Awake!, “Chess—What Kind of Game Is It?”
“Then, too, grown-ups may not consider it proper for children to play with war toys, or at games of a military nature. Is it consistent, then, that they play a game noted to be, in the opinion of some, an “intellectualized equivalent of the maneuvers enacted by little boys with toy soldiers”? What effect does playing chess really have upon one? Is it a wholesome effect?”
Written after the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match, the article quotes a chess player’s book calling the game ‘a play-substitute for the art of war’ and Time magazine saying ‘Chess originated as a war game’, warns of the time it consumes and of ‘stirring up competition with one another’, and closes with the questions quoted. It stops short of saying that a Witness may not play chess, and the war-game descriptions are quoted from other writers rather than asserted by the magazine.
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Provenance and verification note for Awake!, Chess—What Kind of Game Is It?
Confidence note. Article opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the closing questions follow the page 14 marker. The article runs pp. 12-14. Whether it amounts to a prohibition was checked by reading the whole text: it does not.
Notes. Frequently cited second-hand as a ban. It is counsel expressed as rhetorical questions.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chg-p-g-1973-0322-chess