Not the case nowadays though. Just six years after the negative article was published , the Awake 1979 said this in an article on indoor games
"Contributing to backgammon’s popularity is the fact that it is easy to learn, yet is very difficult to master. And, of course, chess is another board game that has long provided many persons much pleasure."
No further comments were made. You would be hard pressed these days to find a dub that objected to a game of chess. ( I never could get the hang of it myself)