In the present note we prove a new sharp lower estimate for tails of the cen- tral chi-square distribution. Next, using it, results of Inglot and Ledwina [4] are essentially improved. In effect, we provide accurate upper and lower bounds for the chi-square quantiles for small α. Their form suggests to propose a new simple approximation formula for the chi-square quantiles which for typical k between 3 and 100 and typical α between 0.1 and 0.0001 gives comparable relative errors as the celebrated Wilson–Hilferty formula. Being expressed explicitly in terms of k and α it is easy for hand calculations which may be regarded as its additional advantage. For the sake of completeness, we provide also some lower and upper bound for the normal quantiles.