San Francisco Bans ... Street Chess

San Francisco may be tolerant of many things, but street chess is no longer among them. Police put an end to a 30-plus-year tradition in the city's Mid-Market neighborhood by dismantling tables and confiscating games, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Players, most of them homeless, had gathered every day to battle wits, but police said too much crime was occurring in the neighborhood. “I think maybe it’s a disguise for some other things that are going on," a police official says of the chess games. Nope, says a former player. "They're being mean for no reason." (More San Francisco stories.)