Muslim narrates:
مَنْ لَعِبَ بِالنَّرْدَشِيرِ فَكَأَنَّمَا صَبَغَ يَدَهُ فِي لَحْمِ خِنْزِيرٍ وَدَمِهِ
He who plays backgammon is like one who dyed his hand with the flesh and blood of swine.
Nardasheer is commonly translated as chess, but this is a mistranslation/incorrect translation. So any way, backgammon was a cultural game in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon Him) and was widely played for money, in other words it was used as a gambling game. And without any doubt this is totally haram, but what if it was played not for money? The Hadith would seem to point that playing backgammon is Makrooh since sticking ones hand in the flesh and blood of a pig is very makrooh/disliked, in other words it is a disliked thing. What have scholars said in regards to this?