New Russell edition of Masters of the Chessboard?

Hi everyone,

I did some research on the Internet but was unable to find answers to some questions I have regarding the new edition of Richard Réti’s Masters of the Chessboard that is due to be released by Russell Enterprises, Inc. at some point in the (hopefully) near future. I am considering buying the book and would be very grateful if someone could help answer some of my questions.

When is the book expected to be released? If I’m not mistaken, the book was originally set for a November 2011 release date, but was later postponed to January 2012, which is this month. Is there any newer information on the release date (say, the exact day or another postponement)?

Why is the book only listed at 216 pages? My understanding is that the previous Dover and Ishi press editions were both over 400 pages. Is the book abridged in any way? I simply cannot imagine how 400 pages could be crammed into 200 pages, considering that the dimensions of the books appear to be roughly the same.

Thanks in advance for your help. :)

  I, too, was puzzled by the difference in page numbers. It turns out that
  there is a hardcover edition of this book, also in descriptive, that has

  216 pages. That is less, as the OP points out, from the Dover edition. What

  is most frustrating is the 'perpetual' delay in releasing this book - it was be  

  released at the end of November, then December, then it was to ship
  Jan 28,2012. Now I discovered that has been pushed back to Feb. 28th.   

  Needless to say, I am not very confident that that date will be met either.

  --Vic.

Yeah, I think Amazon has a Kindle version for $7.95 or something. But the presale for the book seems to have been pulled. I don't know for sure if they'll ever release the book, but I hope that they do.

You could contact Russell Enterprises.  Their site invites questions.

@NM NoRematch: Thanks, but I've actually already contacted them via e-mail, and the response I got was basically a "We don't know why the Dover edition has more pages, but we assure you that it isn't abridged and in fact has more substance than previous editions. The book is expected to be released in late February." That's paraphrased - not word-for-word - but the gist of it is all there.

As I said earlier, I have a hardback edition of this, in addition to the Dover
paperback edition. The hardback is 216 pages - it uses a smaller font and the
layout is different. It would appear that Russell may be following the format
of the hardback and not the Dover edition. Of the 2 that I have, I do prefer
the Dover - larger font, easier to read, but nevertheless I have ordered it and
would trade the virtues of the Dover edition for the fact that the Russell
version is in algebraic. I don't find myself reading too many descriptive notation
books. I still read a few, just not that many.

 --Vic.

@VicB: Thanks for the information! I suppose I'll buy the book if and when it does get released. I wouldn't mind reading descriptive notation, but it's a little inconvenient and my visualization skills are already bad enough as it is. ;)