Chess aphorisms

What have you found helpful?

Use the queen early, lose the queen early.

A knight on the rim is dim.

What do we do with bad bishops?

"A knight on the rim is often dim" always proves true for me.

So does "knights before bishops".

The king is a fighting piece.

Sometimes I take it too literally, though...

Once a king, always a king, but

Once a knight is enough...

Sorry. going to bed. Got a bike ride to do in the AM.

Jumping on the board with two Knights is most entertaining for me!

If you're an old guy and wake up in the middle of the night to empty your bladder, do NOT check the chess games. I woke up this morning having tossed a game I might have won to a much higher rated opponent.

Here's one I just heard recently. Bad Bisops protect good pawns.

Don't force someone to make a move that he wants to make anyway.

This group is hardly intellectual.

"The threat is often worse than the execution." (Nimzovich)

"Chess theory is nothing more than good practice."

I don't know if this already exists, but:

Programmer's paradox:

If x = 0 then forget if

...two pawns will hold a king...

Beyond that, I am not telling.

“With a knight on f8, you can never be mated” - Bent Larsen

Hah hah Stephenson2, that's a classic. How many times have we all felt this way? 

"Always deploy so that the right oblique can be readily established in case the objective plane remains open or becomes permanently located on the centre or on the King's wing, or that the crochet aligned may readily be established if the objective plane becomes permanently located otherwise than at the extremity of the strategic front."
--- Franklin Young

"All openings are sound below master level."
-- William Lombardy