King Performance first impressions

Reinfeld · Post by **Reinfeld** » Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:00 am

Well, this long-awaited board has arrived. I'll go straight to an overall assessment: I like it a lot. While I haven't had a chance to dive deeply into all the settings and features yet, I have to say I'm pleased. (And no, I'm not affiliated with anyone who sells this stuff -- I'm just an eager consumer).

Obviously it's a Centaur competitor, and while KP is not as flashy as Centaur, it's a quality product, and I'd say the price point is solid. I confess I'm a little surprised by some of the criticisms this board has received here and elsewhere. They seem fussy. The KP gives lots of bang for the buck.

I bought this machine for two reasons:

a) I wanted a de Koning program in a more modern, user-friendly board. I love the RISC 2500, but as those who own it know, the old warhorse can be a bit cumbersome. The King Performance addresses those problems. I've decided to pick up the battery pack (Millennium Volt) to improve portability. I've also gone all in for the Chesslink and its features, including downloads and upgrades. These latter two components haven't arrived yet.

b) I'm not big on luxury wood. The Exclusive board, while certainly pretty, is too rich for my blood, and I don't like the accessorized module approach, though I understand many collectors prefer the elegant feel and the auto-sensory factor. That is not so important to me.

Other impressions:

PACKAGING

Looked fine to me. Nice fancy box, reasonable foam protection, perfectly good for storage.

BOARD

Not *quite* as big as Centaur, and slightly heavier, but I like it. It's cheapish wood, but still nice wood. I am not bothered by the square-pressing requirement. The board responds to light touches. The faux wood squares do their job, and I like the traditional four-square lights. I like the display and button setup at the front of the board, which is easy to understand after a few short trials. The menus and access make sense. The Centaur display is easier to read. Centaur is also lighter and a better traveler, but this is about tradeoffs.

PIECES

Two queens per side, always welcome. Standard wooden design. Sizing is good. Weight is acceptable. I suppose I would have preferred black pieces to brown, but it's a matter of taste. Perhaps the Centaur's pieces are a bit more attractive in the space-age sense, but the wood feel of the KP pieces is simply better, and the felt bottoms are of course superior to Centaur's slightly scrape-y pieces.

FEATURES

Well, this is where KP beats Centaur by a mile. The comparison reminds me of Mac vs PC. Like a Mac, Centaur just works, but adjustments and tuning are very limited. KP, like a PC, lets you under the hood. You get so much more in terms of testing possibilities. If you're an old-school dedicated collector, KP offers all the extras we've come to expect and enjoy, especially the ability to create personalities.

CHESS STRENGTH

This is what we're all here for, right? KP delivers. I played a fast game against it, and held my own for a while at default settings before it destroyed me. For the next game, I decided to pit it against Millennium Chess Genius Pro. Both machines were set at 30s/move. Here's the game:

[Date "2020.02.08"]
[White "Chess Genius Pro"]
[Black "King Performance"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Opening "French Defence"]

1.c4 e6 2.e4 d5 3.cxd5 exd5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.d4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.a3 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 O-O 9.Nf3 Bf5 10.Be2 Qa5 11.Qb3 Re8 12.Ne5

[fen]rn2r1k1/ppp2ppp/5n2/q3Nb2/3P4/PQP5/4BPPP/R1B1K2R w KQ - 7 12[/fen]

The game started oddly, but it was reasonably even up to here. White's knight foray is not good.

Nc6 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Qc4 Rad8 15.Bd2 Ne4 16.Qb4

[fen]3rr1k1/p1p2ppp/2p5/q4b2/1Q1Pn3/P1P5/3BBPPP/R3K2R w KQ - 5 16[/fen]

Oh, that's not good at all. White tries to trade queens, but Black prefers to gain advantage.

16. ...Qd5 17.Be3

[fen]3rr1k1/p1p2ppp/2p5/3q1b2/1Q1Pn3/P1P1B3/4BPPP/R3K2R w KQ - 7 17[/fen]

Now Black's route to the win is easy to see. A simple knight sac will do it.

17. ...Nxf2 18.Kxf2

[fen]3rr1k1/p1p2ppp/2p5/3q1b2/1Q1P4/P1P1B3/4BKPP/R6R w - - 0 18[/fen]

Ooof. The game is almost over already.

