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| Chess is gloriously rebellious. Maybe that’s what Saudi Arabia’s mufti fears | Chess is gloriously rebellious. Maybe that’s what Saudi Arabia’s mufti fears |
| (7 months later) | |
| The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, does not like chess. “It is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money,” he declared on his popular (if somewhat leadenly titled) TV show With His Eminence the Mufti. “It causes enmity and hatred between people.” Unlike religion, of course. | The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, does not like chess. “It is a waste of time and an opportunity to squander money,” he declared on his popular (if somewhat leadenly titled) TV show With His Eminence the Mufti. “It causes enmity and hatred between people.” Unlike religion, of course. |
| He made this declaration a couple of years ago, but the news seems to have travelled slowly and has only made headlines this week, perhaps because a chess tournament is being held in Mecca and someone was keen to cause trouble. It worked: contrary to some reports, the mufti doesn’t have the power to ban chess, but he can influence opinion. And being branded un-Islamic – he says the game contravenes the Qur’an – is an unpleasant accusation in Saudi Arabia. | He made this declaration a couple of years ago, but the news seems to have travelled slowly and has only made headlines this week, perhaps because a chess tournament is being held in Mecca and someone was keen to cause trouble. It worked: contrary to some reports, the mufti doesn’t have the power to ban chess, but he can influence opinion. And being branded un-Islamic – he says the game contravenes the Qur’an – is an unpleasant accusation in Saudi Arabia. |
| This is not the first time chess has run into trouble in the Middle East. It was banned in Iran after the revolution in 1979, but Ayatollah Khomeini relented in 1988 on the grounds that it was good for the brain, though he specified it should not interfere with daily prayers and should never involve gambling – the main criticism of those who seek to proscribe it. | This is not the first time chess has run into trouble in the Middle East. It was banned in Iran after the revolution in 1979, but Ayatollah Khomeini relented in 1988 on the grounds that it was good for the brain, though he specified it should not interfere with daily prayers and should never involve gambling – the main criticism of those who seek to proscribe it. |
| The Taliban banned the game (along with everything else) in Afghanistan in 1996, though it returned when they were overthrown in 2001, and in Iraq Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says chess is forbidden under the Qur’an even if only played online. | The Taliban banned the game (along with everything else) in Afghanistan in 1996, though it returned when they were overthrown in 2001, and in Iraq Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani says chess is forbidden under the Qur’an even if only played online. |
| Now, as a chess aficionado I naturally disapprove of all attempts to restrict this great game, especially as the Middle East was crucial to its development. Chess originated in India in the sixth century, but migrated to Persia and the Middle East, and came to Europe with the Muslim armies that conquered much of Spain. The references to the game in the Arabian Nights attest to its popularity. Religious authorities now calling for a ban are trying to excise part of their own history. | Now, as a chess aficionado I naturally disapprove of all attempts to restrict this great game, especially as the Middle East was crucial to its development. Chess originated in India in the sixth century, but migrated to Persia and the Middle East, and came to Europe with the Muslim armies that conquered much of Spain. The references to the game in the Arabian Nights attest to its popularity. Religious authorities now calling for a ban are trying to excise part of their own history. |
| On the other hand, I reluctantly have to admit that the grand mufti does have a point. Chess is largely a waste of time, and it does unquestionably cause enmity and hatred between people. Only last night, tired and depressed, I was playing online and got into heated arguments with two players. | On the other hand, I reluctantly have to admit that the grand mufti does have a point. Chess is largely a waste of time, and it does unquestionably cause enmity and hatred between people. Only last night, tired and depressed, I was playing online and got into heated arguments with two players. |
| People who devote themselves to chess have to some extent rejected the “real” world | People who devote themselves to chess have to some extent rejected the “real” world |
| When you play online, against unknown, unnamed opponents who can be anywhere in the world (a six-year-old in Milwaukie, a grandmaster in Minsk), you can also chat to them as you make your moves. I became convinced one player was using a chess program to help him, and lambasted the poor guy (believe me, it will have been a man – 94% of competition chess players are). | When you play online, against unknown, unnamed opponents who can be anywhere in the world (a six-year-old in Milwaukie, a grandmaster in Minsk), you can also chat to them as you make your moves. I became convinced one player was using a chess program to help him, and lambasted the poor guy (believe me, it will have been a man – 94% of competition chess players are). |
| The other player was just beating me because I was making useless moves, so I started playing very slowly to annoy him and we got into a furious row. Chess, which at its heart is kill or be killed, is not an edifying game. | The other player was just beating me because I was making useless moves, so I started playing very slowly to annoy him and we got into a furious row. Chess, which at its heart is kill or be killed, is not an edifying game. |
| Great claims have been made for it. Marcel Duchamp, who at one point considered giving up art to devote himself to chess, and was a good enough player to represent France in international tournaments, thought it was a supremely artistic game. “While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists,” he insisted. | Great claims have been made for it. Marcel Duchamp, who at one point considered giving up art to devote himself to chess, and was a good enough player to represent France in international tournaments, thought it was a supremely artistic game. “While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists,” he insisted. |
