The Chess Memory Palace cover

On the copyright page of The Chess Memory Palace, you will find a decimal number (e.g. 2.0). This is the version number. As the book is available as print-on-demand and ebook, I am able to make small updates without doing a large print run.

This page lists the versions and the changes that have been made. The most significant update was on 8 April 2026, when I replaced Picture Notation with Image Notation throughout the book. There is nothing wrong with the 1.0-1.11 versions: Picture Notation still works perfectly for chess. However I believe Image Notation is easier to teach and understand, and is therefore preferable for most people.

1.0

  • Original version, released 29 December 2022

1.1

  • Released 1 January 2023
  • Corrected spelling of “Anthony”, in Notes

1.2

  • Released 7 January 2023
  • Corrected “composite images” to “picture word pairs”, in Miscellanea – Picture Words in Other Languages section
  • Corrected publication date of Anand’s Mind Master to 2019, in Notes

1.3

  • Released 13 January 2023
  • Changed “boardgames to board games”, in Miscellanea – Other Board Games section.
  • Corrected grammar “An intriguing
” in Notes

1.4

  • Released 21 January 2023
  • Improved appearance of Thomas Nelson section on copyright page
  • Corrected grammar “we need to fill” in Essential Memory Techniques – What makes things memorable? section
  • Changed “Plane entrance door” to “Plane entrance” in Figure 2.2
  • Changed “Entrance” to “Plane entrance” in Figure 2.3
  • Removed double space after full stop on Note 21 to Chapter 3
  • Changed “song lines” to “songlines” on Note 1 to Chapter 4

1.5

  • Released 25/26 February 2023
  • Corrected grammar “if the aim were” on Note 2 to Chapter 6
  • Changed “choose picture words” to “select picture words” in Memory Palace Architecture – mapping the locations section
  • Changed “choose a picture word” to “select a picture word” in Memory Palace Architecture – selecting picture words section
  • Changed “choose just one” to “pick just one” in Memory Palace Architecture – selecting picture words section
  • Removed sentence “You will quickly become used to the English words in your memory palaces” in Picture Notation – Your turn section (footnote)
  • Added “By the same author” section to copyright page
  • Corrected grammar “this is even worse” in Memorising endgames – Horizontal reflections section
  • Prevented line breaks between “Chapter” and chapter number in whole book
  • Prevented line breaks between “Page” and page number in Notes
  • Added page numbers to cross references in Notes
  • Corrected order of notes to Chapter 1 (moved physically higher up two places)
  • Corrected order of notes to Chapter 6 (moved on e6 down two places)
  • Clarified discussion of understanding endgames and added reference to purpose of forgetting
  • Added reference to number shape system in note on major system
  • Corrected reference text to “forgot one of the two” in Notes

1.6

  • Released 5 April 2023 (and earlier in ebook)
  • Removed “sugar” from g4 in Appendix
  • Removed word from g3 in Appendix

1.7

  • Released 2 May 2023
  • Removed incorrect descriptive notation from list in Chapter 1
  • Changed captions on Figures to “Structure of a picture word pair” and “Structure of a robust composite image”

1.8

  • Released 13 June 2023
  • Changed epigraph to McCall Smith quote in Chapter 3

1.9

  • Released 5 August 2023
  • Corrected “b” to “s” in explanation of samurai in Chapter 1
  • Added line on personal use to ebook copyright page

1.10

  • Released 10 September 2023
  • Corrected ICCF notation in Chapter 1 and added word “numeric”

1.11

  • Released 28 February 2025 / 1 March 2025
  • Added letter to copyright page
  • Added paragraph clarifying the difference between shark and brush in Chapter 1

Remaining errata in 1.11

  • Figures 6.1 and 6.2 should start with lily, not sailor
  • The first diagonal reflections 16x16 diagram should show Black to move (from the top), not White (from the bottom)
  • gift barrel at the bottom of Figure 6.5 should be gift airship
  • Page 142: “which would be followed by dove waffle and then magpie eagle” should say knife waffle and magpie fairy (Figure 6.8 is correct)
  • Black’s second move should be corrected from barrel to pearl in Steinitz v Elson, page 160
  • University listed as having 4 syllables (instead of 5) in Appendix
  • Herodotus listed as b4 (instead of d1) in Appendix

2.0

  • Released 8 April 2026
  • Picture Notation replaced throughout the book by Image Notation

2.1

  • Released 12 April 2026
  • Added acknowledgement reference for Image Notation
  • Chapter 7 (Miscellanea) becomes Chapter 8. (All references above to Chapter 7 are referring to the Miscellanea chapter)
  • Added new A Theory of Mnemonics as Chapter 7
  • Replaced all AI illustrations (introduced in 2.0 to enable quicker release) with my own illustrations (similar to the AI ones)
  • Renamed Appendix from ‘Picture Words for all 64 squares’ to ‘List of Picture Words’
  • Removed reference to ‘seahorse’ note which no longer exists’
  • Fixed several typos and repeated words
  • Fixed two references to exd5 that should have been exf5 in text of Schliemann chapter
  • Narrowed graph in Miscellanea chapter so that it does not extend beyond the text to the right

2.2

  • Released 17 April 2026
  • Lettrine M at the start of Chapter 7
  • Simplified chess diagrams to be arrows only, as candidate pieces generally unnecessary with Image Notation
  • Standardisation of italics
  • Removed ‘phone’ which was incorrectly placed in Appendix

2.3

  • Released 19 April 2026
  • Corrected Bigfoot to baguette in Schliemann repertoire (5th box in tree diagram, plus text)
  • Added cylinder to Qe2 options in Appendix
  • Added (I) to second instance of Nbc3 in Figure 5.3

2.4

  • Next release
  • Upgraded B-movie to pamphlet for Kc8
  • Changed balalaika to bluebell for Ke5
  • Simplified note on memory books
  • Corrected double full stop in Chapter 7
  • Removed xylophone and zinc from Appendix for possible confusion with starting /z/ sound