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IAGO Chess System. http://abstractgamers.org/wiki/iago-chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Rich Hutnik wrote on Wed, Apr 9, 2008 04:01 AM UTC:
I am under the impression that Chess operated under a ban by the Catholic Church, because they likely found people spending far too much time playing it, and was picking up a gambling angle (the use of dice in some versions, and also probably betting).  The Church likely judged that chess was an unproductive use of time, and banned it.

As for the war analogy, this is my take, but you did happen to find the ruling class using it to train in strategy and movement.  You can also argue that perhaps it was a divination device for kings to determine outcome of battles (aka a wargame).  This then also might be another call for the ban by the Catholic Church regarding chess.