Afghanistan’s Taliban recently suspended chess over concerns that it encourages gambling, which is banned in Islam, a move ...

Girls and women had been encouraged to learn the game — until the Taliban took power and ordered a suspension of women playing chess outside their homes — a precursor to the 2025 ban on the game.

But chess players said the game has long been played here — except when the Taliban first came to power in 1996 — and banned chess, for the first time, said John Butt, an Islamic scholar who ...

Girls and women had been encouraged to learn the game — until the Taliban took power and ordered a suspension of women playing chess outside their homes — a precursor to the 2025 ban on the game.

Girls play in a 2021 chess competition in Mazar-e-Sharif, capital of the northern Balkh province, Afghanistan. Girls and women had been encouraged to learn the game — until the Taliban took power and ...

Girls and women had been encouraged to learn the game — until the Taliban took power and ordered a suspension of women playing chess outside their homes — a precursor to the 2025 ban on the game.

Girls and women had been encouraged to learn the game — until the Taliban took power and ordered a suspension of women playing chess outside their homes — a precursor to the 2025 ban on the game.

She told NPR that the Taliban's chess suspension didn't surprise her. "Classic dictator 101 move," she quipped. "Chess helps you think critically," she said.