Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

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Alex Holowczak
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:21 am

Reading the FIDE member nations list, Saudi Arabia and Oman are not members. This will probably be why they don't play at Olympiads.

Apart from big blobs of Africa, a few of the smaller West Indies nations, the only other place not to be a member of FIDE is North Korea.

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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matthew Turner » Tue Aug 18, 2009 9:43 am

Matt Mackenzie wrote
"You have a rather more benign view of the Taliban than I do then"

I would imagine it would be fairly difficult for you to justify this statement given that I haven't expressed a view on the Taliban regime

First of all Matt Mackenzie said this
"It was unbanned when they (The Taliban) were overthrown. Afghanistan has sent both men and (amazingly for many) women's teams to recent Chess Olympiads. There is not the slightest possibility of the game being banned again there."
Then this changed to
"And no I'm not saying banning chess again could *never* happen, but it is unlikely IMO (esp in Iraq)"

So, I'm not quite sure what you think, but I think there a jolly good chance of chess being banned again in Afghanistan.
An example of Karzai's 'progressive' policies is provided here
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 72524.html

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Ben Purton
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Ben Purton » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:31 am

Why have people brought this up.


Is what I want to know, is it of great shock that this occurs.

I mean seriously guys, this issue is one which is well documented, like the silent non pairing of any state of Islam V Israel is truly pathetic. I cannot think of one of the Israeli team who would refuse to play another Islamic country. But this silent rule still occurs

Ben
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:44 am

Ben Purton wrote:Why have people brought this up.


Is what I want to know, is it of great shock that this occurs.

I mean seriously guys, this issue is one which is well documented, like the silent non pairing of any state of Islam V Israel is truly pathetic. I cannot think of one of the Israeli team who would refuse to play another Islamic country. But this silent rule still occurs

Ben
I think Stewart pointed out that if certain nations played Israel, they won't be let back into the country. The actual players themselves might not care, but their governments certainly will. In much the same way that if one of Cuba's excellent amateur boxers or baseball players turns professional, they're not allowed back in to Cuba, because the concept of professionalism is anti-Cuban.

The same is roughly true for football, this is why Israel is in UEFA, when all surrounding nations are in the Asian equivalent. When Jordan entered Eurovision once, they didn't broadcast the Israeli song, and pulled the coverage when it was obvious Israel were about to win. The relationship of the players will probably be fine, but the governments simply won't allow it.

Geoff Chandler
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:18 pm

My wee mate from Saudi has been back in touch.

He's sorry but he he was unaware Saudi did not play in the GCC.

"...its not only chess, we seem to neglect individual sports in general and
focus on team sports."

(GCC is a team chess event......leave it).

My 'fee' is to look at one of his games and I was right regarding his strength.
drops a piece, wins it's back, misses a mate in 3 and gets mated.

So he may not have his finger on the pulse. But it was good of him to be as
open and as frank as possible. We agreed no names, only the bare bones and
NOT to go on The Corner. (never intended to).

I won't discuss the rest of the email. I found it quite enlightening and
I understand a lot more of what is and what is not going on than I used to.

I don't give a fig about religion or politics but chess players being prevented
and in some cases punished for playing chess has always caught me.

But as someone noted, "Why are were discussing this at all?"

He is correct - this is just a forum and what is said on here will not make
one iota of difference.

But the fact that we can discuss it all is worth mentioning so the 20 or so posts
regarding this 'insignificent' matter mean something.

Of course this pales with the more serious matter of grading lists which has to
date 429 posts, not includung mine.

(by the way the error is the junior adjustment, you are using it twice in the same year -
the JA should only be used once per year - trust me, I know these things).

Geoff

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:34 pm

Matthew, it was you who said you couldn't imagine the Taliban having somebody flogged for playing chess. I was simply pointing out that many of those who know them well would have a very different view.........

