Can anyone give me a review of the Think Like a King software for scholast chess. I am planning to just start with the Chess Club Manager portion. How difficult is it to post “ladder” results fromt his software to the web?
I would like some general information about the usefulness of the software. We may use the workouts someday, so I would be interested in feedback on that module as well.
Thanks in advance. Jamie
The Think Like A King software is GREAT! The Chess Club Manager can keep records and statistics of members of your club. It is useful because you can get any kinds of statistics which is good for even the kids in the club or win very little. It can determine what type of award to give to them. It can print out certificates and give ratings. Posting results is real easy. I highly recommend it! And that is just one proram. The tutorials are very interactive and allow members of the club to login and perform them at their own pace. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!
Alan Kantor
Just to follow up. I purchased this for my club, and I absolutely love it. I am using it to track a club rating and “bonus points”. I have been giving bonus points for homework completed, attendance, recruitment of new members, etc. We do not use the “workouts”.
I am very happy with the software and consider it money well spent.
The Club Manager portion is great. It’s a great way to organize your clubs. I am not impressed with the Chess Workouts either. I use pgn puzzles in Fritz 8 with the kids on a projection TV and they like that much better, or I’ll use a PGN of Pandolfini’s Endgame Course. I understand their concept of reading & chess, as I share that philosophy as well being an educator, but the kids just like the format I use better. I’m not knocking their program, but the Workouts are just not for me.
I been using Food for Thought, several years. I like the Club manager, but it sure be nice if WinTD or Swiss-Sys could inferface with it. Plus as database gets bigger the member stats starts having printing problems, some of the data does not print, since it off the printing area. Plus have not seen the price come down. USCF is promoting program like its fairly new! Of course it does have many positives and I do use it, along with an on-line rating program at chess-express.com, much more stats and its available on-line for the players to see. Its just a rating program and doesn’t try to say its anything else!. Anyway bottom line when is the 2004 Food For Thought version coming out with improvemnets that’s is friendly to Windows Professional? Suggestion: Print in html would be great for posting on a clubs’s web site, hmm even inferfacing with USCF rating system or CXR would be even better! Food for Thought user!
I was told by them personally that the new updated version would interface with Swis-Sys. I assumed that the newer version (which I haven’t looked at yet) had this upgrade. Check their site to see, and email them to find out when it’s coming out, because it is something they were working on.