Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

I do not think there is any other mental strain comparable to the exertion to which a tournament game subjects the chess master. Working at what seemed to me the most difficult mathematical problems has never exhausted me nearly as much as playing in a chess tournament; and of all intellectual applications mathematical work is surely the hardest. That is why physical fitness is a most important factor in tournament chess and why young players, whose brains can stand the poisons of fatigue much longer than those of older players have a great advantage.

Als de melk overkookt, stinkt de stoof.

The world eventually sends out a mean-ass Patrol Boy to slow your progress and show you who’s boss. […] He’s a mean guy, a Bad Lieutenant, the sworn enemy of goofery, fuckery, pride, ambition, loud music, and all things nineteen.

The profuse phallic symbolism of chess provides some fantasy gratification of the homosexual wish, particularly the desire for mutual masturbation.