"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