Thanks, I really enjoyed the vid. A couple of weeks ago my PC died and I have now my knew one with Win 7. Suddenly I'm not feeling so confident. Also decided to get chessking to go with it. One problem I've noticed. I have been asked to annotate a game for ' CHESS 'magazine. I noticed while mucking about, that there is no game delete. Yes, you can delete a whole database but how often would anyone need that, compared to keeping a database tidy?

The previous PC running Vista had chessbase light which just stopped working six months after buying it. Chessbase were frankly not interested in customer support once they had my money from what must be a couple of years ago now, which is why I switched. Also the ' export ' function was pathetic. I will have to watch this vid a few times as I'm not as PC savvy as yourself.

Thanks again

Pobble, thanks for your comments.

I agree with you on the chessbase support. I feel that their point of view is 'we have it in the faq's somewhere after all this time, you can find your answer there'. I just don't understand the business model of many of today's companies, nobody wants to think 'outside the box' anymore. I told chessbase some ways they could improve their programs by licensing a media version to chess coaches, but they wouldn't have anything to do with it (if you aren't a GM or strong IM or have not slept with one of their sisters you aren't good enough). DGT has that same 'nose in the air' attitude. I came up with a way for them to make a cheaper set whereby they could sell 10's of thousands, and even have entire tournaments via DGT technology; but no, not interested. I only hope that Diego and his team will not rest on improving this program.

As far as your deleting games, what I would do is create a new database for your working games only, so that you can do your work and then delete the entire database if needed. Whenever you make a change to a game in the Gigaking or other db, upon closing it the program will ask if you want to save it, you can tell it yes and there you are.

As far as text editing, I rather liked - or at least, got used to - chessbase. My bitches about chessbase is the printable diagrams they use (poorly thought out idea by chessbase). So when I do a text article and need diagrams I use a free program called ChessPad. It's small and easy to use and will convert your diagrams in most popular image formats.

With regard to Windows 7, I don't like it at all, give me Vista or even XP. My biggest beef with Win7 is that I have a lot of programs that need to connect to the internet and Win7 is preventing them. No need to diagnose the problem here, I've tried everything I could think of and even spend hours researching, to no avail.

So, you have ChessKing, right? Have you played the 'Classical Game' in the training mode at different rating levels? If so, how was it? This was one of the reasons I wanted to try this software.

Thanks for this- I was really impressed by the publishing options. I may get it just for that as occasionally I write chess articles for the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter. That pdf function along with the ease of diagram insertion could make life easier. The training functions reminded me somewhat of Chessimo. I may do a similar video review of Chessimo sometime. I think Chessimo may have the edge in training (not 100% sure yet) but Chess King has much better general features. One question: does CK do something like the "reference" tab in CB?

Thanks Steve. No I have not tried the Classical games yet, when I do I will let you know.

I am not really impressed with this program yet. You can find all of these tools in freeware. yes the GUI looks pretty good and fluid but for 100$ i cant really see this being a 100$ upgrade over skid or the other options for freeware. As far as the training option you can find puzzles and stuff on this site and others with similar rating systems. The only thing that caught my eye was the thing where it shows arrows and squares showing which piece is defending and attacking the piece you are holding. I would buy it if it was 20$-40$ but 100$ is too steep. Otherwise good video man you explained alot.

@Kamus: As far as an 'in-time' database reference I don't believe that there is one, but if you do the 'Full Analysis' (i.e., slowest) it will insert reference games like Fritz or Chessbase. I do like the features of being able to publish in pdf and if you have the full Adobe Pro you can edit the diagram size (otherwise you can do it in rtf then convert to pdf). I've always been a stickler about diagram position/size relation in my articles. I just got the program so I haven't really dealt with publishing yet, but you can look on the Chess King YouTube page for more info at http://www.youtube.com/user/chessking

@Pobble: Please let me know what you find when you do the test Classical Games. I am interested to know what you think of it's opening book play at different levels and your overall opinion of the function.

@detroitman: I agree, and I think I made mention of that in the video. Stronger players are going to get more out of programs like SCID, Fritz and Chessbase, naturally. Yet there are functions that are different in these three programs as well. For example; I wish CB or Fritz would do an MCO/ECO style opening sheet that SCID can create, and I wish SCID had an easier to use GUI like Fritz or CB.

Your concern about cost is absolutely understandable. I am uploading a video on the endgame module that Chess King sells. The modules are stand-alone and don't require the purchase of Chess King. Also, the modules all run for about $25 US.

That said, what I like about the program:
1-Great for families that want to have different accounts for each person
2-Very good for chess clubs and coaches with multiple accounts/players
3-Great for introductory level players, the 'Quest Mode', building up the ability to win with a large edge to a gradually smaller advantage is a nice touch.
4-The level adjustment bar for 'Classical Chess' training is good for lower rated players and those not used to making engine adjustments in other programs. Only Chessmaster has a similar ability, that I know of at least.

What I don't like about the program:
1-Notation / game score box, only two sizes of fonts to pick
2-Color graphics are possible, but a bit more complex than in Chessbase.
3-Text annotations - you have to open a separate panel to do this, in Fritz and CB you double click on the move and input your text.
4-In Fritz and CB, when you make a move the entire move is highlighted, in Chess King, the cursor bar is behind the move, and for an old man like me, this is a hassle.
5-There are functionality problems with my ASUS machine running Win7. Diego is working with me to get these bugs fixed and assures me that other ASUS machines are not having this problem.

I forgot to mention in the video that this program does run on a Mac (if people still use those these days )

In the end, I would like to help Diego and Chess King make a run at being competitive in this market, and I feel if viewers/users make suggestions he may be able to implement these into future versions of CK. Then, with such improvements, $99 would not be a bad price when compared to other 'high-end' programs for the chess professional.

Right now, the only chess professionals that I can think would benefit from this program is a coach/teacher. It is a great tool for that. Also for chess clubs and families that want to 'play together to stay together'.

I am interested in getting feedback from viewers and from people who already have Chess King. Let me know what you think and I'll pass it along to Diego.