Hey everyone,

I know that this is WAY after the fact (I started this thread like 7 months ago), but I see that people are still checking it so I thought I would update you on my experience with the Mephisto Master that I purchased back in January. (I do plan to write a review once I have had it a little longer, but for now I'll give you a brief synopsis).

As stated above, I was initially considering the Phantom Force and the Master- after some replys to my post I also strongly considered the Grandmaster. I ended up settling on the Master for the following reasons:

1) By reputation, the master is the strongest in its price range
2) The Phantom Force was dropped very early on based on both the lack of need for auto-moving pieces, and the reported noise level associated with play (I still plan to buy a Phantom Force someday for the novelty, but that is life priority# 5902044457).
3) The Grandmaster was dropped primarily due to the size-
       The Mephisto Master is: 13.25" x 10.5"
       The Excallibur Grandmaster is: 20" x 20"
- although I do intend to get a Grandmaster someday to add to my collection of now 5 chess computers. The Grandmaster looks very classy ;)

I do feel that I made a good decision and would, if given the chance, make the same decision again(Assuming the same financial situation of course)- I am very happy with the Master. I find that the Master is a very stimulating opponent to play, and that I have learned a lot about chess since buying it. As mentioned above, size was a determining factor in my decision making- I find that the Master is slightly larger than I would have liked but not so large as to make me regret my purchase.

I would have a hard time recommending this computer to an absolute beginner just because even on its easiest levels it would demolish a beginner- I would suggest starting on a very cheap (as in $20 or so), chess computer and get up to a novice level first, then get the Master (Or else you might feel very frustrated with your purchase).

Hope this helps, drop me a message if you have any questions about the Mephisto Master and my experiences with it. I would still be interested in hearing what other people think and their experiences with other models (As I mentioned, I do collect these things, and am always looking for new toys)

Hi coldcoffee, why do you need so many chess computers ? Mephisto sound cool.

Need is a strong word....

Honestly, I have aquired them over the years from Pawn shops, yard sales, etc... I wanted to buy a really strong computer to learn from- of the other 4, only 1 is very strong and I had thought that I lost that one (It turned up about a month after buying the Master). The Master is very cool- I definitely feel that is was money well spent. The only major feature that it is missing that I wish it had is a PC interface so that I can upload games into ChessBase- That would be very cool. I believe the Novag Citrine does that (out of my price range at the time $349 I think...).

Forget Chessmaster, Chessbase, Fritz, Chessassistant & Co.  Get SCID.  Rather than repeat it all, I will just point you to the thread "What am I missing using only free software".  This thread conclusively shows that SCID is every bit as good as the best of the proprietary applications, and none of the drawbacks, the major one being that the "bad guys" lock you in into their file formats (check out this thread and this one to get more details about the methods used by CB to lock-in their users forever).

Lastly - SCID is truly multi-platform, it will run on GNU/Linux, BSD, Windows, Mac OSX and even Pocket PC.  To get the most of it, make sure to get and install the Stockfish chess engine which you can download from here.  You might want to begin with either another less powerful chess engine or play against an engine at reduced strength such as the special version of Phalanx which is included in SCID.  Lastly, send me a PM if you need help finding and downloading games databases or endgame tablebases.

HTH,

Farhad

Thanks, I always prefer free/open source over proprietary!

Hi ColdCoffee,

Have you ever visited the online Overtom Chess Computer Museum?  If not, you might find it interesting.  :)

The best new computer on the market is a B.R.A.I.N. Broad.Ranging.Analog.Information.Network., why would you need anything else?

Where can I find information on this (unless it is meant to be a play on words...)

Woah cool! I have never seen this before- thanks!