The Eötvös Mathematics Competition is the oldest in the world for high school students organized on a national scale, with a tradition dating back to 1894. Four volumes have appeared in Hungarian, covering the periods 1894-1928, 1929-1963, 1964-1987 and 1988-1997. In 1949, the contest was renamed the Kürschák Mathematics Competition.

In 1963, the New Mathematical Library published the translation of the first Hungarian volume in two books, titled The Hungarian Problem Book I and Book II. They are #11 and #12 in the series respectively. However, no further translations have appeared since then, even after the Mathematical Association of America took over the publication of the series. The delay is a long and involved story not worth recording.

In 1995, I was approached by Underwood Dudley, then editor of the series, to work on Hungarian Problem Book III. I was both excited and apprehensive. My very limited knowledge of the Hungarian language was certainly not sufficient for the task. Fortunately, I had acquired over the years various documents in English and Chinese pertaining to this contest. János Csirik, a Hungarian graduate student in mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, was on call via email whenever I had translation difficulties.