Dulce et Decorum Est

It is fascinating (but not surprising) to note, that among the 239 elements on chess.com's country list, the following ones ...

do not have an International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) country code - according to standard 3166: English country names and code elements 

http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/iso_3166_code_lists/

   and follow link to English country names and code elements

I'm sure Serbia has one!!

yeah, EXCEPT for Serbia!

Senegal is also listed!!??

True, but you're helping me make the point that merging a list of official ISO 3166 country names with a list of well-known country names is perplexing!

Pago Pago is a capital city - not a country.

Hehe, Yeah, you're right.

It's VERY weird that ther's a Holland and a Netherlands and that some people think they still live in "Yugoslavia" as opposed to Macedonia.  I am surprised however that Kosovo isn't mentioned in the ISO seeing as most of the world regards it as a country.

ps. Nauru is also listed.

I suppose somebody knows where all these places are (including Nauru!).

It all adds spice to the exercise of mapping countries to groups for the purpose of creating nation-associated teams ...

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/new-group-team-canada-teams-for-each-country-discuss

Arguably more alarming is that the following ISO 3166 countries are absent from chess.com's country list.

How are the penguins supposed to play?

really? that is alarming? :)

And the "British Isles" is the whole shabang!

Does the 'British Empire' still include America? Or is it merely a chain of cinemas?

yes I noticed it before that Holland is listed as a country but its only a region! so coulnd that be changed?

To the outside world (i.e. outside the Nederlands), Holland is synonymous with the Netherlands.

The onus (it seems to me) is on those who have signed up for the Netherlands to encourage those who signed up to Holland - to re-designate their country of origin as the Netherlands.

Then there would be a stronger case for either removing Holland (the label!) or combining Netherlands/(Holland).

Netherlands          2435                0.76%           1438                          duub (2563)

Holland

187

0.06%

1507

linksspringer (2529)

 Thanks.  I've wondered this very thing, trying to figure out what the difference was between them.

Nothing to do with being #1 in Holland but only #2 in the Netherlands, clearly.   :)

The last lines of Wilfred Owen's anti-war poem (http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html) are instructive ...

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest  
To children ardent for some desperate glory,  
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est  
Pro patria mori.

and may bring a sense of perpective to the wrangling about nation-based chess groups.

:)

Art, I always thought the last two were the other way round - that Britain + Scotland = U.K., (act of union 1707 (I think)) an' Great Britain included Northern Ireland - I've many times seen the phrase 'UK and Norhern Ireland', but never 'Britain and N.I.'

Are u sure you're right ? if so, I've been labouring under a misapprehension for a bloody long time

Wikipedia agrees with me so I'm probably on shaky ground!

The phrase you may have misheard is "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain)".