Jose Raul Capablanca

A good player is always lucky.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Excellent! I will still be in time for the ballet!

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Chess is a very logical game and it is the man who can reason most logically and profoundly in it that ought…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

In order to improve your game, you must study the Endgame before everything else.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The winning of a pawn among good players of even strength often means the winning of the game.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

As one by one I mowed them down, my superiority soon became apparent

— Jose Raul Capablanca

To improve at chess you should in the first instance study the endgame.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

An hour's history of two minds is well told in a game of chess.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

A passed pawn increase in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The best way to learn endings, as well as openings, is from the games of the masters.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

To my way of thinking, Troitzky has no peer among endgame compsers; no one else has composed so many and such varied…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight, although some players make use of them as if…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

It was Steinitz who was the first to establish the basic principles of general chess strategy. He was a pioneer and one…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

“One must attempt to increase whatever weakness there may be in the opponent’s position; or, if there is none, one or more…

— José Raul Capablanca

People who want to improve should take their defeats as lessons, and endeavor to learn what to avoid in the future. You…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Chess is something more than a game. It is an intellectual diversion which has certain artistic qualities and many scientific elements.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

No other great master has been so misunderstood by the vast majority of chess amateurs and even by many masters, as has…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else. For whereas the endings can be studied and…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

When you sit down to play a game you should think only about the position, but not about the opponent. Whether chess…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Chess is more than a game or a mental training. It is a distinct attainment. I have always regarded the playing of…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The great World Champions Morphy, Steinitz, and Lasker were past masters in the art of Pawn play; they had no superiors in…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Sultan Khan had become champion of India at Indian chess and he learned the rules of our form of chess at a…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

An exception was made with respect to me, because of my victory over Marshall. Some of the masters objected to my entry…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

During the course of many years I have observed that a great number of doctors, lawyers, and important businessmen make a habit…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Endings of one rook and pawns are about the most common sort of endings arising on the chess board. Yet though they…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

I have not given any drawn or lost games, because I thought them inadequate to the purpose of the book.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

None of the great players has been so incomprehensible to the majority of amateurs and even masters, as Emanuel Lasker.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

There was a time in my life when I almost thought I could never lose a single duel of chess.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

In chess, as played by a good player, logic and imagination must go hand in hand, compensating each other.

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Although the Knight is generally considered to be on a par with the Bishop in strength, the latter piece is somehat stronger…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Chess can never reach its height by following in the path of science ... Let us, therefore, make a new effort and…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The game might be divided into three parts, the opening, the middle-game and the end-game. There is one thing you must strive…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Alekhine evidently possesses the most remarkable chess memory that has ever existed. It is said that he remembers by heart all the…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Morphy gained most of his wins by playing directly and simply, and it is simple and logical method that constitutes the true…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Ninety percent of the book variations have no great value, because either they contain mistakes or they are based on fallacious assumptions;…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Your Soviet players are cheating, losing the games on purpose to my rival, Botvinnik, in order to increase his points on the…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

Most players ... do not like losing, and consider defeat as something shameful. This is a wrong attitude. Those who wish to…

— Jose Raul Capablanca

The king, which during the opening and middlegame stage is often a burden because it has to be defended, becomes in the…

— Jose Raul Capablanca