New In Chess

First, let's be clear: New In Chess is the best chess magazine out there for the seriously player or fan, and this production is the best effort at producing a chess magazine by anyone I've seen, yet. The interface makes it easy to follow the text of the annotations as well as the game position, at least on the iPad. It makes wise use of the available screen, and (quite importantly, for me) doesn't dictate the position you have to view it from, allowing you to hold the device in either position, portrait or landscape. The typography is readable, almost everything about it is as good or better than the rest of the electronic chess pubs out there. Almost everything? Yes. They persist in the unfortunate belief that taking a picture of a printed page is a satisfactory means of electronically publishing a story. This, in Tony Miles' famous words, is "utter crap." Luckily their printed magazine believes in narrow columns, for the most part, so there's little horizontal scrolling needed after you zoom the story text to readable size. That is all that saves this from a much harsher review. Excellent magazine, above average presentation.

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I've postponed this review for over a year, hoping NiC would iron out enough bugs to allow me to give their app more than a single star, but to no avail. The great benefit of reading a chess magazine on an iPad should be the ease of enjoying the games themselves, but this is the glaring shortcoming of the New in Chess app: the game viewer is one of the poorest on the iPad. If you enlarge the board, all the game annotations disappear. It's not for lack of space; half the screen is simply blank. If you wonder what an engine reveals about a position, you'll get no help here, as NiC hasn't deigned to provide one. Even worse, games are often entered incorrectly, so they become impossible to follow in the viewer. (By "often" I do not mean a majority of the games, but I do mean enough games that I'm no longer surprised when I reach one.) The apps for each of the other chess publishers are great. Many of the apps put out by independent programmers are great. New in Chess has really done a shameful job on this one.

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When app updates you lose all magazines you purchased, I sent and email, and they tell me do I remember the magazine I purchased ? Shouldn’t all my purchased magazines be recorded on my account no it’s not. Even if I do remember they are not on the app. Is this a bank robbery on line ???

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Thought this was a great app. Then, after purchasing a bunch of old issues, they all disappeared. It’s a shame, still a great magazine, but can’t recommend buying anything.

Highly recommended.