Fred Waitzkin > Quotes

“They play with unflinching seriousness, as if life depended upon the flick of a piece or the snap of a clock - and it does. Some of these men have lost jobs and wives playing night after night, usually against the same opponent. . . . Night after night, the same men sit across from one another in the same chairs. They seem to have no sense of the passing of time.”
― Fred Waitzkin, Searching for Bobby Fischer: A Father's Story of Love and Ambition

“Except for a handful, chess players don’t have such illusions. The game has a severe analytic quality that makes self-deception difficult. Unlike the undiscovered poet who, despite the harsh criticism of his peers, lives on his fantasies for the day that he will be recognized as the next Dylan Thomas, even a young chess player can usually gauge his talent. When Josh was six, he played several games against a pudgy thirteen-year-old who was the top player on his high school team. He beat Josh every time, but a couple of the games were close, and afterwards the boy seemed gloomy about his performance. He explained that if he didn’t make significant improvement during the next year, he would wind up as just another wood-pusher. Despite his celebrity in school, he seemed to know that he didn’t have it. While”
― Fred Waitzkin, Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World