Pity the grandmasters of international chess who want to show off their skills in the desert vastness of Saudi Arabia.
Their mental agility will never be praised there, not since the royal family banned the expression "checkmate" because it implied regicide, so writes Shyam Bhatia from Cairo for the London Observer.The weird laws of censorship enforced by Saudi authorities are being extended to other parts of the world where the Saudis are in a position either to own or influence the Arabic press.
The ban on reporting chess games came to light following a Saudi decision to prohibit the distribution of a popular Egyptian magazine, Rose El Youssef, which dared to print a picture of an Israeli journalist shaking hands with a Saudi official.
As the Saudis still do not recognize the "Zionist enemy," the picture was considered embarrassing and the magazine penalized.
Rose El Youssef is popular among Egyptian expatriates working in Saudi Arabia, so the ban is an especially painful blow to the publishers.
The Israeli journalist at the center of the row is Gad Lior, who carries both Israeli and German passports. He used the latter to accompany German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel on a recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
Once there, Lior, who works for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot, declared himself before meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud El Feisal and other officials.
Although his newspaper highlighted his story by describing him as the first Israeli reporter to visit Saudi Arabia, there were no immediate repercussions for Lior, who was received courteously by his Saudi hosts.
Trouble surfaced only when the story was translated and printed in Arabic by Rose El Youssef. The magazine's publishers received a letter from the Saudi Ministry of Information telling them that their product was no longer welcome because they had "broken the law of publication."
The Saudis did not specify the precise reasons for their displeasure, but Rose El Youssef officials are in no doubt that the Saudis were irritated by Lior's story.
"Our crime was that we dared to translate a story from a Hebrew paper published in Tel Aviv," the magazine's editors told readers. "Is it a sin to publish the truth in Arabic? Is it the fate of the Arab nation to survive as a deceived husband - to be the last to know?"
Unable to lift the ban, the magazine has retaliated by exposing Saudi censorship. The most serious offense in Saudi eyes is to print anything about the lives of the royals anywhere in the world.
Britain's Prince Charles and his estranged wife, Princess Diana, can breathe a sigh of relief. In Saudi Arabia, at least their personal differences will never reach the attention of the reading public.
U.S. State Department officials also have reason to be thankful. Any reference to the U.S. domination in the gulf, and its oil resources, is automatically deleted.
Even Iran, once a bitter enemy of the Saudi regime, is not entitled to the protection of the Saudi censors. "You may not mention Iran as a state that supports terror," the rules of censorship dictate.
Those are among the most glaring examples, but other forms of censorship are also practiced.
The game of chess, say the censors, is disrespectful to royals, kings and queens, for a weird example.
When a Saudi-owned newspaper in Europe recently published a picture of Yasser Arafat's wife Suha, taken at a reception in Athens, the editor blacked out the glass of wine in her hand.
Drinking alcohol is a major sin in Islamic Saudi Arabia - punishable by whipping - although many Saudi royals are known connoisseurs of forbidden drinks.
- NEW WRINKLE - For the first time, the reigning world champion (for the International Chess Association - FIDE), Anatoly Karpov has to earn the right to defend his title!
He must now compete in a semifinal tournament with three other candidates. The top two of that event will then battle for the FIDE crown.
Undoubtedly, Karpov's presence and ingenious play will add luster and drama to the playoff. But if he is eliminated, the ensuing title match will be a correspondingly diminished spectacle.
The continuing and more worrisome problem for FIDE is the absence of the strongest player in the world, Gary Kasparov - the Professional Chess Association (PCA) world champion - from its cycle.