A lot of courage was needed to undertake, within an extremely tight timetable, the “impossible mis­ sion” ofcoping with such a comprehensive task as displayed in this book, which covers practically all aspects o f chess composition.
Behind this there stood a special situation, where the general manager of “Chess Informant” has found it in his interest to invest in such a project, provided that the chief editor is GM Milan Velimirovic. And indeed, one could not ask for a better qualified man for the job. In a lucky coinci­ dence, Kari Valtonen who happened to gather a lot of material suitable for the book joined forces with Milan and these two with the help of several enthusiastic friends managed to present us with this mammoth enterprise - the encyclopedia before you.
Every fan o f chess composition can find in this book something o f interest. The undersigned finds ap­ peal in most aspects of the book, but being biased by his personal composing activity, particularly so in the core parts referring to themes and terms. For the undersigned, browsing through these exten­ sive parts has been a fascinating “journey among the stars”.
Nowadays it seems that the time of basic themes is over. The time of the more complex themes has come, but these must preserve a number of basic characteristics: internal coherence and logic, a high prospective for inspiring composing and a strong survival capability which can only be verified over time.