Chess computer

Hi, I have no doubt that this has been asked before, and yes I could have used the search facility, but since I've started typing, I'm gonna carry on lol!

After a few years away from the game, I have decided to venture back into the "Black and White Jungle", I still have the books, and my board but would like to get an electronic set, this I could then take to work on my night shifts. The main requirement from it really, is that it must have a "Teach/Coach/Train" mode on it as I really want to be able to learn more, develop my game and get to a good standard of player.

I have seen a few and narrowed it down to these, which cover a whole range.

Saitek Kasparov Chess Explorer Pro

Saitek Master Chess Computer

Novag Star Aquamarine

Novag Obsidian

Your help and advice would be greatly appreciated

I am an old returnee myself and had some of the same questions.  However I think using one of the free or commercial chess GUI's (Graphical User Interfaces) with a good chess engine is much preferable to the older stand-alone chess systems, most of which have long since been bypassed by the computer engines.

It depends on how much you want to invest.  I love my Fritz 13 but you can find chess GUIs for free on the internet such as Arena 3.0, SCID and others.  Chess engines that are very strong are also available for free such as Houdini 1.5a and Stockfish.  Unless you can find one of the dedicated chess systems at a bargain price, my choice would be to stick with the computer-based GUIs and engines with are more flexible and have more features.

I have Babaschess on my computer as I am also on FICS, but with the nature of my job and the security of where I work, Laptops, tablets, smartphones etc. are a serious no no! Lol! Hence the reason for getting one of the stand alone sets. Also I find that if I stick to playing on a 2D medium, I actually end up struggling when using a proper physical 3D set up lol! I used to have Chessmaster 10 on my old Windows XP laptop, that was good as it used a 3D set up and the Josh Watzkin narrated chess academy was good for learning too.