Matches vs. Games

OK, so perhaps I shouldn't let this bother me, but it does. As an English teacher, I try to use words with some precision, and I've noticed a trend creeping in to chess.com that I'd like to squash--if you think it bears squashing.

It's the difference between "match" and "game." Increasingly I've noticed people referring to a match when what they really mean is a game. For instance, I just now read a post where a player said that in his local tournament he "lost all [his] matches." I'm sorry, but I've always believed that a match was a SERIES of games. Fischer and Spassky played a match in 1972, and the 6th game was noteworthy.

So call me an old fuddy-duddy, but if we're going to be chess players, we should use the right terminology.

If you're going to be a stickler on the internet you'll be busy.

What bothered me from the first moment I found this site is that people here seem to use the word "forum" when they mean "thread".

Oh, believe me, I know that this is true! But if only a few people are swayed, I'll be happy.

Yes, this does annoy me. A forum is a collection of threads.

I disagree. Chess is played on the board and has its own language.

A lot of people are writing in their best effort of English, a foreign language to them. It is sometimes very difficult for me to say it like I would express it in Dutch. Sometimes I even do not know if I said what I tried to say. And then should I bother about the difference between a match and a game otherwise I would not be called a chess player? Ouch, I know my rating is already not enough and now it is even extended to my ability to use this foreign language.

Yeah, I saw the "you should be watching the Anand Aronian match" and I got all excited... Anand and Aronian are playing a match?!

But it was just a game heh.

But like LoekBergman says, if it's not their first language then it really doesn't matter.  I can understand what they mean soon enough.

I am NOT talking about people from foreign countries. Lord knows, even though my family is from Holland originally, I wouldn't recognize a single word of Dutch. No, I'm talking about people whose native language is English. I love my country, but the level of usage among even our "educated" is deplorable.

Yes, I know I'm straying from my own topic, but--for instance: It is all too common today to hear newscasters, advertisers, etc. state that something "begs the question" when they really mean "raises the question." To "beg the question" is to use an error in logic wherein the conclusion to an argument is merely the premise dressed up in different clothes. These are people who SHOULD KNOW BETTER! In fact, I have never once heard anyone from the "less educated" classes make this mistake.

OK, enough ranting. I'll leave this thread (not forum) to its own devices. But once again, I apologize to any non-native English speaker; I admire you more than I can say for learning a foreign language as well as you have. I took German for six years in high school, and today all I can do is ask for a piece of paper and a fried potato in German.

Thanks for your compliment. The internet is full of pages in English. Even if we had not learned it on school, we would learn it. I read it on a daily basis, that is not the exposure of German you had. We might compare my French with your German.

And yeah, I am sometimes amazed too when I hear a fellow Dutchman talk his native language making mistakes that would not be acceptable at the age of twelve. Then I get thoughts like "Where have you been all those years now that your language needs you?" or "Don't ask what your language can do for you, ask yourself what you can do for your language."

Yeah, I saw the "you should be watching the Anand Aronian match" and I got all excited... Anand and Aronian are playing a match?!

But it was just a game heh. agariohacks.club/

But like LoekBergman says, if it's not their first language then it really doesn't matter.  I can understand what they mean soon enough.