Best cheap electronic chess board

Hi,

Currently looking at getting an electronic chess board so I can play some games against bots without staring at a screen.

Deciding between the MILLENNIUM M808 ChessChampion and The Millennium Karpov. 
Both say they go to 1600 ELO which exceeds my ability.

The former looks more modern but the latter seems more popular.

Does anyone have experience with these?

This seems to be a good source of comparitive info about free-standing chess computers--

http://tibono.free.fr/Echiquiers_electroniques_eng.html

http://tibono.free.fr/Echiquiers_experts_eng.html

I own both the chess computers - in fact own 70+!

The M808 ChessChampion 2.0 is essentially a new version of the Karpov Chess School - it's actually an upgrade to the very rare 1.0 German version which in turn was more or less the Karpov (there is a lots of clones or clones in chess computers) . Although they both claim ~1600, really for comfortable times they are about 1100 to 1300 @ 30secs/move - you can always boost the rating with more patience! There is little difference in the play but the ChessChampion has more interesting features which come at a modern price! However the Karpov usually comes with a very nice booklet which goes thru the 100 puzzle built into both computers, this booklet has sadly been scrapped in the ChessChampion.

However.

In my experience, given your rating here, a much cheaper option with little loss would be the Millennium 2000 or the 'Talking Professor' type of computers. The former comes with 1000 GM games built in - Karpov/Fischer/Kasporov - and the 'Talking Professors' types tend to come with Karpov booklet, 100 puzzles and full board LCD screens (all of them have crude self-rating systems). These are available via eBay for roughly £15-£25, compared to a new ChessChampion at £60. Frankly there are dirt-cheap second-hand chess computers you would be more than happy with - pretty much all will play at least >900 elo, they don't go lower, the key thing is to have lots of levels you can play through and a large feature set. Stronger computers have the drawback of limiting your playable level range, and thus can be discouraging to play after the novelty wears off.

Chess wise you will be hard put to notice the difference between all the above chess computers, so I would target the features rather than the playing strengths. If you really want a strong chess computer for your abilities then price-wise target a Saitek Team-Mate / Companion III (clone), they are about 1500 to 1600 @ 30 secs/move - they are also in the same price range.

A personal favourite is the Saitak Maestro, a fat-wallet-sized portable chess computer with ONLY an LCD screen using symbolic piece representation. It has 100 levels, the first 60 are progressively more difficult with ponder mode off (you can have fun by doing speed-runs), the other 40 are standard time-variant but with ponder mode on - i.e. you will always be able to find a comfortable level to play. Playing strength is around 1400 @ 30secs/move with an opening library of ~3500 moves. Lots of features and extremely cute. You can easily use it on-the-go or sitting at the side of a normal board & piece set of your choice. Unfortunately it's rare and commands a price in the range £35 - £50.

Frankly all these old chess computers are good at what they do, the problem comes with chosen the most suitable one for your tastes and abilities.

I have the next chess computers, from the "weakest" to strongest, finalizing with the most modern: 1) Krypton Excalibur "Gemini Plus"; 2) His clone "Krypton Pioneer" (German version, "Schachpartner 2"); 3) "Mephisto Mini"; 4) "Saitek Maestro", indeed; 5) "Kasparov Express 16K", portable m144 ("Team Mate's" clone); 6) Saitek's "Chess Challenger"; 7) Chessnut "Go"... You probably already know that "Maestro" has incomplete ending theory but agree on all you said, it's really sturdy, compact look and manuals could be like a real chess books generally...

Yeah, but you have to get to the endgame intact to exploit the limitations. All chess computers are pretty lethal for 'simple' 2 ply tactical mistakes - hence why even the very weakest are >900 elo.

Maestro is very cute and there are no modern day equivalents, probably because of ubiquity of mobile phones.

Beleive it or not, I found one still in production:

https://www.amazon.com/FunAiChess-Handheld-Electronic-Computer-Beginners/dp/B0CZ7HBVG7

Edit: Just avoiding blunders guarantee certain level, indeed.

Edit 2: Mobile phone is an actual pocket computer in disguise—overkill of information overload and distraction. Societies who didn't know what the simple Casio organizer was, jumped right into the future. People who didn't read newspaper twice in their life imidiately get actually to know something

Hi,

Thanks for the in depth response, I appreciate the time you took. Based on your advice I bought an older chess computer on eBay for £20. It will be good to get started and it can give me a better idea of what I actually want.

Yeah, at the end of the day if it doesn't work out you can resell with only the loss of the postage, and in the process - as you say - you'll get an idea of what to want or whether it's suitable etc.

All I would advise is make sure you can get a hold of the instruction manual - as some features are not so obvious - just playing chess is usually fine or can easily be worked out.

Thanks for the tip - it comes with all the manuals. It looks like it was never used.