Still, let's leave it there, eh? :wink:

Didn't know that Oman wasn't a FIDE member (could have sworn they have played in an Olympiad, but obviously not)

Re North Korea - the South only joined FIDE fairly recently. At the last Olympiad easily their strongest player was an emigre from Russia. They play (like China and Japan) their own form of chess, of course :)
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:35 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:Reading the FIDE member nations list, Saudi Arabia and Oman are not members. This will probably be why they don't play at Olympiads.

Apart from big blobs of Africa, a few of the smaller West Indies nations, the only other place not to be a member of FIDE is North Korea.
Is there a list of members (or, to be more precise, non-members) readily available?
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:47 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:They play (like China and Japan) their own form of chess, of course :)
They have a wide variety of board games that are higher up the tree than chess. Chinese "checkers"/chess, then they have Go (which is so difficult, computers can't beat humans on an even basis yet). Then they have Mahjong.
Matt Mackenzie wrote:Is there a list of members (or, to be more precise, non-members) readily available?
Here is where I got my information from. If you're up for a challenge, you can play "Try to guess the blanked out African country." It lists the federations that are a member of FIDE, but not the converse.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:57 am

According to the map linked above, the following are not members of FIDE;

Americas: Guyana (sure they have played team events in the past), various W Indian microstates

Asia: E Timor, N Korea, Oman, Saudi Arabia, various Pacific microstates (notably Samoa and Tonga)

Africa: (here goes) Cape Verde, Comoros, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo (don't *think* I have missed anybody else out :) )

Some of those African ones are a bit more surprising than others - and I am sure at least a few *have* been members.

Every universally recognised state in Europe is there except Vatican City :D

Wonder when Kosovo will be allowed to join though.......... :?:
Last edited by Matt Mackenzie on Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:06 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Alex Holowczak » Fri Aug 21, 2009 9:23 am

Matt Mackenzie wrote: Wonder when Kosovo will be allowed to join though.......... :?:
Not going to happen any time soon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internatio ... _of_Kosovo

Because Serbia don't want Kosovo to be independent, it isn't going to get a lot of support because it sets a dangerous precedent for some countries. China won't support it because of Tibet. Argentina won't support it because of the Falkland Islands. Even places like Ukraine, who you would think would support Kosovo given their dealings with Russia over the last few centuries (in similar circumstances), are opposed to it.

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:57 am

The thing is, FIDE used to be more flexible on this. That is why Palestine was admitted back in the 1980s.

Also, autonomous but not independent entities like the Faroes, Hong Kong etc were allowed in at one point. Likewise both Guernsey *and* Jersey have independent federations (always strikes me as a bit silly that)

But the rules have been tightened up there too. IIRC entities like Gibraltar, Greenland and the Isle of Man have applied for membership in more recent years, but been turned down :(

IMO however, I think they will bite the bullet and recognise Kosovo before the likes of Russia do :wink:
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:29 am

I know bumping old threads is a bit frowned upon by some.........

But have just noticed a report on the BBC website about a chess tournament in Kandahar.

Given that area is a hotbed for the Taliban "insurgency" this has to be cheering news :)
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:25 pm

"Likewise both Guernsey *and* Jersey have independent federations (always strikes me as a bit silly that)"

Well they are separate places..... Now if Alderney or Sark or Herm or Jethou or Lihou were a separate federation from Guernsey - well that would be just crazy.
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:07 pm

Erm yes, I know that. But I have always thought it strange there are few, if any, Channel Islands-wide institutions - I don't even think there is a CI flag, as such :?: :?:

It has also always struck me as a bit unfair that the CI get two teams, but the Isle of Man aren't allowed to send one :(
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Re: Chess is another activity the Taliban considers un-Islamic

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Nov 24, 2009 10:20 pm

Guernsey and Jersey have separate teams in the Commonwealth Games as well, and in cricket. FIDE have decided recently that they don't like small Federations, whereas when Guernsey and Jersey (who used to have one team for the Olympiad) separated, they were both welcome to join FIDE. I think if they were not members and tried to join now, they probably wouldn't be accepted. FIDE politics changed perhaps.
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