It is a pleasure to present this new ePub edition of The Mammoth Book of Chess. A previous ebook edition appeared in 2009, at a time when there were very few electronic chess books. Since then, the capabilities of eReaders have developed considerably, as have the variety of ways to read ebooks and, accordingly, readers’ expectations.
Therefore, in addition to updating the content in a number of areas, this revised ePub edition makes several changes to the presentation of the material. Firstly, the diagrams are somewhat larger, so that they do not appear too small either on physically small screens, or on high-definition (HD) devices. But due to improved image compression, the file size is far smaller than that of the previous edition, leaving you with greater storage space and providing a shorter download time. There are also considerably more diagrams in the book now, so you are always likely to have a relevant diagram on-screen or just one click away. Full use is made of extended character sets, so accented letters and symbols are included as normal scalable text rather than small graphics.
But the most obvious difference in this edition comes in the puzzle sections. Each puzzle position is given on a new page, with the solution appearing on the next page; there is no need for any cumbersome navigation between puzzles and solutions. Note that if you are using a large-screen device, you may therefore need to turn off Two Column mode (or view the puzzles in Portrait orientation), in order to avoid seeing the solution at the same time as the puzzle.
Many links have been added throughout the book, both to aid navigation and to help you find relevant content and definitions. With touchscreen devices increasingly the norm, these links should prove especially convenient. There are also two completely new indexes: one of them to guide you to definitions of terms, and the other to enable you to find material on an opening if you only know the moves but don’t know the name.
There are also minor revisions throughout the text. I corrected a number of errors and updated any topical content, particularly in the chapter on computer chess. Web links have been checked, and updated where necessary. Despite the relatively small number of changes, I feel that the book succeeds in providing a fair overview of chess from a 2013 perspective.
Graham Burgess
Woodbury, Minnesota 2013