late." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"One seeks to make the loved one entirely happy, or, if that cannot be, entirely wretched." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"We should only endeavor to think and speak correctly ourselves, without wishing to bring others over to our taste and opinions; this would be too great an undertaking." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"That we seldom repent of talking too little and very often of talking too much is a … maxim that everybody knows and nobody practices" ― Jean de La Bruyère

"We keep a special place in our hearts for people who refuse to be impressed by us." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Sudden love takes the longest time to be cured." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"Novice exists which does not pretend to be more or less like some virtue, and which does not take advantage of this assumed resemblance." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"When a book raises your spirit and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good and made by a good workman." ― Jean de La Bruyère

"If you want to be successful, it's just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing." ― Will Rogers

"The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it in your back pocket." ― Will Rogers

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." ― Will Rogers

"Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved." ― Will Rogers

"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment." ― Will Rogers

"Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can't buy enough to eat." ― Will Rogers

"The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other." ― Will Rogers

"It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute." ― Will Rogers

"An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh." ― Will Rogers

"I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat." ― Will Rogers

"You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people." ― Will Rogers

"The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." ― Will Rogers

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're actually paying for." ― Will Rogers

"There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." ― Will Rogers

"The problem ain't what people know. It's what people know that ain't so that's the problem." ― Will Rogers

"If you want to be successful, it's just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing." ― Will Rogers

"Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff." ― Will Rogers

"What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." ― Will Rogers

"If you feel the urge, don't be afraid to go on a wild goose chase. What do you think wild geese are for anyway?" ― Will Rogers

"There are men running governments who shouldn't be allowed to play with matches." ― Will Rogers

"There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you." ― Will Rogers

"Most men are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." ― Will Rogers

"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has." ― Will Rogers

"Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago." ― Will Rogers

"You can't say civilization don't advance, in every war they kill you in a new way." ― Will Rogers

"Personally, I have always felt that the best doctor in the world is the Veterinarian. He can't ask his patients what is the matter...he's just got to know." ― Will Rogers

"It is better for some one to think you're a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." ― Will Rogers

"If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." ― Will Rogers

"Give her a day, and then in return Momma gives you the other 364." ― Will Rogers

"It's not what we don't know that hurts. It's what we know that ain't so." ― Will Rogers

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ― Will Rogers

"Never miss a good chance to shut up." ― Will Rogers

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." ― Will Rogers

"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like." ― Will Rogers

"There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin'. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." ― Will Rogers

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else." ― Will Rogers

"There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works." ― Will Rogers

"All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance." ― Will Rogers

"Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth." ― Will Rogers

"I never met a man that I didn't like." ― Will Rogers

"Don't let yesterday take up too much of today." ― Will Rogers

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces." ― Will Rogers

"Common sense ain't common." ― Will Rogers

"Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects." ― Will Rogers

"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." ― Will Rogers

"You know, everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects." ― Will Rogers

"When you find yourself in a hole, quit digging." ― Will Rogers

"Do the best you can, and don't take life too serious." ― Will Rogers

"When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car." ― Will Rogers

"The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer." ― Will Rogers

"The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office." ― Will Rogers

"We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." ― Will Rogers

"A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people." ― Will Rogers

"If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?" ― Will Rogers

"If stupidity got us in this mess, how come it can't get us out." ― Will Rogers

"A fool and his money are soon elected." ― Will Rogers

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." ― Will Rogers

"Always drink upstream from the herd." ― Will Rogers

"Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." ― Will Rogers

"The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected." ― Will Rogers

"When you're through learning, you're through." ― Will Rogers

"I'll bet you the time ain't far off when a woman won't know any more than a man." ― Will Rogers

"Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was." ― Will Rogers

"Get all the good laughs you can." ― Will Rogers

"Liberty doesn't work as well in practice as it does in speeches." ― Will Rogers

"Even if you are on the right track, but just sit there, you will still get run over." ― Will Rogers

"The only way to beat the lawyers is to die with nothing." ― Will Rogers

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." ― Will Rogers

"A man that don't love a horse, there is something the matter with him." ― Will Rogers

"People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument." ― Will Rogers

"Ignorance lies not in the things you don't know, but in the things you know that ain't so." ― Will Rogers

"The best way to make a fire with two sticks is to make sure one of them is a match." ― Will Rogers

"I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat." ― Will Rogers

"Plans get you into things but you've got to work your way out." ― Will Rogers

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today." ― Will Rogers

"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." ― Will Rogers

"Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is." ― Will Rogers

"Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else." ― Will Rogers

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ― Will Rogers

"An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out." ― Will Rogers

"If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics." ― Will Rogers

"Lord, let me live until I die." ― Will Rogers

"Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they would be Republicans." ― Will Rogers

"I like to hear a man talk about himself because then I never hear anything, but good." ― Will Rogers

"When you find youself in a hole - stop digging." ― Will Rogers

"If you can't identify it, don't stick it in your mouth." ― Will Rogers

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression." ― Will Rogers

"The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." ― Will Rogers

"It's almost been worth this depression to find out how little our big men know." ― Will Rogers

