When is a map essential in Čech cohomology?
Solution 1:
Hillas has an excellent working paper where you can get a nice intuition of what such an essentiality condition implies. The title is "A Game Illustrating Some Features of the Definition of Strategic Stability".
Solution 2:
I found the paper where a correct definition of essentiality is given:
Srihari Govindan and Jean-Francois Mertens (1993): \An Equivalent Def- inition of Stable Equilibria"
If you want I will send it by e-mail. As to Cech cohomology, there is the classical book
Spanier, Ediwin H (1966) Algebraic Topology. McGraw Hill, New York.
However it is very thick. I can recommend, e.g.,
Morgan J. W., Lamberson P. J. Algebraic Topology
(I can send it also; though I didn't read it).