The King Competition was promptly shipped by Chesshouse to Australia and it was well packaged, no issues. I had also purchased the ChessVolt battery which is a nice unit with led levels and on/off switch. It was a toss between The King Competition and the DGT Centaur, and I made the right choice. The King Competition shines with its amount of level variety, playing styles and playing options to choose from. There is a save games feature and can export games to a PC. Greats news is that its even good for absolute beginners as well as advanced players. The board is well designed and constructed, a good size, feels robust with good choice of plastics and it's easy to slip your fingers under the edge and move the board. I like the symmetrical design with the good size boarder, it makes it very easy to grab. The buttons have a nice action and the display is clear and accessing the variety of features is straightforward. The pieces feel good and are nicely finished and designed. The supplied manual is more like a quick start guide with the full manual available for download, as it can change when the software is updated. I thoroughly recommend the King Competition for the enjoyment and challenge of playing chess due to its chess program, its variety of options and playing styles and design. Very happy with the King Competition.
Now to my gripes.
1. Since the pieces are black, I wish the black squares were slightly off-black to have allow for better contrast or maybe the black pieces less black. The white pieces are a lovely off-white colour.
2. When the unit is switched off via the buttons, it saves its current game automatically, good, however, if the power/battery cord is accidentally unplugged the game is lost. It should have a constant auto-save feature to counter this. Note: It does have 9 slots for games saves.
Future models.
1. I would like to see better display technology employed, after all it is 2023. Hopefully in their next revision they will.
2. I also would like to see an auto-sensing board. This one has a pressure sensitive board which does have its own advantages, and after all it does work good.