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🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Apr 22, 2018 12:43 AM UTC:

While some books benefit from print, my own preference is to use a Kindle. While able-bodied people can hold a book open with one hand, I normally need two hands to hold a book open, and I prefer the convenience and ergonomics of holding a Kindle with one hand. I also like not having to reorient my head from page to page and being able to read with a font and font-size I'm comfortable with. For books that benefit from more space for pictures or diagrams, I use a Kindle DX. Before ereaders came along, I was always dissatisfied with physical books, and I read comic books a lot because they stayed open more easily. Now I read books even more than I used to. I'm currently reading 1984, a book I originally tried to read in 1984, but the paperback copy I had used a small typeface, and I couldn't get into it then. With the Kindle, it has been easy to read. One book that has especially been made better with the Kindle is Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations, and Games by László Polgár.  The physical book is huge and bulky. I have this on my Kindle DX now, and it allows me to look at one problem at a time in a much larger size than the physical book does. When I have figured out a problem, I can quickly check my answer by following a hyperlink and then go back with the press of a button.

Boards using computer graphics have some of the same advantages. You can resize them or customize the board and piece images to your preferences without affecting what your opponent sees. But I do understand that people who have the option may still prefer to use physical boards. If I were playing a CV against someone in person, I expect I would prefer a physical set over computer graphics. But video games are so common these days, I could imagine people in the same room eventually playing CVs together on tablets or phones. Furthermore, it was thanks to having Chess variants available through computers that I actually made a hobby of playing them. So, I expect it will be more through computers than through physical sets that Chess variants will grow in popularity.


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