Chess QuoteMasters #6: IM Jeremy Silman
Of chess it has often been said that life is not long enough for it – but that is the fault of life, not chess. William Ewart Napier
To my fellow, esteemed quotologists, the opening quote was a follow-on to Alekhine's statement that, "A lifetime is not enough to learn everything about chess." [Top 25 Quotes by Alexander Alekhine | A-Z Quotes].
Well, certainly one lifetime won't prove long enough for me to solve chess, unless my daughter manages to upload me when the Singularity becomes self-apparent. By the way, that use of the word "Singularity" causes a mental twitch for me. When I was studying astrophysics (a lifetime ago), a singularity was that "point" in a black hole where all the laws of physics break down (in which case, does a "point" mean anything?). This modern Singularity appears to be the point at which all humanism breaks down. But at least I'd be around, in some sense, to see if classical chess is a draw, and our only way out of that conundrum is chess variants. At which I shudder and have a bit of a nervous breakdown.
Okay, nothing happening here, folks. Let's all get comfortable, grab a snack and a drink, and let that tempest in a teapot cool down. Yes, please just let the blogger have his moment.
And now, back to our regularly featured program.
Questions for the Reader to Ponder
Reminder About Those "Questions for the Reader"
Do you have an opinion on the greatest chess quote? It wouldn't surprise me if you have a favorite. For many of us there's some quote that has stuck with us through thick and thin, like a jingle we can't shake out of our head. Or you may have switched your allegiance to some other quote over the weeks, months, years, or decades of your chess experience.
But have you ever spent some time speculating about who produced the best chess quotes and in the greatest quantity? Hey, it's no problem if you haven't considered the issue! I'm more than willing to fill that particular void in your thoughts with my opinions!!
What makes my opinions better than yours? Well, my opinion is informed by decades of chess and a (slowly shrinking) chess library that still occupies multiple shelves in my library. Primarily, though, I'm the one who took the time to put some thought into this sorely overlooked aspect of chess history, a Top Ten ranking of the greatest Chess QuoteMasters (QMs) of all time.
Still, it's just a set of opinions. Besides, if you don't fully agree with my judgments, though I can hardly imagine such a contrary and confused state of mind, then chess.com generously provided a comments section so you can express your agreements, disagreements, quibbles, corrections, expansions, nominations, and questions. Some of which I will respond to!
Next, we quickly review the candidates.
The candidates, in alphabetical order, are Alekhine, Bronstein, Capablanca, Dvoretsky, Fischer, Kasparov, Kotov, Lakdawala, Emanuel Lasker, Mednis, Nimzowitsch, Nunn, Pachman, Romanovsky, Seirawan, Silman, Soltis, Spielmann, Steinitz, Tal, Tarrasch, Tartakower, and Znosko-Borovsky. No, you can't add anyone. All the selecting has already been done, and that's that, so it's too late to nominate anyone else. And the choices for #1 to #10 are also locked in the electrons orbiting inside my computer. So there!
You may have noted there are more than ten candidates, twenty-three in point of fact! Well, of course there are! Otherwise, you could start making some incredibly well-informed guesses after the first five were announced. Now there's at least an attempt to shroud the results in a bit of mystery as we count down to numbers three, two, and one!
Thought I'd prompt you up front on some of the questions you might want to ponder while reading, and before commenting on the blog at the end.
| Based on the quotes you're about to read, and already read for others, was Silman a good choice for the number six spot? |
| Who do you think will take the number 5 spot? |
| Who do you think will take the number one spot? |
Some Q&As from earlier blogs in this series.
| Question | Current Votes (last updated: 07192025: 5:32 PM EST) |
| Who do you think was left out? | Philidor (1), Morphy (1), Giri (1), Grischuk (1), Rozman (1), Tony Miles (1) |
| Who do you think won't make the QM Top Ten at all? | Capablanca (1), @DocSimoo's Grandma (1), Alekhine (1), Lakdawala (1), Znosko-Borovsky (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number ten spot? |
Bronstein (1), Nimzowitsch (1), Spassky (1), Tarrasch (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number nine spot? | Pachman (1), Lasker (1), Steinitz (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number eight spot? | Lasker (1), Nimzowitsch (1), Steinitz (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number seven spot? | Lasker (1), Lakdawala (1), Tartakower (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number six spot? | Lasker (1), Lakdawala (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number one spot? | Nimzowitsch (2), Fischer (½*), Tal (½*), Tarrasch (1),
Kasparov (1) |
*@DocSimoo split his vote between Fischer and Tal.
Jeremy Silman (August 28, 1954 – September 21, 2023) was an American IM, columnist, chess consultant, and author. His peak rating was 2420 in January 1996. ChessMetrics placed him at 2486 in September 1992 and at #413 globally in May 1978. All these facts point out is that rating and ranking don’t always coincide. This is also known as, it’s easier to be a shark in a small pool.
