Most Smartphone/PDAs have software capable of playing at Master strength these days. Certainly a portable option you should look into.
On WinMobile, I'm running PocketShredder as well as PocketGrandMaster. For a hefty fee, you can even get PocketFritz!
Unfortunately I don't own a smartphone. I'd ideally like something close to the size of a normal chessboard, as opposed to anything smaller that I'd have to squint to see.
I've heard good things about Novag and Saitek brands. Does anybody know anything more specific about these or others?
I see that Shredder is on ipad.
Good size screen.
I see that Shredder is on ipad.
Good size screen.
Not to mention the multi-touch (which means you move chess pieces with your hand and fingers, not with a mouse or arrow keys whatever), the faster processor (slightly better playing strength), the better colour accuracy of screen (pleasant-looking wooden boards, lol), etc.
However, I don't own an iPad and don't intend to.
I'm very curious: What was wrong with the Saitek?
A year ago, I narrowed down the field to two: The Mephisto Master and the Novag Obsidian. I went with the latter for two reasons - a larger playing surface, and real wood pieces. (Plus I'd had a Novag Sapphire hand-held unit a while back, and I was familiar with the features & interface.)
(The third reason I went with the Obsidian was that I didn't feel I could justify the price of the Novag Citrine, but anyway...)
I strongly expect that the vendor's estimation of the Obsidian's strength (2320 Elo) is overstated, but it's a pretty fierce competitor. If I had to guess (as I am completely unqualified to do), I'd say it's somewhere in the 2000-2100 range. I was willing to accept a computer that was (I thought) weaker than the Saitek because of the form-factor considerations I mentioned above.
The Mephisto Master had an unfixable bug in the clocks. When set to any tournament-style time control (such as 40 moves/2 hours, etc.), it added 2 hours after 40 half-moves, instead of 40 moves by each side like it should have done. Having paid more than $200 on it, which we could barely afford in the first place, I wasn't going to tolerate any flaws like that.
I don't like the idea of buying an iPad either. I too had narrowed my choice down to Obsidian and Master (and also thought the Citrine was too expensive!). But these models have been around for a while. I understand that the popularity of tabletop computers has waned in favor of software, but aren't there any new models out there?
I don't think so, sadly.
The Obsidian has served me well, but you are a tougher customer than I am from the sounds of things. It definitely has its quirks: It has a button labelled "Next Best," for instance, despite the fact that there is no actual "next best" move feature. There's also a feature described in the manual whereby the computer points out the first off-book move in a game, but I've never been able to get it to work.
Sounds fishy. This is frustrating. I'm trying to get as good as I can at the game, and my 13-year-old Excalibur model helped me massively improve. Having outgrown it, I figured that a stronger computer could continue where the old one has left off. But the Obsidian doesn't seem to cut it, the Master is bugged, and the Citrene is rated lower than Obsidian! Time to start a new forum topic.
I got my first tabletop chess computer for Christmas of '96. Since then, I've mastered it: two summers ago, I played 50 games on the highest level and won all of them. Its estimated rating is only about 1750, so I've been trying to find a good upgrade. Any recommendations?
I already have an excellent software program for my PC, so I'm not looking for anything like that. I want a portable (probably tabletop) model that can further benefit my chess skill for several years. I actually bought one a while back: the Saitek Mephisto Master, but its program had a serious flaw and I had to return it. What would you all recommend?