Dear Alex:

You're absolutely correct. It is a completely and totally absurd and stupid notion to suggest that Chess is inspired by the forces of darkness and cannot be engaged in by Christians. What a load of hooey.

The idiots that suggest these types of things are those mostly Protestant fundamentalists with the mentality similar to that of conspiracy nuts. The typical conspiracy nut thinks that President Kennedy was shot by Martians or by the CIA or some such nonsense, think that the moon landing was faked, think the world is flat, or the most recent fad among some very famous Catholics, think that the universe revolves around the earth and that the earth itself stands still. These people are idiots.

It is true that Chess originated in India, but the form of Chess that we play today was developed by Christians in the Middle Ages.

The notion that anything that might be traced back to a pagan source is somehow dark and evil and to be avoided by Christians is a notion that is not only stupid, but those that hold such notions are consummate hypocrites. For example, the wedding ring dates back to pagan times. Many other marriage customs date back to pagan times. The Cross itself is a pagan symbol. Yet do we see these numskulls taking off their wedding rings, avoiding all customs that might remotely refer back to pagan times in their wedding ceremonies, taking down the Cross from their churches? Of course not.

Even the notion of death and resurrection comes from pagan sources pre-dating Christianity. Do these people abandon the doctrine of the death and resurrection of Christ? Of course not.

The reason there are similarities between images, practices, and symbols between paganism and Christianity is that all this is inspired from the subconscious of human beings who were created by the same author and imbued that basic knowledge in us — God. 

If we find a painting in our attic that is unsigned, an expert may discover that it was painted by Picasso. How does that expert know this? Well, he knows this because Picasso used certain types of paints, certain brushstrokes, used colors in a certain way, and other attributes that can be identified to Picasso. Thus, even if the painting is unsigned an expert in Picasso can still tell that it belongs to the great artist.

The same is true with all these other notions. God has written on the hearts of all human beings the basic knowledge of Himself. The ancient pagans, however, did not have a signed copy of the Bible, nor the Prophets of old, nor the Church to correct their misinterpretations of that which they intuitively knew. They had no one to guide them. This is why the pagans would identify the sun and the moon as god because they didn't know any better.

In similar fashion the ancient pagans knew there was a religious significance to blood sacrifice but because they had no one to guide them they misinterpreted how that was to be practiced. Intrinsically the ancient pagans knew that there was some sort of religious significance to the idea of death and resurrection, but they had no one to guide them, thus they interpreted incorrectly.

These inherent ideas that were deep in the soul of human beings, placed there by God himself, did not begin to be interpreted appropriately until the Prophets and writers of the Old Testament, and more accurately by Christ, his Apostles in their teachings and writings of the New Testament, and his magisterial Church. This is not rocket science.

The point I'm making is that even if some symbol or activity was originally sourced in pagan times that fact has no relevance whatsoever to today. The Church has christianized many symbols, such as the wedding ring and the Cross. In addition, there are many neutral things that may have been invented by pagans, such as branches of mathematics, astronomy, Chess, etc. So what? These things are not inherently evil because they predate Judeo-Christianity. Only an idiot would make that assertion. Unfortunately, we have many idiots out there.

To answer your question, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing Chess as a Christian. I applaud you for your efforts and congratulate you in being able to hold your own among the Chess masters.

By the way, for a brief history of Chess see the website of the United States Chess Federation.

God bless, and, "I'll take white" 

Bro. Ignatius Mary