The Lost Boys Chess Presentation System (CPS) is used to display and upload game information as read from the DGT autosensory chess board. The program is primarily useful to those responsible for organizing and holding tournaments, especially when it is necessary to broadcast results from those tournaments in real time.
To use this software you first hook the DGT board up to a computer through a serial port. If you are using the DGT Topmatch 2000 clock, you hook that up to a small connector on the serial cable. You start up the CPS software, and establish communications between the board and the CPS. You can then display game information in several ways. The most direct of these is to have the software display the current board position (along with country, player names, and clock times) on your computer. You then can employ a gadget known as a scan converter to display the video on a large screen in the tournament hall (If your large screen video setup includes a PC video input, you don't need the scan converter). While you can enter comments into the game score, these are not visible on the board display at all times (check). There is no provision for directly entering in variations, although you could put variations in the move comments. There is no problem with move or clock visibility, since the font sizes for these items are fully user-selectable.
Another way you can use the software is to upload games onto the internet. You can employ HTML, PGN or RTF formats to do this. The entire game score (including comments) is copied to a directory on your hard drive. You must then supply an FTP client (and internet connection) to upload the game score onto a web site. If you employ the HTML format, a complete web page is automatically constructed by the program, including all player and game time information, the complete game score, and a graphic showing the current board position. There is currently no way to modify the HTML template used for the page, but if you have a moderately savvy programmer in your employ, it would not be a big deal to write a small script to tweak the HTML.
Clearly, you can also use the RTF format (the Zurich TT font is supplied with the program) for things like newsletters and the like. You can insert board diagrams where ever you desire with the CPS software.
No matter what format you chose to display the game information in, be it video, HTML, PGN, or RTF, the CPS will update the information in real time. Thus it is possible to have an automatic system wherein all game information is updated without human intervention. While this is good in theory, it is probably wise to have someone dedicated to making sure the whole setup is working properly at all times. When I used the system, I had no trouble whatsoever. Things like dropped pieces were no problem, all I did was pick up the piece in question, and put it on the proper square. Since times are read from the DGT clock, any corrections you make there are reflected automatically on the screen, so there should not be any trouble where time is concerned. Also, while the cable connecting the clock to the serial cable is somewhat short, you can switch the board orientation in the CPS software so that you can place the clock on either side of the board, depending on the preference of the players.
There are a few things you need to be aware of if you are thinking of buying this software. First, there is no provision to make time corrections (or enter move times) if you are not using a DGT clock. So, if you want to use this system, you should probably budget in the cost of the clock also. Second, PCs are typically limited in the number of serial ports that they can handle. While you can buy large multi-port serial cards, I don't know how well they work with the CPS.
New Information from the manufacturer (added since last review):
DGT now has the TASC ChessSystem available if you want to use a large number of boards. This software will process the board information from a virtually unlimited number of boards, with a Java gameviewer available for website visitors. Up to 12 boards can now be daisy-chained on one COM port, and up to 4 COM ports are supported for one computer. LAN support is inherent in the software.
Copy Protection: Must be run from the CD.
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