Eugene Znosko-Borovsky Quotes
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All chess players know what a combination is. Whether one makes it oneself, or is its victim, or reads of it, it stands out from the rest of the game and stirs one's admiration.
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To find the best moves great Masters, with years of experience, engage in laborious research, and the moves thus found are blindly repeated by amateurs without any attempt to fathom their real meaning and how and why they stand in their context.
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We should praise, rather, the courage of the player who, relying only on his intuition, plunges into a brilliant combination of which the issue does not appear to him too clear.
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Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory.
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Haste is never more dangerous than when you feel that victory is in your grasp.
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All conceptions in the game of chess have a geometrical basis.
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It has been stated that a characteristic mark of a combination is surprise; surprise for the defender, not for the assailant, since otherwise the combination will probably be unsound.
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It would be idle, and presumptuous, to wish to imitate the achievements of a Morphy or an Alekhine; but their methods and their manner of expressing themselves are within the reach of all.
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It is not a move, even the best move that you must seek, but a realizable plan.
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The study of combinations should enrich the analytical spirit of studious amateurs. Thereafter the most gifted among them will be able to catch some sparks of the genius of masters, and in addition some rays of the glory that is the masters.
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It is unjust, and sometimes very untrue, though it is a common theory, to hold that it is sacrifices which make the beauty of a combination, and that the combination is prettier by the magnitude of the sacrifices.
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The middlegame I repeat is chess itself, chess with all its possibilities, its attacks, defences, sacrifices, etc.
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Avoidance of mistakes is the beginning, as it is the end, of mastery in chess.
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A defeatist spirit must inevitably lead to disaster.
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Inexperienced players have a fear of this piece, which seems to them enigmatic, mysterious, and astonishing in its power. We must admit that it has remarkable characteristics which compel respect and occasionally surprise the most wary players.
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The King plays a most important part in the endgame, and gains in power and activity as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. Acting in eight different directions, he becomes, instead of the weakest piece, one of the most formidable units.
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... though combinations are without number, the number of ideas are limited.
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Haste, the great enemy.