A Quote by Cecil Purdy

Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf

Cecil Purdy

Quote Topics

Chess Endings Golf Pawn Putting

Quote Author

Cecil Purdy
Chess Player
March 27, 1906 - November 6, 1979

Chess is not Mathematics, where ten is always more than one; in chess the King with a pawn can beat opponent's King with all pieces if they are placed badly.

Ashot Nadanian

As a rule, pawn endings have a forced character, and they can be worked out conclusively.

Mark Dvoretsky

The pawn is the soul of chess.

Francois-Andre Danican Philidor

Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.

G. H. Hardy

The essential disadvantage of the isolated pawn ... lies not in the pawn itself, but in the square in front of the pawn.

Richard Reti

My family doesn't do happy endings. We do sad endings or frustrating endings or no endings at all. We are hardwired to expect the next interruption or disappearance or broken promise.

Hope Solo

It cannot be too greatly emphasized that the most important role in pawn endings is played by the king.

Siegbert Tarrasch

Can you buy an entire chess set in a pawn shop?

Steven Wright

Be warned! From Satan's viewpoint you are a pawn in his game of cosmic chess.

Adrian Rogers

He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess.

Siegbert Tarrasch

Endings of one rook and pawns are about the most common sort of endings arising on the chess board. Yet though they do occur so often, few have mastered them thoroughly. They are often of a very difficult nature, and sometimes while apparently very simple they are in reality extremely intricate.

Jose Raul Capablanca

[When asked how someone 6'3" had dared take up golf:] I was too tall to make the chess team in my high school, so I tried golf.

Carol Mann

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

Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game

Nigel Short

When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method.