Silman’s students realized quickly that he was a proponent of understanding the imbalances of a position. In an article from Chess Life, May 2008, and available online only to USCF members (sorry about that), NM Dana Mackenzie pointed out that Silman focused, in roughly descending order, on: the superior minor piece; pawn structure; space, material (duh…but he means more than the obvious!); control of lines and squares; development; and the initiative. I’ve modified and added to that in my analytic approach, KIMPLODES! Cogito ergo sum: An Explosive Analysis Approach. However, the underlying concepts would be familiar to any Silman fan. (That said, I put king safety as the most important element. Sure, it should be obvious. But it doesn’t seem to be when you look at tens of thousands of games.)
His chess.com home page is @Silman. Don’t expect to find any games. but it does provide links to his blogs and his two websites, Jeremy Silman website one and J Silman's Asian Movie Reviews.
You can read more about Silman at:
- @TarjeJS Jeremy Silman (1954-2023)
- IM Jeremy Silman (1954-2023) | US Chess.org by IM John Donaldson
- Top Blogger @Englix’s Player Profiles: Jeremy Silman
Silman didn’t just write over 35 books, he also posted blogs on chess.com, contributed articles to Chess Life and New in Chess, played the professor in a video chess course by The Teaching Company, and served as a chess consultant for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Monk, and Malcolm in the Middle. In addition to his chess books, he also wrote about casino gambling.
You can read about his books that have been converted to chessable.com’s format at Jeremy Silman: America’s Chess Teacher - Chess.com. If you go to chessable, you can learn that IM Andrew Toth, IM Alex Banzea, and GM Maurice Ashley provide the video that serves as companion instruction for the volumes available on chessable.
You can find his chess.com articles at Silman's Articles with the last one posted on June 10, 2020.
His description of his novel AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A GOAT is quite amusing and the full self-review can be found on chess.com at Jeremy Silman's First Novel. Here's a teaser.
Please keep in mind that this is for ADULTS ONLY (heavy drug use, sexual situations, and rampant insanity)! I feel it hits on many levels. At times it’s very funny, at other times it’s extremely perverse, and at other times its thoughtful/sexual/sad/philosophic/manic, and it leaps to mindsets and places that won’t be familiar (or in many cases, acceptable) to many readers.
Okay, let's get to the heart of the matter, the ten quotes allowed to each candidate for the QM Top Ten.
You'll observe Quote #1 in the image above. As I explained in the Criteria, it's important to me to be able to visualize at least one quote. Jeremy achieved overkill in that regard. I also created an image for what I considered his tenth best quote.
Enough sweetening the well. Let's move on to the next nine quotes! I could have created images for several of these, but the ample goal for each of the QMs will simply be to demonstrate that one of their quotes was readily converted to an image that resonates.
Every threat should initially be looked at with a derisive attitude. [How to Reassess Your Chess: 4th Edition, p.159]
Who said that it's not possible to study chess, learn advanced concepts, and laugh at the same time? [Ibid, Introduction, p.XIV]
Stopping a fake threat is akin to stopping your opponent from losing the game! [Ibid, p.161]
If there's a move you want to play, push fear and doubt aside and try hard to make it work! [Ibid, p.170]
You will gain huge dividends by creating an "I'll do what I want no matter what you say" attitude in chess. [Ibid, p.176]
Before playing a move, always ask, "What wonderful thing does this do for my position?" If you can't answer that question, or if the answer has more negatives than positives, one is left wondering how you can justify playing it. [Ibid, p.198]
Don't hesitate to exchange your bad pieces for the opponent's good ones! [Ibid, p.66]
In an age where every serious player has a powerful chess engine, I've watched a chess pandemic appear that's unlike anything that's ever been seen before: While following live grandmaster games, the masses of chess fans all suffer from a shared psychosis-they think they know what's going on. [Ibid, p.22]
At times, Knights...are very much like clowns. They leap over pieces, they prance about in a strange drunken gait, their movements make the seem almost alien compared to the other chessmen, and they can even make us laugh when we see a Knight do an octopus imitation by forking the whole royal family and estate (attacking King, Queen, and both country homes/Rooks al at once.) However, as any clown-wise child will tell you, there is also something scary about them. They seem docile, but behind the facade and horse-like grin is a psychopath, and nothing is safe. [Ibid, p.31]
Skip QM Criteria and go straight to "Why Silman is #6" (With a fair warning that you might miss some new images.)
Making a list, checking it twice
I would hope some sharp-eyed critic out there would ask this critical question: What criteria did I use to determine who made the QM Top Ten List and who didn't? You asked for it, you got it! Right here, and right now.
| #1 | Gut feel. Darned if what they said doesn't resonate somewhere in my chess soul. |
| #2 | Must have ten quotable quotes that I could find without too much painful research on my part. |
| #3 | It must have been written or translated into English. I leave it to others to manage their linguistic chess QMs. |
| #4 | If it's a full paragraph...it isn't a quote. |
| #5 |
If it made me laugh it's probably a winner. |
| #6 | If it made me laugh and cry it's almost definitely a winner. |
| #7 | If it seemed glaringly obvious, I tried to consider when it was said. Sometimes that works, sometimes...not. |
| #8 | Can I visualize at least one quote? Can I create a picture that captures the essence of a quote? |
For each QM, I will be adding my take on why #9 was better than #10, and so forth, with every post. That's found at Why Jeremy Silman Ended at #6.
