Ismail Baqai, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, in response to a question about the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States playing chess and poker, said: “We have been chess players since long ago. In recent years, we’ve also become poker players. And now, for some time, we are playing in a mixed mode.” In the early years after the establishment of the Islamic Republic, chess was banned, but later this ban was lifted. Poker remains prohibited in Iran as a gambling game.