Taliban Bans Chess

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have found something new to ban. Officials announced Sunday that chess has been suspended indefinitely, the BBC reports. The game is "considered a means of gambling" and will be banned while authorities try to determine whether it is compatible with Islamic law, officials said. Authorities said the ban might be temporary, unlike the one on mixed martial arts introduced last year.

Azizullah Gulzada, owner of a cafe in Kabul where chess competitions have been held, says that gambling has never taken place at his establishment but that he will respect the suspension. "Young people don't have a lot of activities these days, so many came here every day," he tells AFP. "They would have a cup of tea and challenge their friends to a game of chess." Chess.com notes that religious bans on chess are nothing new: The earliest Islamic ruling against the game was in 655AD, when the religion was less than 50 years old. The Catholic Church also regularly banned chess until around the mid-13th century. In 1061, the bishop of Florence defended playing the game, arguing that unlike dice games, it involved skill rather than luck. (More Taliban stories.)