Is chess immoral?

[Blobbenstein]

no, I have never kicked anyone playing a board game....I don't get that emotionally invested in games.

 

[shyvas]

I've heard that some chess people kick each other under the table.

I'd refuse to play with anyone who thinks that this kind of action is part of the game.

 

[nigel1]

Kronsteen (Number 2 in From Russia With Love) played chess and he was a psychopath.

 

[Spang]

My professional chess record is 1 - 4. I almost defeated an expert once.

Also, for those who haven't seen it yet:

Spoiler

 

[Mr Crunchy]

Equating chess with the simulated violence in video games is quite a stretch, the chess scene from Harry Potter notwithstanding.

When I played chess when I was younger, we "captured" the opponent's pieces, rather than killing them, so I had no qualms. No animals were harmed during the course of the game.

Ultimately, chess is a game that is purely mathematical once you strip away the superficial military contrivance. Someone mentioned Monopoly, which I think is much more immoral as it conveys the message that greed is positive and equates accumulation of excessive wealth as "winning".

Interestingly, my grandfather was a Baptist minister who thought that any "game of chance" that involved dice or playing cards was immoral. The only games he allowed in his house were chess and checkers.

 

[nigel1]

My professional chess record is 1 - 4. I almost defeated an expert once.

Also, for those who haven't seen it yet:

Spoiler

I've never lost a professional chess match.

 

[das_nut]

I was just reading a letter to a newspaper where a retired lecturer argued that chess is an immoral war game with a medieval mind-set where peasants are routinely sacrificed, as if they have no value, and the kings reign supreme. (Well, the queen is the most powerful though, but not essential to win.) At the same time people are worried about children playing violent computer games. What sort of message does chess send to young, impressionable minds?

I'm assuming that's either a joke, some sort of failed attempt at reductio ad absurdum, or it's one of those people who take offense at everything.

 

[Tom L.]

I haven't played chess in years. I knew how to move the pieces, but that was about it. My two sisters used to get carried away in Monopoly, however... I got the impression they subconsciously thought the money you won was real.

I didn't find out until years later that chess was inspired by military strategy. I loved the chess game in Harry Potter, though, both the movie and the book.

 

[Trinity]

OMG - I just played two games of chess with my teenage son (after not doing so for about 6 years!) - then I happen to see this thread...
Sigh! I guess it's a whole lot better than what he's playing on his Xbox though!

 

[Calliegirl]

I'm pretty creative, but I never thought of the chess pieces as anything but chess pieces. I never imagined a bloody battle happening with a fight to the death. Maybe that's why I didn't think chess was that much fun. I always thought it was because I didn't feel like thinking that much, but maybe it was lack of imaged blood and immorality.

I preferred backgammon. My friends and I would play that all day.

 

[PTree15]

I'm pretty creative, but I never thought of the chess pieces as anything but chess pieces. I never imagined a bloody battle happening with a fight to the death. Maybe that's why I didn't think chess was that much fun. I always thought it was because I didn't feel like thinking that much, but maybe it was lack of imaged blood and immorality.

I preferred backgammon. My friends and I would play that all day.

I love backgammon and board games. Scrabble is my favorite. My dad is really good chess player. I never got into it, though. I was more of a checkers kind of girl. My family still plays a lot of games. My mom and I play Scrabble a lot, and we also play a lot of card games.

 

[Clueless Git]

I preferred backgammon.

That doesn't sound very vegetarian to me.

 

[Spang]