The Saudi Grand Mufti has banned chess:
cnn.com/2016/01/21/middleeas … ses-chess/
One would think playing chess less a vice than say playing chest, but maybe the Saudis use a chess board something like this:
Isn’t mathematics also a vice to the Saudis?
Are they going to track our IP’s and kill us for disagreeing with them?
Its not legally binding to anyone but the Mufti under Saudi Law. If the Mufti is caught playing chess, he can do prison time, if not be executed. Nobody else, for the moment.
Its called a Fatwa. In the west, we usually hear it in reference to a call for jihad or death threat, or something stupid like this.
Basically, any Islamic scholar can give a Fatwa. They usually are solicited, by people stumped on a question for their own conduct, they go to the scholar, they rule. If it turns our to be something suspiciously stupid like this, they can get a second, third opinion. Why? Cause you find some scholars aren’t as knowledgeable about certain things, and they give bad advise… so the ruling only applies to the scholar.
Now… in Saudi Arabia, they have religious police, who operate off such rulings. But they are increasingly limited in how they can actually arrest people, these religious police differ from normal police, and the actual powers of arrest and detainment have been significantly reduced.
They van harass you, follow you while calling the cops, detain you sometimes, but once the real cops get involved, they back off. If the real cops don’t care your playing chess (and they probably don’t), then whatever. If the cops do, then it’s off to prison and human right abuses, till you get your day before the secret tribunal. If the judge of the secret tribunal is rolling his eyes at how stupid the lond chain of tragic events are that caused you to come to court, you can be aquitted, or judged guilty, with no ends of humiliation and inhumanity applied to you.
Carefully selected, government council of scholars can sit in bench and rule on conflicting Fatwas, and most Islamic states forbid issuing Fat was ordering executions, assassinations, or Jihad save through the national level group.
This being said… Saudi Arabia comes out with a lot of silliness, because they have a similar approach to philosophy as you Trixie. It is a whole damn country full of Trixies.
How dare you compare me to sand people. Why would I ban chess? Im not some feminist who bans God given rights.
Well it’s addictive for one thing, especially if you get playing 5 minute chess, or less. And what he said about it leading to hard feelings is also true, but only because some people are sore losers. And being a sore loser does seem to have a nationality component; I mean some nationalities seem to handle defeat better than others. If you go on to a site like chess.com, they’ll put the flag of each player beside his avatar (they used to anyway). Anyway, some people start losing, and instead of conceding, they disconnect, and you have to wait for the time to run out, before you get credited with the win. I didn’t play a whole lot of Saudis, but when I did see the Saudi flag come up, I would be half expecting them to disconnect if I started winning.