Some consider that when I play I am excessively cautious, but it seems to me that the question may be a different one. I try to avoid chance. Those w… - Caryl Chessman

Shall we play Bezique? Or Nightjack? I’ve cards, or chess if you prefer, but I’ve always found chess to be a bit too much like real life to provide much enjoyment as a game.

This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise—
Ah, if the game were poker, yes,
You might discard them, draw a full house! But it's chess.

Chess and Islam were born about the same time — chess out of a regional need to understand complex new ideas, and Islam out of the Arabs' desperate need for discipline, intelligence, and meaningful community. [...] In Persia the Muslims encountered chatrang, the bloodless new war game which relied solely on players' intellect. Chess and Islam complemented each other well: a new game of war, wits and self-control serving a spirited new religious and social movement organized around the same values.