Why do religious leaders feel threatened by chess?

Religious leaders are control freaks that doesn't allow things they don't understand and cannot control. Could it not also be a attempt to ban things just to ban them in order to keep up the illusion that they are above everyone else? May that be chess or anything really that doesn't include sitting on a rug praising false idols and misinterpret allegories.

See, I didn't have to use complicated words that few understand to make my point across. 

"Chess is a human activity which brings together the human brain and the competitive spirit. But it's a competition without blood. There are 64 squares, and there is no blood" ~ Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Is this a reason why fundamentalist religious leaders hate chess?

(Hint: Current bloodbath in Middle East.)

Remember when Reverend Owen destroyed Morphy.

As I suspected nothing more that covert atheism masquerading as some kind of rationale and spouting trite platitudes that would make the meanest medieval monk look downright enlightened. 

Not only that Robert James Fischer, possibly the greatest chess player who ever lived was a theist and an ardent reader of the Bible.  Yeah thats right the King of chess was a theist, man that gotta hurt! Ka-ching!

Why do religious leaders fear chess? Because chess enthusiasts fear religion.

This must be reverse implication day

How to get 100 comments on a thread: ask "Why X?" When X is clearly false.

Sorry to burst your bubble but according to DNA you are not all the same, People in Cornwall and Scotland are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31905764

Please, don't try to make it a "religious vs non religious issue". Confucius said Go was a waste of time for the same reasons different religious authorities at any given time banned chess or advised people not to play it.

Chess is sometimes used to gamble even today. I am sure it is very rare with chess. Gambling is usually viewed negatively by religious people, just like by the non religious people because gambling is usually based on desire to make quick money without working for it, and because gambling historically has attracted crime. Since chess was used for gambling or was played in the same buildings as casinos it's been associated with things like cards, dice, etc.

Apart from gambling I am sure people saw long ago that various complex board games occupy people for many days and months. There is even a Chinese myth about Go about how a boy began playing Go with someone in the forest and didn't notice how many years have come and gone. Chess can be psychologically addicting. And it doesn't usually create some good or capital. Basically you don't do "work" when entertaining yourself with chess. That's considered bad in most cultures and throughout history since everyone usually had to work hard and still didn't have enough. Religious organizations and leaders would criticize chess and other nonproductive activities to be a waste of time.

I don't agree with the mullah in Saudi Arabia who has stated that chess shouldn't be played, or with the other historic bans of chess. If people enjoy it, they should play it. People can decide for themselves and later they shouldn't cry that they wasted a lot of time on something that didn't make them happy in the end.

I wonder what elo Confucius had?

Jeelo (sorry)

He wasn't really a shining beacon of Theism, though.

I thought Confucius liked Go and referred to other games as a waste of time.

In any case, the problem is that people resort to sweeping statements to address complex subjects, when simply applying a basic principle--like moderation being a virtue, in this case--works perfectly instead. Religion is just one shroud among many that people wear when committing such a fallacy.

Absolute nonsense.

I think we should get the facts right first. This blog entry by GM Ian Rogers throws a bucket of cold water over this "fiction" which was basically the product of GM Short's confusion regarding dates.

Here's the link: http://gardinerchess.com.au/saudi-arabia-and-chess/

Because they are nutcases who has never needed logic or reason to justify anything they decided and my second guess would be because chess is such an incredible waste of time and inevitably leads to gambling and drinking.

Duck is right. I learned to play chess at the age of 5, and by middle school I was playing Blackjack in the back of the school bus with my lunch money. The alcohol came later, but I had a mean soda habit in the meantime.

Thankyou.

Actually Fischer was quite religious.

Jehovas Witnesses used to ban chess but not anymore