When asked, "How is that you pick better moves than you opponents?", Alekhine responded: I'm very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens, there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I make my opponent think up his."

"A chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk."

"Chess is a beautiful mistress."

"Chess is not only knowledge and logic."

"Oh! this opponent, this collaborator against his will, whose notion of Beauty always differs from yours and whose means (strength, imagination, technique) are often too limited to help you effectively! What torment, to have your thinking and your fantasy tied down by another person!'

"Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art out of
something that would hardly inspire another man to
send home a picture post card"
(Max Euwe)