Grandmaster Reviving Chess in Iran

By Sumayyah Meehan

January 27, 2010

One of the many items in the long line of bans in Iran was the game of chess. From 1981 to 1988, it was a crime to even play the game of chess in public or sell chess paraphernalia. It took no less than a fatwa from none other than the less than frisky Ayatollah Khomeni to lift the chess ban in the late 80s.

Since then, Iranian chess players have flourished. There are seven Iranian Grandmasters today who have come together to revive the brainy game in the hearts and minds of every day Iranians. World-record holder for the most chess matches held at the same time, Iranian national Morteza Mahjoob, is spearheading a campaign to bring the game of chess back to its former glory in his country.

Mahjoob’s love affair with chess began when he was a mere 13 years old. He stumbled upon a couple of people playing the game in a park and picked it up almost instantaneously. Now at 29 years old, he has already broken the world record for most simultaneous chess matches played at once, 500 matches in 18 hours with 397 wins to be exact, which catapulted him right into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Today Mahjoob runs two chess schools with more than a dozen coaches and 800 students learning the ropes in chess. Iran is now ranked at number 49 out of 139 of the top chess loving countries in the world. And the Iranian public often plays chess in gardens or at home. Some have even gotten into chess competitions, which are often aired on Iranian State-run TV. As for Mahjoob, he continues to set his sights high and hopes to one day become chess champion of the world. “Like any athlete, I love to reach the summit,” he revealed recently.

Source: Yahoo