In response to a comment above, I'd argue that these proprietary platforms benefit the readers as well as the publisher, because they allow for more features and a better reading experience. It would be terrific if someone were to write an interactive ebook format that somehow could be a standard for all chess books. Lets face it, that isn't going to happen, and we will have to rely on the market to sort things out, and leave us with one or two readers.

Forward chess already has three major publishers signed up. I think thats a pretty good start; the more publishers that are invested in these platforms the less likely they will go away and the more effort that will be put in development.   

ErictheRed wrote on 09/09/13 at 17:17:56:


I would like to second ErictheRed's sentiments. This is what has already happened with Chessbase DVDs (FritsTrainers). There is not mobile platform that can play CB's FT DVDs. Even its very own app can only deal with pgn files. I purchased a number of FT DVDs when I had a PC but have not been able to watch them when I switched to Mac (yes, that is my choice) and I got excited when I saw an Android tablet for sale for AUD99 at Aldi and thought , yes! I can buy that and watch the CB DVDs. But a little investigation online dashed those hopes.
In my professional academic work, I had a bit of a look at the battle of standards as a proxy for commercial warfare, the most famous example being VHS vs Betamax, then there was the BluRay vs HD-DVD. (The economic concept, I believe is network effect.) It is literally a winner takes all.

Last year and previous, on the "pages" of this Forum, there was a proxy "fought" re interactive ebook readers, ie, e+chess (NZ outfit) now supported by by and SmartChess (Hortillosa et al).

E+Chess has tied up now with NewinChess and you can purchased SOS individual chapters for $1.99 and of course books.

SmartChess was tied up with ChessPub for a while but that seems to have died. It also did QualityChess books but now with QC tying with ForwardChess, ??? It also tied up with Chessvibes, publishing CVOs and CVTs. It promises some new books but without signing up a major publisher, it will die. Only publisher left is Gambit. But Gambit's GM is GM Murray Chandler who is Kiwi and known associate of the people behind E+Chess. There is then Everyman who has its own Chessviewer (very clunky!).

These proprietary platforms are not benefiting consumers. They only benefit the business, publishers and app developers. Before I get flamed (or maybe not, since that is an exaggeration of my own importance!  ), I can understand publishers' need to secure their product from piracy and protect their revenue stream. But history has shown that these battles will cause losses to consumers who bet on the wrong "horse".

BTW, e+Chess is publishing a new translation of Nimzowitsch's My System. Hmmmm! A direct competitor to QC's translation a few years back.

PS. Some time ago, I floated the idea that ChessPubbers who are very experienced in certain openings and variations should produce an e-interactive book and sell for $1.99. This is exactly what e-chess and NIC has done with its SOS series. Perhaps Tony Kosten will be happy to facilitate? I think ChessPubber Micawber's excellent (Thanks Micawber!) KG files is a very good candidate to trial this!

PS 2, There are also a lot of talk on the Forum these last three years about "repertoires", new, changing repertoires. Consequently also lots of interest on repertoire books (why not!). However, it has been pointed out that a repertoire for U1800 or U2000 or U2200 is very different beast to the monster repertoires in books. I think the only example of a repertoire for amateurs in very recent years is that by ChessPbber, Derduea (? sorry cannot remember the spelling due to age) but published in german.

It would be good, if there exists a series of small e-books on different openings and variations which are aimed at the U1800, U2000, U2200 (in education design theory, this is modular design) from which amateur club players can pick and choose and experiment (thereby also broadening thier chessic education). I think ChessPubbers can do this. There was already some work done with the mapping of openings but that died ......

ErictheRed wrote on 09/09/13 at 04:18:39:

1. You can watch all the moves on a board. 
2. You can even play your own moves on that board.
3. In the Android version, you can also watch engine analysis.
4. Some books with puzzels can be used for training - after the question, there is a Show/Hide button to display the answer.   
5. Eventually, publishers might include (more) colour pictures, more colour in general in their books (without thinking of the money it will cost for printing.
6. If the platform becomes popular, publishers might start offering free updates - this is a plus compared to paper books.

Yes, that's right. A standard ebook will be just like a glorified pdf. Just a book onscreen.
Using chess viewers such as Forward chess you can play thru games and read the text.
I find it great - I am reluctant to buy standard texts now. 
Hope QC get sorted quickly on this front as well as Chess Stars. Holding off new buys till can have all on my iPad.

Forward Chess might be a nice app, but what's the advantage of publishing a book for Forward Chess?  I mean, why not just publish an electronic copy that can be used on multiple devices?

I'm pretty new to the whole mobile/iPad/tablet thing, but I notice that I can buy a Kindle version of Play the French here: http://www.amazon.com/Play-French-4th-ebook/dp/B008HFW1ZW/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?i...; Why not release ebooks in "normal" form, the same format that I would use to read a new novel, for instance?

Btw, accidentally I have found out that Amazon offers a free ´Kindle for PC-App´ that enables you to read books in kindle format on a Windows-PC. If Amazon is able to produce an app with a trustworthy copy protection then surely something similar should be possible for Forward Chess!?

Maybe I´m a bit naive here but on the other hand there might be a certain amount of customers out there like me who are interested in purchasing chess books in electronic format but don´t want to buy a new device just for that. Honestly I wouldn´t have any other use for a tablet.

Thx Semko for your thorough answer