"I never met a person that I did not want to like." ― Will Rogers

"Three couples approached the Pearly Gates and asked permission from Saint Peter to enter. To the first husband he responded, "You may not enter heaven. All your life you've been obsessed with money. Why, you even married a woman named Penny!" He then turned to the second husband and responded, "You may not enter heaven. All your life you've been obsessed with food. Why, you even married a woman named Candy." Taking his wife gently by the hand and looking very sad, the third husband said, "Come on, Fanny, we might as well get out of here!" ― Kevin Kenworthy, The Best Jokes Minnie Pearl Ever Told:

"A couple was celebratin' their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a reception. They were standin' in line greetin' their friends and about halfway through, she hauled off and hit him! He looked surprised and said, "What was that for?" She said, "For fifty years of bad sex!" He thought about that a minute and then hauled off and hit her. Now it was her turn to look surprised and she said, "What on earth was that for?" And he answered, "For knowing the difference!" ― Kevin Kenworthy, The Best Jokes Minnie Pearl Ever Told:

"God has a plan for all of us, but He expects us to do our share of the work." ― Minnie Pearl

"So often when you start talking about kindness to animals someone comments that starving and mistreated children should come first. The issue can't be divided like that. It isn't a choice between children and animals. It's our duty to care for both. Kindness is the important thing. Kids and animals are our responsibility." ― Minnie Pearl

"Take the back roads instead of the highways." ― Minnie Pearl

"Kissing a man with a beard is a lot like going to a picnic. You don't mind going through a little bush to get there!" ― Minnie Pearl

"The doctor must have put my pacemaker in wrong. Every time my husband kisses me, the garage door goes up." ― Minnie Pearl

"Once you've gotten used to performing, you can't give it up." ― Minnie Pearl

"Show business is made up of disappointments, and it's through life's disappointments that you grow." ― Minnie Pearl

"Since religion was so much a part of my life as a child, and since my childhood was so happy and so full of laughter and joy, I associate the two. Even my concept of Jesus goes along with this association of happiness and religion." ― Minnie Pearl

"Watch out fer these fellers around here. It ain't safe fer a pretty girl. Why, I had one just now tell me I looked like a breath of spring. Well, he didn't use them words, exactly. He said I looked like the end of a hard winter." ― Minnie Pearl

"Marriage is like a hot bath; once you get used to it, it ain't so hot." ― Minnie Pearl

"We have boys now, and men, in the rock and roll business and all the show business, who have this reaction on women. They scream. They yell. They do all sorts of wild things." ― Minnie Pearl

"It's the most unglamourous glamour business in the world." ― Minnie Pearl

"Elvis said, Miss Minnie, do you think it would be out of order if I go up and speak to General Stewart? I've always been such a fan of his. So Elvis went up to speak to the Stewarts." ― Minnie Pearl

"When we got to the hotel, the Hawaiian Village, there were 500 screaming women there. The police were trying to keep the crowd back. It was very dangerous." ― Minnie Pearl

"They were taking pictures and everything. When we got down off the plane, the minute Elvis made his appearance at the door of the plane, the screaming got even worse." ― Minnie Pearl

"My husband was a pilot. He flew Elvis when Elvis first started making appearances around the country." ― Minnie Pearl

"I think Elvis loved his fans - I think that's why they loved him and still love him. Fans are very conscious and sensitive to the fact that performers love them." ― Minnie Pearl

"I knew about Elvis. Of course, everybody knew about him then." ― Minnie Pearl

"Colonel Parker asked Henry and me to come to Elvis' suite and have breakfast. There were at least five policemen stationed up there. He was talking on the telephone." ― Minnie Pearl

"Elvis couldn't leave the hotel except under heavy guard. It was incredible how they went wild over him." ― Minnie Pearl

"I've been with certain stars; some are caring and pay attention to their fans and to their fellow performers and some are too busy. Elvis never seemed too busy." ― Minnie Pearl

"That's what life is all about: remembering someone and smiling!" ― Minnie Pearl

"Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water. After you get used to it, it ain't so hot." ― Minnie Pearl

Wordzys:
38cry Peepy iz's perfume fumed up the room enough for three adults Moe, Larry, and Kurley fries liver attack of the three headed monster trucks stay to the right.

"If you can dream it, you can do it."
Walt Disney

Oct-04-10
I play the Fred: said...
You're distraught
because you're not
able to cope
feel like a dope
when Lasker hits
Puttin on (the Fritz)

"Whatever you are doing in the game of life, give it all you've got." — Norman Vincent Peale

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." — Ralph Marston

"A wise man never knows all; only a fool knows everything." — African Proverb

Z is for Zookeeper (to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?")

Oh do you know the zookeeper,
The zookeeper, the zookeeper?
Oh, do you know the zookeeper
Who works down at the zoo?

Q: Why did the cow cross the road?
A: To get to the udder side.