How Life Imitates Chess Quotes

“I used to attack because it was the only thing I knew. Now I attack because I know it works.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Sometimes the best defence is the best defence.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“In chess we have the obligation to move; there is no option to skip a turn if you can’t identify a direction that suits you. One of the great challenges of the game is how to make progress when there are no obvious moves, when action is required, not reaction. The great Polish chess master and wit Tartakower half-joking called this the “nothing to do” phase of the game. In reality, it is here that we find what separates pretenders from contenders.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Attackers may sometimes regret bad moves, but it is much worse to forever regret an opportunity you allowed to pass you by.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“It’s not enough to be talented. It’s not enough to work hard and to study late into the night. You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Big branches in the decision tree require extra caution. These are the forks in the road that leave us with no way back.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“The method you employ to achieve success is a secret because it can be discovered only by you analyzing your own decisions. This is what my questioners should really have been asking me about instead of my trivial habits: How did I push myself? What questions did I ask myself? How did I investigate and understand my strengths and weaknesses? And how did I use what I learned to get better and further define and hone my method?”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“In a 1959 speech in Indianapolis, John F. Kennedy famously observed that the Chinese word for 'crisis' is composed of two characters, one meaning danger and the other meaning opportunity. It turns out that this is not literally true.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Today our society places great emphasis on specialization and focus. Students used to go off to university with the idea of broadening themselves; now it has become a mostly vocational experience. Students use higher education as a means to develop a skill that will make them attractive to employers. We place so much emphasis on being good at what we do that we fail to realize that getting better at what we do might be best achieved by getting better at other—and wildly different— things.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“En el ajedrez, como en la realidad, es necesario analizar, descartar, organizar el pensamiento, comprender las acciones que pueden ocurrir, tener soluciones preparadas, saber concluir y estudiar todas las variantes posibles, ser capaz de hacer de la necesidad virtud y entender las facultades del adversario para darles la vuelta en beneficio propio. Para ello, es imprescindible contar con una férrea disciplina, intuición y lógica que nos faciliten el acercamiento a los problemas comunes. Igual que en la vida diaria, el conocimiento de la situación nos ayuda a vivir a afrontar los retos con perspectiva de éxito.”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“How did I push myself? What questions did I ask myself? How did I investigate and understand my strengths and weaknesses? And how did I use what I learned to get better and further define and hone my method? Those are a few of the questions I have asked myself, and this book contains an honest accounting of my pursuit of the answers.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“La diferencia entre el hombre y el animal es que el hombre es capaz de establecer prioridades!».”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“«Suelo pensar con mi propio cerebro; aunque un centenar de personas piensen de otra forma, ¡no me importa!».”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“basta con tener talento. No basta con trabajar duro y estudiar hasta altas horas de la noche. Hay que ser, además, profundamente consciente de los métodos que te llevan a la toma de decisiones. Conocerse a uno mismo es esencial para combinar tu sabiduría, experiencia y talento con un mayor rendimiento.”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“En parte, eso es debido a una tendencia que nosotros llamamos «enamorarse de nuestra posición». Estamos tan contentos con nuestra ventaja que no queremos arriesgarnos a perderla. Maniobramos alrededor, intentando mantener ese plus de la posición sin hacer nada decisivo. Es probable que ante una tozuda resistencia como esa perdamos la iniciativa. Sin arriesgar realmente, es casi imposible progresar.”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“Mezi zahájení a koncovku ale Bůh naštěstí vložil střední hru, takže „počítačová smrt“ šachu zatím nehrozí.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Pokud jde o sběr informací, nemusí být situace nutně tím lepší, čím jich máme víc. Jakmile své sítě rozhodíte příliš doširoka, nejenže riskujete nižší kvalitu informací, ale ještě ke všemu ztrácíte drahocenný čas. Navíc platí, že kvalita většiny rozhodnutí je dána jejich včasností.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Pokud nejúspěšnější napodobovatelé chtějí rozšířit sféru vlivu a dosáhnout většího úspěchu, nevyhnutelně se sami časem sami musejí stát novátory. Ty, kdo se pro tento přechod nerozhodnou, obvykle vytlačí další imitátoři.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Věž má cenu pěti pěšců, ale jakou „cenu“ mají jeden či dva tahy?”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“«una cuestión de sensibilidad e intuición; ver y oír las cosas importantes y estar atento a los momentos adecuados, entender y coordinar. La experiencia no es lo que le sucede a un hombre; es lo que un hombre hace con lo que le sucede».”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“«Haz lo que debas, y que así sea».”
― Garry Kasparov, Cómo la vida imita al ajedrez

“Grandmasters play chess by combining experience with intuition, backed up with calculation and study. Computers play chess by brute calculation; their “study” consists of a gigantic database of opening moves.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Overthinking numbs our instincts and turns what should be a quick decision into a mental committee meeting.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but in the ability to start over.” If we err and must begin again, we must. This vitality isn’t only about quality of life; staying motivated and involved in decision-making is one key to improving it. One of the best ways to do this is to take the initiative, which puts positive pressure on you while challenging your competition. I like to say that the attacker always has the advantage.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“Intuition and instinct form the bedrock of our decision-making, especially the rapid-fire decisions that make up our daily lives. We don’t have to analyze why we turn left here and right there on the way to work, we just do it. A chess player can spot a simple checkmate in three moves without hesitation even if he’s never seen that exact position before in his life.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“If critics and competitors can’t match your results, they will often denigrate the way you achieve them. Fast, intuitive types are called lazy. Dedicated burners of midnight oil are called obsessed. And while it’s obviously not a bad idea to hear and consider the opinions of others, you should be suspicious when these criticisms emerge right on the heels of a success.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom

“People only heard him defending himself, not presenting his own message.”
― Garry Kasparov, How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom