I happen to be quite busy at the moment, and I lack
the time to respond to Louis Blair's disingenuous
and offensive nonsense in this thread in its entirety.

Louis Blair wrote:
Nick wrote (2 Feb 2006 17:38:37 -0800):
Why should I be surprised that Louis Blair has
practised more of his disingenuous snipping?

In contrast to Louis Blair, I have *not* snipped anything
written by Louis Blair in this thread until this time
(when I may do so on account of my lack of time
or my increasing lack of interest in responding to
his disingenuous snipping and distortions).

...
[Louis Blair's version of what I wrote:]
"the inappropriate nature of ...
'European chess'."
...
I wrote: "... the inappropriate nature of
*Louis Blair's preferred term* 'European
chess' ".
_
By deliberately snipping that part of what
I wrote, Louis Blair has distorted my meaning.

In what way?

A reader may construe these phrases differently

1) "the inappropriate nature of ... 'European chess'"
(Louis Blair's snipping of what I wrote).

2) "the inappropriate nature of Louis Blair's preferred
term 'European chess' " (what I wrote).

In (2) I hope that I have made it clear enough that
what I regard as inappropriate is *Louis Blair's usage
term 'European chess'*. This is a semantic issue,
with some cultural or political implications.

In (1) a reader might assume--wrongly--that I find
something inappropriate in 'European chess' (chess)
itself, for instance, as pertaining to the rules of
'European chess' (chess). I am *not* claiming,
for instance, that the rules of xiangqi are any
'better' than the rules of chess (or 'European
chess' as Louis Blair calls it).

Does Nick deny that he regards "European
chess" as an inappropriate term?

On the contrary, I have emphasized that I regard
'European chess' as an inappropriate term as used
by Louis Blair. I regard Louis Blair's continuing
vehement advocacy of the term 'European chess'
as inappropriate. In contrast, evidently, Louis
Blair regards the term 'European chess' as
fully appropriate.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that I did
was remove Nick's obviously false claim that
"European chess" is my preferred term.

That's *not* an 'obviously false claim'.

Louis Blair *chose* to use the term 'European chess'.
Louis Blair *could* have used *another term*, such as,
simply, 'chess', as I have suggested.

I doubt that any reader in rec.games.CHESS.*,
*not* rec.games.EUROPEAN_CHESS,* would
have misunderstood what was meant by 'chess'.

Did anyone *force* Louis Blair to use the term
'European chess'? *Only Louis Blair* has
used the term 'European chess' in this thread.

In my view, Louis Blair's *choice* expresses
a *preference in this context in this thread*.
That's what I meant when I wrote of "Louis Blair's
preferred term 'European chess'".

I did this without comment in the hope that
he would reconsider his nonsense without
it being necessary for me to bluntly point
it out to him publicly. I should have known
better.

I should know better than to expect Louis Blair
to read carefully what I write and to consider
honestly what I mean.

So let me now bluntly suggest that he do a
google search and discover for himself
how often I write "chess" and how often
I write "European chess".

Louis Blair has dishonestly distorted my context.

I have written no claim that Louis Blair has used
the term 'European chess' more frequently than
the term 'chess' during *all of Louis Blair's writing*
in rec.games.chess.* Can Louis Blair cite any
evidence where I have written such a claim?

Again, my comment about "Louis Blair's preferred
term 'European chess'" was meant to refer only
to *Louis Blair's choice* to use the term 'European
chess' in this context in this thread.

If, in the future, Nick dishonestly persists in this
nonsense, I shall certainly feel free to continue
to refrain from reproducing every repetition by
Nick of his nonsense.

Louis Blair chooses to practise name-calling.

A less prejudiced reader than Louis Blair may
have noticed that I have been careful enough to
express regret and to write corrections when I
have believed that I had not expressed myself
with sufficient clarity or factual accuracy.

(I have snipped what Louis Blair wrote from here,
though I may respond to it later if I have more time.)

Here are a few of my thoughts (written quickly):

Louis Blair introduced the term 'European chess'
into this thread. I doubt that any other writer in this
thread would have used the term 'European chess'
*if* Louis Blair had not introduced it. I have been
using the term 'European chess' *only in the context
of responding to Louis Blair's usage of it*.

As far as I know, the term 'European chess'
is *not* a standard term of chess discussion.
Is there an entry for 'European chess' in the
"Oxford Companion to Chess'? I doubt it.

Louis Blair has not given any convincing reason
to show that his term 'European chess', which is
*not* a standard term of chess discussion, is
appropriate.

As far as I can tell, Louis Blair apparently has argued
that his usage of 'European chess' was necessary to
avoid confusion with, say, 'Chinese chess' (xiangqi).

Again, I doubt that any reader in rec.games.CHESS.*
would misunderstand what is meant by 'chess'
(written without any adjectives). Also, I have read
articles about *chess* in Chinese publications, and
I cannot recall ever reading it described as 'European
chess'. Indeed, some scholars have claimed that
'European chess' had its ultimate origins in China.

Unfortunately, 'European chess' may be perceived as
having the connotation that Europeans (or people of
European ancestry) claim 'ownership' of chess.

Unfortunately, chess is *not* free of racism.
There's evidence that some chess club(s) at some
time(s) have excluded some players from membership
simply on account of they being *not* of white European
ancestry.

As I understand it, the USCF aims to promote diversity
by encouraging more participation in chess by people
in minority communities. I would submit that terms
such as 'European chess' are not helpful to this aim.

I have suggested (at first, quite politely) to Louis Blair
that the term 'European chess' not be used any more.
As far as I can tell, Louis Blair seems to take exception
to my view that the term 'European chess' is inappropriate.

--Nick