Qe6 19.Rhe1 Qxe3+ (after this it's just a mopup operation) 20.Kf1 Rd6 21.Qxd6 cxd6 22.Bc4 Bd3+ 23.Bxd3 Qxd3+ 24.Kf2 Qd2+ 25.Kf1 Rxe1+ 26.Rxe1 Kf8 27.d5 c5 28.c4 Qd3+ 29.Kf2 Qxc4 30.Re3 Qf4+ 31.Ke2 Qxh2 32.Kf2 Qf4+ 33.Ke2 Qc4+ 34.Kf2 Qxd5 35.g3 Qa2+ 36.Kf3 d5 37.Rd3 d4 38.a4 Qc2 39.Ra3 d3 40.Rxd3 Qxd3+ 41.Kf2 c4 42. a5 c3 43.Kg2 c2 44.Kh2 c1=Q 45.Kh3 Qf3 46.Kh4 Qh6# *

So there you go. Not entirely surprising, but still more dominant than I expected. I'll have to fiddle around with the deeper settings and other features, but for me, the King Performance is a keeper.

- R.

Schachmeister · Post by **Schachmeister** » Sun Feb 09, 2020 12:10 pm

Hi Mr. Reinfeld,

I really appreciate your interesting and competent review about the new King Performance chess computer.

Also I was surprised about some “fussy criticisms”
Please be assured that the Millennium team as well as myself are taking any critical comments very serious, in case they are justified and help to improve our products.

Kind regards from Munich,
Ossi Weiner

Post by **Steve B** » Sun Feb 09, 2020 1:21 pm

Hi Ossi
welcome to the forum

i have sent you a PM
look at the top of the page and you should see "you have 1 message"

Mephisto Excalibur Sends Its Regards

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10261668@ ... 922171154/

Steve

Reinfeld · Post by **Reinfeld** » Tue Feb 11, 2020 6:00 am

The King Performance includes a choice of opening books:

1) The ‘Master’ book by Mark Uniacke, with a reported 300,000 positions.
2) The ‘Aegon 1994’ book by Cock de Gorter, with a reported 61,000 positions.

I wonder if Mr. Uniacke might be willing to tell us a bit more about his book, and how it compares to the Hiarcs books associated with the Explorer software and Deep Hiarcs. I am not looking for busts or secrets or anything - I'm just curious about the development.

- R.

Eric Wainwright · Post by **Eric Wainwright** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:57 am

Hello Ossi,

Welcome to the forum!

First, I’d like to thank you for your long list of contributions to the computer chess scene. If there were a lifetime award given out, you would certainly have earned it by now.

Second, your latest products from Millennium are simply fantastic! Both the King Performance and the King Element have set a new bar for other dedicated computers to surpass. The latest update from JdK, which includes Fischer random chess, new opening libraries, the names of openings, and other improvements, is just icing on the cake. Together, your team has created almost the perfect chess computer (if there is such a thing) for us enthusiasts to enjoy. Congratulations to everyone there!

I look forward to more welcome surprises from Millennium in the years to come.

Regards,
-Eric W

Mike Watters · Post by **Mike Watters** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 11:22 am

Ossi

Enough of these new machines for a minute. A blast from the past when you first visited the UK with the Mephisto II.

All the best
Mike W

Schachmeister · Post by **Schachmeister** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:15 pm

Hi Mike,

nice picture indeed.

But without any doubt my favourite memory to London was on August 31, 2004 when I had the pleasure and honour to operate ChessGenius in two rapid games against Garry Kasparov. Much to everybody's surprise Genius won 1.5 - 0.5, which left the world champion completely devastated.

- Golden times!

Ossi

Schachmeister · Post by **Schachmeister** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 1:24 pm

Eric Wainwright wrote:Hello Ossi,

Welcome to the forum!

First, I’d like to thank you for your long list of contributions to the computer chess scene. If there were a lifetime award given out, you would certainly have earned it by now.

Second, your latest products from Millennium are simply fantastic! Both the King Performance and the King Element have set a new bar for other dedicated computers to surpass. The latest update from JdK, which includes Fischer random chess, new opening libraries, the names of openings, and other improvements, is just icing on the cake. Together, your team has created almost the perfect chess computer (if there is such a thing) for us enthusiasts to enjoy. Congratulations to everyone there!

I look forward to more welcome surprises from Millennium in the years to come.

Regards,
-Eric W

Thank you very much for your warm words and friendly welcome, Eric.

The Millennium team is indeed very happy about the excellent reception of the new King Performance. Our customers feedback is extremely positive, almost no returns at all.
Achieving a market share of over 75% in Europe is no coincidence, but the result of many years of hard work. We will do our very best to keep creating more innovative high quality chess products in the years to come.

Best regards from Munich, Ossi

Mike Watters · Post by **Mike Watters** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:02 pm

Schachmeister wrote:Hi Mike,

nice picture indeed.

