  We consider the issue of chiral ordering in spin chains for an arbitrary
value of the spins S. By use of bosonization according to a scheme developped
by H.-J. Schulz, we obtain the phase diagram of the chain with XY exchange
between nearest and next-to-nearest neighbors. We obtain a satisfactory picture
including a chiral spin nematic phase which is gapless, has long-range chiral
order and incommensurate spin correlations. We perform a stability analysis of
this phase and point out that this analysis is in conflict with existing DMRG
results that shows a difference between integer and half-integer spin case.
