The evidence for the prohibition of chess
Question
Is playing chess makruh or haram? Please also write the words in which its prohibition has come in the noble hadith.
Answer
Chess, if there is no gambling (qimar) and the like, is makruh; so it is in al-Bahr. I do not recall having seen any hadith in the Sihah explicitly concerning chess; however, Ibn Hajar al-Makki ﵀ has cited some narrations in al-Zawajir.
Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya
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