In a city shaken by despair brought on by a nearly year-long war, Safra Square became the scene of an effort to unify a community with a game – or several games – of chess. The 1,004 chess players of ...

"I have friends from non-Arab nations with whom I am sharing in humanity," Iraqi chess arbiter Hussein Salma Saliah said. Chess as a uniting force is becoming popular, reaching far from East to West.