Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul S Person Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Re: OT Weird Chess News. Date: Tue, 20 May 2025 08:24:53 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 44 Message-ID: <3e7p2k5q6ura2ecuqa7vrvm85r9l289gtl@4ax.com> References: <100egqo$1f61n$3@dont-email.me> <100g32g$1psdg$1@dont-email.me> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Date: Tue, 20 May 2025 17:24:58 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="ea02030d713dc45db08ef80e8af051f8"; logging-data="2428445"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19WUeCFuHCxVO9flaIrxKcgV4DTKIMMpyc=" User-Agent: ForteAgent/8.00.32.1272 Cancel-Lock: sha1:FNuvCnijQ8FPiaWQVJdHzjG4S5I= On Mon, 19 May 2025 16:07:44 -0400, William Hyde wrote: >Paul S Person wrote: >> On Mon, 19 May 2025 17:50:24 +1200, Titus G wrote: >>=20 >>> Chess banned in Afghanistan due to gambling and religious = considerations. >>> = https://www.khaama.com/chess-banned-in-afghanistan-due-to-religious-restr= ictions/ >>=20 >> That's very strange, as chess itself may well have come to Europe via >> Islam (from India, IIRC). You would think it was firmly traditional. > >You would think so, but there's a long history of religious=20 >"authorities" calling for the banning of chess, both in Christianity and= =20 >Islam. > >Mainly because chess distracts people from the Proper Duty of Man: Beat=20 >up unbelievers, pay the church, pray, have children and raise them in=20 >the faith, beat up unbelievers, and so on. > >No room for games in that. > >Very early versions of chess are said to have involved dice (I'm not=20 >sure if this is generally accepted but chess with dice does exist) and=20 >if so early bans, circa 600 or so, may have been part of a larger ban on= =20 >gambling. Interesting. Well, the dice bit anyway. It occurred to me last night that, since the most powerful piece is the Queen, chess could be banned as woke or as DEI. Particularly if the person banning it thought that it was a Drag Queen. That would be fully compatible with MTG's views on Ukraine, for example. --=20 "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino, Who evil spoke of everyone but God, Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"