Daily Inspiration Quote by Max Euwe

Euwe’s line reads like a polite correction that doubles as a manifesto: stop treating chess as a parlor pastime and start treating it like a contest with stakes. Coming from a world champion who also lived comfortably in academia, the insistence that “Chess is a sport” isn’t about sweaty exertion; it’s about legitimacy, discipline, and the right to be taken seriously in the public sphere. He’s staking chess’s claim to the cultural privileges we grant athletics: training, coaching, tournaments, rankings, sponsorships, and the idea that performance can be measured under pressure.

The second sentence sharpens the edge. “The main object... remains the achievement of victory” pushes back against two temptations: the romantic view of chess as pure art, and the hobbyist idea that the point is simply to enjoy the patterns. Euwe isn’t denying beauty; he’s warning that beauty is often a byproduct of competitive clarity. Subtext: if you sit down at the board thinking primarily about creativity, you’re already conceding ground to someone thinking about results.

Context matters. Euwe’s era saw chess professionalize, internationalize, and become a proxy battleground for national prestige, especially as the Soviet system began turning chess into a state-backed machine. Calling chess a sport is also a strategic move in that environment: it frames the player not as a quaint genius but as an athlete of the mind, accountable to preparation and outcome. The rhetoric is blunt because it’s meant to steel competitors - and to teach audiences how to watch.