There might be a quote shootout, with five to ten additional quotes, if two QM candidates are evenly matched after their first ten quotes. This is unlike the 2024 World Blitz CC, and more like a golf tournament with a sudden death playoff. There can be no ties, but if it comes down to a coin flip, a spin of the roulette wheel, a random dart toss, or a roll of the dice to decide, so be it. Ultimately, I wield the scythe that separates and slots the candidates. [Tiebreaks will usually occur behind the scenes.]
Okay, what's your point? You did a lot of research, so what?
In my circular way of getting to the point, I found that I turned up a lot of very quotable material going through a book for those whose sayings did not yet appear widely across the chess quote echosystem. I harbor hope these twelve posts will alleviate some of that lack of respect for people who are eminently quotable.
Still, the process left me to ponder whether an in-depth look into only some candidate's published works was an injustice to those who had plenty of quotes already bouncing around the echoverse. Bottom line, I chose not to do a page-by-page of every candidate's works. One, I don't have books by all of them. Two, I don't have an infinite amount of time and energy.
To double down, I'm not going change my approach. As a character said in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, "So it goes."
What? You thought only GMs would make it into this first tranche of ten to enter the Chess Quotemasters Hall of Fame? Perish the thought!
So, let's move on to your second question. How did Silman surpass Bronstein, a genius of the chess board and a phenomenal writer?
Bottom line? I'm biased in favor of snark. Why, an inquisitive person might ask? Well, when I was about seven my mother told me to stop being a smarta__. Without a pause I replied, "Better than being a dumba__." Given both my mother and her mother were of the same mindset, I got away with that! Brilliant move, Kevin!! Ah, the things I could say and do after I pondered all the options that offered for exploration. Sure, there were a few misadventures along the way, but I'm still alive.
Bronstein indeed offered puckish humor, keen philosophical insights, and a wonderful understanding of psychology.
Silman added the spice of an attitude that sneers at your opponent's play. Hey, if in your heart of hearts you are truly convinced your opponent's latest move was a mistake or even a blunder, if that attitude drives you to determine why, and if you are able to deftly execute a plan that dashes your opponent's hopes and dreams, I'd say the victory dance on the opposing king's grave is warranted!
On top of that, note that Silman advocates for maintaining a sense of fun while engaged with the game.
Bottom line? How many people ever thought to point out that knights are like clowns (Quote #10) and perhaps there is a good reason to be afraid of them. After all, kids ain't dumb, and plenty of them develop a morbid fear of clowns. Something any sensible adult would develop if they watched Killer Klowns from Outer Space. (This last sentence purposely included on behalf of both my daughter and some members of BlogChamps who have a visceral reaction to those who say they have encountered aliens. Presumably, they will make an allowance for theatrical space clowns.) Finally, it's a rare tenth best quote where an image immediately comes to mind for me.
Reminder About Reader Questions
Many of these questions will change with every entry in the QM Top Ten posts. But that seems kind of obvious.🤣
| Do you think Silman was a good choice for the number 6 spot? |
| Who do you think will take the number 5 spot? |
| Who do you think will take the number one spot? |
In the table below I'll track names, if not full responses, for questions two and three.
| Question | Your Votes (7:24 AM, DC time, 15 August 2025) |
| 1 | Yes (2), No (0), Maybe (0) |
| 2 | Lasker (1), Lakdawala (1) |
| 3 | Nimzowitsch (1), Tarrasch (1) |
Short, sweet, surely spellbinding! Well, that's the goal. Ultimately, if someone besides me reads these, I'll consider the success box checked.😉😎
If you enjoyed this, please come back to see who was ranked #5 all the way through #1...and then a special edition with quotes from all the contenders who didn't make my Top Ten, but about whom you might have your own opinions on where they should have fallen.
Cheers!
Kevin
Don't jump into a bloody final Armageddon battle and expect to emerge completely unscathed and intact. If you inflicted more damage to your opponent than he did to you, then you came out ahead. – IM Cyrus Lakdawala [Clinch It!, p.10]
Don't be afraid of losing, be afraid of playing a game and not learning something. – NM Dan Heisman Chess Quotes On Losing
After I resigned this game with perfect self-control and solemnly shook hands with my opponent in the best of Anglo-Saxon traditions, I rushed home, where I threw myself onto my bed, howling and screaming, and pulled the blankets over my face. – GM J. H. Donner [The King: Chess Pieces, New in Chess, p.126]
Prior Blogs in the Quote Master (QM) Series
ANNOUNCMENT! The Top Ten Chess Quotemasters (QMs)
Chess QuoteMaster #10: GM Andrew Soltis
Chess QuoteMaster #9: GM Rudolf Spielmann
