Originally posted by OJ DyarAre ebooks the ones on computers only (not printed)?
Hello!
What do you think are the best chess eBooks available? What makes them great?
Oliver
If they are, I have had one experience with them.
I bought a book on the Morra Gambit that way (because it was out of print).
I really didn't think it through and totally regret it.
For an opening manual, you need to be able to flip through the pages and find the variations you need. It's a real pain going page by page trying to find information.
With amazon's reader, you can't print the book either.
I basically read through one chapter with a laptop and gave up on it.
It goes like this: look at the chessboard make a move, look up at the screen, look down at the chessboard make a move, look up at the screen,etc.
This is ok but gets tiresome when trying to memorize opening variations.
You have to have enough room on the table for the computer and the chess set too!
With all that negative review, I can't really say you shouldn't try it.
It may be nice carrying whole books around in a single computer.
Improvement books may be fun.
I just wouldn't buy anything that you have to flip around a lot (opening reference).
Does anyone else have a non-opening book experience?
Thanks for the replies.
I completely agree about it being difficult to follow through ones on openings, ebooks can be less convenient at moving quickly between pages, and with openings I think you need lots of diagrams.
I've got the Improving Chess Thinker in hard copy already! I've just started reading it.
My feeling is that at the moment a lot of ebooks try to just copy hard copy books and it doesn't work out well.
I'm actually writing a short series of puzzle-based ebooks because hopefully the more they appear the more we can encourage the big chess publishers to adapt some of their books to ebooks (which would hopefully bring the price down!).
My first one has just become available on Amazon US and UK (http://amzn.to/UNy6BH) and will be free on Monday November 26th - I'd really appreciate any feedback people have about improving the design, if you've got the time?