"Andre Engels" wrote

Chinese chess is a form of chess, and thus cannot predate it. In my

opinion, it is a 'chess variant' - and western chess is a 'chess variant' as well. 'Chess' is, in the English language, simply the word for both western chess and the family of chess games as a whole.

Not in my dictionary. You may think this should be the usage. If it were, then actually this particular problem would go away.

Charles

On Friday 14 November 2003 19:40, Andre Engels wrote:

"Charles Matthews" charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com schrieb:

...

It is being argued that xiangqi (Chinese chess) is appropriately labelled 'chess variant', when it predates chess and can't be a variant of it. So it's like saying soccer is a 'gridiron variant'.

Chinese chess is a form of chess, and thus cannot predate it. In my opinion, it is a 'chess variant' - and western chess is a 'chess variant' as well. 'Chess' is, in the English language, simply the word for both western chess and the family of chess games as a whole.

You've got it nicely, I guess noone could be insulted if a list of chess variants boldly lists [[Chess]] at the top.