Was anyone actually ever banned from playing chess?

by Jodo 29 Replies latest jw friends

  • upside/down
    upside/down

    Yeah- I had to cut off my kids fingers to stop them from making gun shapes and shooting at each other with their thumbs and pointer fingers. Little violent bastards. Now you'll have to excuse me I have to go spend some "quality" time with Jesus.

    Good Lord Wake Up....

    u/d

  • Incense_and_Peppermints
    Incense_and_Peppermints

    checkers? i didn't know that. come to think of it, we never played any board games at all, not even monopoly. how strange...good lord... i suppose they frown on backgammon too... and parcheesi....and hungry, hungry hippos...and connect four... all Satanic, definitely...

  • upside/down
    upside/down

    Satan himself created chutes n ladders. That bastard always goes for the innocent.... lol

    u/d

  • jws
    jws

    I played on the chess team at school for a couple of years and nobody had a problem with it. The competition night didn't conflict with meetings. I don't remember any conflicts about the cross issue either. Whether by coincidence or not, my parents bought a chess set that had figures rather than the standard shapes. There was no cross on the king.

    How is chess war-like? If you engage in any game, you are trying to win. Even if you aren't "keeping score", you are trying to do better than somebody else. That's semi war-like. Yet all games aren't "bad".

    Is it the eliminating of the other player's pieces? There are so many games that involve eliminating your player's pieces, or at least setting them back. Checkers, Sorry, and Backgammon are some that come to mind. It's an element of gaming.

    Is it the names? The rook? The Knight? The king and queen? Strictly speaking, the pieces could be named anything. You could call them kittens, bunnies, and puppies if you'd like and still play the game with the same rules and moves.

    There is a board, there are pieces, and each piece has specific moves. It's just a game. The moves and play are simple, yet it can become very complex. There is no element of chance. It's mind against mind. It's an awesome game.

    Even though chess wasn't banned by our parents, games like Battleship and Stratego were. Monopoly wasn't. What's the lesson there? Greed? Accumulate as many worldly possessions and as much money as you can. We could play cards and yahtzee and other games of chance (the roll of the dice, the shuffle of the cards). Games that, at a young age left me believing in being lucky and unlucky and had be believing in superstitious things to make me more lucky.

  • orangefatcat
    orangefatcat

    Although the Society never came right out and say "Chess" was wrong, but the implication of that is the equivalent. of saying no you shouldn't play chess if your a mature Christian. So I assume the Society wrote it for the spiritually weak...ya ya ya

    Badger: I was waiting for someone to say no one comes down and plays on my chess, I laughed because I was going to say the same thing. Hey great minds think alot..

    Love Orangefatcat

  • William Penwell
    William Penwell

    The WT frowned on any recreational activilty that would take away from the door banging preaching work. I don't recall specifically the chess article although I knew an older Jdub couple that would not play cards because they said it had questionable origins.

    Will

  • jws
    jws
    I knew an older Jdub couple that would not play cards because they said it had questionable origins.

    Our modern deck of cards has it's origin in tarot cards. I don't remember the specifics, but I seem to remember tarot was just a game. The "tarot reading"/future predicting aspect was just an off-shoot of the deck of cards used.

    Many aspects of future telling have to do with chance. How your palm looks, the roll of a die, the toss of a coin, the selection of a card. Tarot cards had more pictures to them so gave rise to a lot more opportunity to come up with explainations based on the pictures. The same thing could be done with a deck of cards or a deck of "go fish" cards. Somebody could make up a "rule" where 5 of diamonds, then a 7 of clubs means you're going to win money.

  • Torninvartija
    Torninvartija

    My first post on the forum...I'm glad to notice I can make 75 posts more within 1 day and 4 hours... As a kid in Finland I played chess...my uncle came to visit from Australia and said chess was wrong...militaristic and all...we kept playing. I later showed my friends the article in Awake that said chess is was a no-no, but we didn't take it too seriously. Torninvartija

  • Jodo
    Jodo

    Welcome Torninvartija !!

    I've been on the board over 6 mths but only started posting yesterday myself, it's a great place, hope you stay awhile !

  • Poztate
    Poztate
    ...but I do know the brothers who did have chess sets break the cross off of the top of the king

    Not me but my wife insisted

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