Is chess haram?

Chess clubs at school, a game with a grandfather after Friday lunch, a blitz match on a phone: chess is one of the most loved games among Muslims, and many still hear that it is forbidden. Chess is halal when it involves no gambling and does not crowd out prayer and duties. The hadith usually quoted against it concerns a different game, and the history of chess is in large part a Muslim history.

What does the hadith about nardashir say?

The report most often cited is in Sahih Muslim. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever plays nardashīr, it is as though he dipped his hand in the flesh and blood of swine” (Sahih Muslim 2260). Another report says that whoever plays nard has disobeyed Allah and His Messenger (Sunan Abi Dawud 4938, graded hasan by al-Albani).

Nard, or nardashīr, is the Persian ancestor of backgammon, a race decided by the throw of dice and closely tied to betting in that age. Chess (shiṭranj, شطرنج) has no dice and no chance: every move is the player’s own thought. Neither Sahih al-Bukhari nor Sahih Muslim contains a single report that mentions chess by name, and the reports that do name it are found in later collections, where the hadith critics judged them weak.

The scholars who permitted chess drew exactly this distinction. A game of chance invites the gambler’s hope of easy gain. A game of calculation trains attention, patience, and foresight.

What did the schools of law say about chess?

The scholars differed (ikhtalafa al-ʿulamāʾ). Imam Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “There is no good in chess,” and he disliked it along with other idle pastimes (al-Muwaṭṭaʾ 1755). The Hanbali school was the strictest of the four. The Shafiʿi school held a lighter view, permitting chess when it is free of gambling and does not distract from prayer. Imam al-Shāfiʿī reported that great Successors played it: Muhammad ibn Sīrīn and Hishām ibn ʿUrwa played chess, and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr was known to play with his back to the board, holding the position in his mind.

In 2019, Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta explained in a fatwa that the majority of scholars permit chess on these conditions. Among the Shia, Ayatollah Khomeini declared chess permissible in the late 1980s as long as there is no gambling, and the game has flourished in Iran since (What is the difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?). Some scholars today still forbid chess, and those who follow them act in good faith. The stronger view (al-rājiḥ) is that chess is halal.

What conditions apply to chess?

The conditions the scholars set are the same ones that guide any game (Are video games haram?):

• No gambling. A wager between the players turns any game into maysir, which the Quran forbids (5:90). Playing for fun, for rating points, or for a trophy is another matter (Is gambling or the lottery haram?, Is playing poker or cards without money haram?).
• No neglect of prayer. A game should never push a prayer past its time. The Quran warns believers against letting even their wealth and children distract them from Allah:

لَا تُلۡهِكُمۡ أَمۡوَٰلُكُمۡ وَلَآ أَوۡلَٰدُكُمۡ عَن ذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِ

“Let neither your wealth nor your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah.”

Quran 63:9

• Good character. Losing gracefully, winning humbly, and keeping the tongue clean of insults are part of a Muslim’s game.

Within these limits, chess is a gift. The Prophet ﷺ told Hanzala that a believer has “an hour for this and an hour for that” (Sahih Muslim 2750a), and the Quran reminds us:

وَٱبۡتَغِ فِيمَآ ءَاتَىٰكَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلدَّارَ ٱلۡأٓخِرَةَۖ وَلَا تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ ٱلدُّنۡيَا

“Seek the home of the Hereafter through what Allah has given you, and do not forget your share of this world.”

Quran 28:77

How did Muslims shape the game of chess?

Chess came to the Muslim world from Persia, where it was called chatrang, and it became a passion of the Abbasid age. The word checkmate itself comes from the Persian shāh māt, “the king is helpless.” Abu Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. about 946) defeated the reigning champion at the court of the caliph al-Muktafī in Baghdad, served as a companion to three caliphs, and wrote Kitāb al-Shiṭranj, which includes one of the earliest known descriptions of the knight’s tour, a puzzle in which the knight visits every square of the board once. One of his endgame problems remained unsolved for more than a thousand years. Muslim players composed and collected chess problems (manṣūbāt, منصوبات), and they often carved abstract pieces with no faces, which also answered those who worried about images (Is it haram to draw faces or people?).

The same Baghdad that loved chess was building the House of Wisdom and advancing algebra and astronomy, and the mind that enjoys the board is the mind the Quran calls to reflect (Does Islam encourage science?).

A closing word

Play chess with friends and children, with a grandparent or a stranger online. Let it teach you patience, foresight, and how to lose with grace, and when the call to prayer comes, leave the board as it stands. The game will wait, and so will your opponent.