THE NEWS

We weren’t aware that the game of chess could lead to a raging gambling addiction, but apparently the Taliban thinks so…

“The Taliban government in Afghanistan has banned chess until further notice due to fears the game is a source of gambling,” BBC reports Monday. “Officials said the game has been prohibited indefinitely until its compatibility with Islamic law can be determined.”

“There are religious considerations regarding the sport of chess,” Atal Mashwani, the spokesman of the Taliban government’s sports directorate, told AFP news agency. “Until these considerations are addressed, the sport of chess is suspended in Afghanistan.”

He explained that chess in Islamic sharia law is “considered a means of gambling” – but didn’t explain further on how this might be so.

It is but the latest absurd, draconian move by Taliban authorities since seizing power again in August 2021, following a more than two decade war with occupying US-NATO forces.

Some cafe owners have been quoted in Western media reports as describing chess as one of the few positive and healthy activities young people in the country can engage in.

But with many sports and intellectual activities also restricted and deemed ‘unIslamic’ – there are fewer and fewer games and hobbies the population has access to, also amid ongoing economic collapse and suffering.

“Chess has been gaining popularity in Afghanistan in recent years, according to Khaama Press,” Russia’s TASS notes. “A few days before it became known about the ban, a group of activists has asked the government for funding to develop chess in the country.”

According to a historical outline from Chess.com:

The Taliban had also banned chess soon after coming into power in Afghanistan in 1996, but the game returned as a popular pastime in the country after the regime change in 2001. At the Batumi Olympiad in 2018, Afghanistan won the D Category with CM Khaiber Farazi, CM Habibullah Amini, Wais Abdul Khaliq, Ashrafi Sulaiman Ahmad, and Safy Kanz Ahmad in the team. The Taliban retook control of the country in 2021 and has now announced the suspension.

But many Islamic countries and populations across the Mideast region routinely send chess players to international competitions and events. The Taliban has once again set itself apart as the ‘most extreme’ government in the region and the world.

Certainly, this ‘pause’ which is likely to lead to a more permanent ban on playing chess in Afghanistan won’t help the Taliban’s chances of getting international sanctions against it lifted.

‼️ In connection with the situation with the ban on chess in Afghanistan, I have prepared an appeal to the Taliban leadership with a request to reconsider their decision. pic.twitter.com/pP7qojbLJ6

— Кирсан Илюмжинов (@Kirsan__) May 11, 2025

The war-ravaged country’s pre-Taliban population, for example back in the 1970s, was actually somewhat liberal, cosmopolitan and open – with women regularly wearing European fashions, and Islamic garb was rarely seen in the cities. 

All of that changed with the CIA’s Operation Cyclone, which saw American and allied operatives (such as in Pakistan’s ISI) arm, train, and equip radical Afghan and Arab mujahideen. These militants would later form the core of the Taliban and its terror allies.