| The American statesman Benjamin Franklin, a keen amateur player, didn’t just claim chess was an art: he said it was good for the soul. In an essay called On the Morals of Chess, he said it was “not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions.” | The American statesman Benjamin Franklin, a keen amateur player, didn’t just claim chess was an art: he said it was good for the soul. In an essay called On the Morals of Chess, he said it was “not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions.” |
| A nice thought, widely cited, but nonsense. “Chess is only chess,” as the crotchety Dutch grandmaster Hein Donner pithily pointed out. Beware all the grand claims made on its behalf. It is a highly technical game with occasional moments of beauty, a game of space and patterns and remorseless logic, a game for mechanics more than intellectuals. | A nice thought, widely cited, but nonsense. “Chess is only chess,” as the crotchety Dutch grandmaster Hein Donner pithily pointed out. Beware all the grand claims made on its behalf. It is a highly technical game with occasional moments of beauty, a game of space and patterns and remorseless logic, a game for mechanics more than intellectuals. |
| The real attraction of chess is that the board is a simulacrum of life, where intense battles can be fought with no casualties, where the rules and objectives are clear, where neat geometric certainties replace messy realities. “Chess is my world,” said the attacking genius Mikhail Tal, world champion in the early 1960s. “Not a house, not a fortress where I hide myself from life’s hardship, but indeed the world. The world in which I live a full life, in which I prove myself.” | The real attraction of chess is that the board is a simulacrum of life, where intense battles can be fought with no casualties, where the rules and objectives are clear, where neat geometric certainties replace messy realities. “Chess is my world,” said the attacking genius Mikhail Tal, world champion in the early 1960s. “Not a house, not a fortress where I hide myself from life’s hardship, but indeed the world. The world in which I live a full life, in which I prove myself.” |
| People who devote themselves to chess have to some extent rejected the “real” world. Albert Einstein could never understand why his friend Emanuel Lasker, world champion for a record 27 years, wasted his mathematical talents on chess. Or, rather, he assumed it was just to make a living, and pitied Lasker for it. “Master chess grips its exponent,” said Einstein in a bizarre foreword to Jacques Hannak’s biography of Lasker, “shackling the mind and brain, so that the inner freedom and independence of even the strongest character cannot remain unaffected.” | People who devote themselves to chess have to some extent rejected the “real” world. Albert Einstein could never understand why his friend Emanuel Lasker, world champion for a record 27 years, wasted his mathematical talents on chess. Or, rather, he assumed it was just to make a living, and pitied Lasker for it. “Master chess grips its exponent,” said Einstein in a bizarre foreword to Jacques Hannak’s biography of Lasker, “shackling the mind and brain, so that the inner freedom and independence of even the strongest character cannot remain unaffected.” |
| The mufti has other allies in the west. The critic William Hazlitt, in his essay The Indian Jugglers, insisted: “A great chess player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it; no act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.” Raymond Chandler called the game: “The most elaborate waste of human intelligence outside of an advertising agency.” | The mufti has other allies in the west. The critic William Hazlitt, in his essay The Indian Jugglers, insisted: “A great chess player is not a great man, for he leaves the world as he found it; no act terminating in itself constitutes greatness.” Raymond Chandler called the game: “The most elaborate waste of human intelligence outside of an advertising agency.” |
| The philosopher George Steiner went further. He covered the epic Fischer-Spassky world championship match in Iceland in 1972 for the New Yorker, and concluded emphatically: “A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labours on an ultimately trivial human enterprise. Almost inevitably, this focus produces pathological symptoms of nervous stress and unreality.” | The philosopher George Steiner went further. He covered the epic Fischer-Spassky world championship match in Iceland in 1972 for the New Yorker, and concluded emphatically: “A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labours on an ultimately trivial human enterprise. Almost inevitably, this focus produces pathological symptoms of nervous stress and unreality.” |
| What all these critics fail to understand is that chess obsessives, especially the professional players who devote their lives to the game and strive to understand its “truth”, are engaged in a glorious act of rebellion. The “real” world is dull, unjust, unchangeable, so instead they live in an illusory world, like Alice when she goes behind the looking glass and finds “a great huge game of chess that’s being played – all over the world”. Perhaps this is what the mufti really fears: chess players are natural rebels who have rejected the workaday world and all its totems. They want to topple kings – and maybe muftis too. | What all these critics fail to understand is that chess obsessives, especially the professional players who devote their lives to the game and strive to understand its “truth”, are engaged in a glorious act of rebellion. The “real” world is dull, unjust, unchangeable, so instead they live in an illusory world, like Alice when she goes behind the looking glass and finds “a great huge game of chess that’s being played – all over the world”. Perhaps this is what the mufti really fears: chess players are natural rebels who have rejected the workaday world and all its totems. They want to topple kings – and maybe muftis too. |
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