Quotes from Mikhail Tal

I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind.

I'd like to always be romantic in chess. Sadly, this doesn't always work like that.

For pleasure you can read the games collections of Andersson and Chigorin, but for benefit you should study Tarrasch, Keres and Bronstein.

Just as one's imagination is stirred by a girl's smile, so is one's imagination stirred by the possibilities of chess.

I have always thought it a matter of honour for every chess player to deserve the smile of fortune.

Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent

If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring.

Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight!

The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it.

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.

There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine.

Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless.

To play for a draw, at any rate with white, is to some degree a crime against chess.

Young man, consider that the train has left, and all you can do is loudly slam the door in farewell.

If you wait on luck to turn up, life becomes very boring.

The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it.

That is my biography from the first day of my chess life to the present. JOURNALIST. And your plans. PLAYER. To play!