But without any doubt my favourite memory to London was on August 31, 2004 when I had the pleasure and honour to operate ChessGenius in two rapid games against Garry Kasparov. Much to everybody's surprise Genius won 1.5 - 0.5, which left the world champion completely devastated. - Golden times!

Ossi

It is longer ago than you remember Ossi. 1994.

Here is a picture from my website -

and a description of the occasion on this webpage (towards the bottom of the page) -
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/che ... story.html

and a picture of another triumph -

Yes the King Performance is a very nice machine, I have one. I do like the Oldies though.

All the best
Mike

Schachmeister · Post by **Schachmeister** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:07 pm

Mike Watters wrote:
Schachmeister wrote:Hi Mike,

nice picture indeed.

But without any doubt my favourite memory to London was on August 31, 2004 when I had the pleasure and honour to operate ChessGenius in two rapid games against Garry Kasparov. Much to everybody's surprise Genius won 1.5 - 0.5, which left the world champion completely devastated. - Golden times!

Ossi
It is longer ago than you remember Ossi. 1994.

Here is a picture from my website -

and a description of the occasion on this webpage (towards the bottom of the page) -
http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/che ... story.html

and a picture of another triumph -

Yes the King Performance is a very nice machine, I have one. I do like the Oldies though.

All the best
Mike

It was in 1994, of course.

Getting old?!

Very nice website, by the way!

All the best, Ossi

anchovyd · Post by **anchovyd** » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:31 pm

Ossi,

I've got a suggestion for you guys, it would be great it the King Performance was battery powered.

I've got the Exclusive and King Module and love it but hate the wires. If the King Performance was able to be battery powered by an internal battery, I would buy one for the convenience of being able to play it all over the house.

In the past you mentioned that adding a lithium ion battery would complicate shipping and many people wouldn't want to pay extra for it.

My idea would be to design a future iteration of the King Performance so that owners could add an optional internal battery. Sell it without the battery but have an internal battery pack sold separately for those who really want it. Win-Win.

#InternalChessVolt

Schachmeister · Post by **Schachmeister** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:58 am

Millennium is already offering an external battery called ChessVolt.
An internal battery would have to be exchangeable in my opinion.
Such solution would require a new enlarged cabinet, which may become an option for future products.

Best regards, Ossi

fourthirty · Post by **fourthirty** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:45 pm

Schachmeister wrote:An internal battery would have to be exchangeable in my opinion. Such solution would require a new enlarged cabinet, which may become an option for future products.

Best regards, Ossi

Dear Ossi,

Thank you for sharing this information. It is wonderful to hear that Millennium is open to feedback and continues to release new products. An internal battery and bluetooth would result in an amazing portable machine.

Hopefully this next generation of portable machine would also include an option to use the Chess Genius Exclusive auto-sensory pieces.

I am the proud owner of a ChessGenius, a ChessGenius PRO, a ChessGenius Exclusive, a ChessGenius Lasker King edition, and a ChessLink. I did not purchase the King Performance for the reasons listed above. Looking forward to the evolution!

Thank you again,
Greg

Post by **Steve B** » Sat Feb 15, 2020 4:56 pm

fourthirty wrote: I am the proud owner of a ChessGenius, a ChessGenius PRO, a ChessGenius Exclusive, a ChessGenius Lasker King edition, and a ChessLink. I did not purchase the King Performance for the reasons listed above.

Hi Greg
interesting ..I have the same Millennium computers you mentioned (plus also The King Module ) ..and I also did not buy the KPerformance because of the computers I already had
(I also passed on the Limited Edition Fischer Random offering)
normally I buy almost anything new when it comes to dedicated computers but here I hesitated..perhaps if the board were auto sensory it might have pushed me over the edge
of course if I didn't already have the King module (upgraded to the new chess 960 software) ,,then I would have purchased the KP.. pressure sensory or no pressure sensory

Becoming A Bit Selective These Days Regards
Steve

JeffB · Post by **JeffB** » Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:59 am

I had a ChessGenius but sold it because of the Herculean effort needed to register a move.

I have the Exclusive and King module. Very nice, though a bit "Novag Super System" with the cables and separate modules. But perfect size board for my desk, and good range of features. If only a French knight set were available...

The KP would be a definite improvement (for me) over the Exclusive if it were auto-sensory, even if just using magnets instead of full piece recognition. Bluetooth would be a bonus. Any plans to release such a machine?

I think the resurgence in chess computers is an awesome development! But I'll probably be cremated with a few of my vintage favorites when my life's red flag falls...