Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti has ruled that chess is forbidden in Islam, saying it encourages gambling and is a waste of time.

Sheikh Abdullah al-Sheikh was responding to a question on a television show in which he issued fatwas to viewers who sent in queries on everyday religious matters. He said chess was “included under gambling” and was “a waste of time and money and a cause for hatred and enmity between players”.

Al-Sheikh justified it by referring to the verse in the Quran banning “intoxicants, gambling, idolatry and divination.” Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s supreme religious authority, has previously issued rulings forbidding chess.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2016