Palm+HIARCS Vs. Excalibur/Saitek Handhelds

Hi Everyone,

 I'm looking to purchase a handheld chess coach/game and was wondering if anyone had any experience with a Palm Z22 + Hiarcs and the top-of-the-line chess-only handhelds on the market right now. 

 

 For $100 I can purchase the Palm Z22 (which has chess pre-installed...anyone know how that one plays? Rating wise? Anything special about it?)

 

For an additional $45, I can purchase Palm HIARCS, which supposedly has a slew of great features and one of the best (the best?) handheld chess engines on the market today.

 

 For $80, I can purchase a Saitek Maestro, or spend around $100 on the new New York Times Excalibur.

 

Does anyone have any insight/recommendations on either purchase?  Pros/Cons.  If the Z22 doesn't run HIARCs (or other) chess software well enough, I'm willing to pay up to around $500 (since I can likely write off a Palm purchase as a business expense). 

 

How easy is it to install HIARCs on a Palm and get up and running?

 

 I've considered (and still am considering) purchasing the Palm TX because of all of the extra features it offers on top of being a chess machine (e-mail, web surfing, MS office capabilities) but when push comes to shove, I've really realized that the palm will only be used to play chess (though I have the occasional business trip, so it would be nice for those as well).

 

I'd like the software package (for either palm or handheld) to offer a tutor, a slew of chess puzzles (I'm an addict...), and a low to high challenge.  Would I have to purchase multiple software packages for the Palm to get this?  Do the handhelds offer these out of the box?

 

How's the battery life on most handhelds?  Palm's have rechargeable li-ion batteries (a HUGE money saver, something I wish the chess-only handhelds would do), so that's another huge plus to them...

 

 I guess it comes down to, if I'm wanting to spend around $150 to $350 on a portable chess machine, should I go with Palm (Z22 or CX or something else I don't know about yet) or take the chess only handhelds?  The extra features/use of the handheld isn't the most important part, it's the diversity and power of the chess tutor/challenge that's the most important thing to me.

 

 Thanks ahead of time for your help everyone!

 

I send you a message. It is if we could be friends.

I have Hiarcs on my Palm and I'd recommend it.  It's stronger than a dedicated chess unit and has better graphics.  You can set the strength level in 50 Elo increments up to 2000 Elo, which is great for learning as you can set it at a level which is just a bit better than you.  Installing the program was simple - you just follow the guide on how to install software to your Palm and it works just fine.

 

If you decide to buy a PDA you can try the demo of Hiarcs for free - just download it from the Hiarcs website. It's restricted to the lowest level and I think that you can't save games, but you'll be able to see what it's like.

 

I have to say the battery life on my Tungsten E has never been very good.  I try to counter this by reducing the brightness of the backlight and setting Hiarcs so that it doesn't "think" when it's my turn.

Thanks for the info SonofPearl

 

My wife is actually encouraging me to get the Palm TX so that I don't have to lug around a laptop all the time, and, as she put it "It'll look like you're doing work at your desk when you're looking at your Palm"

 

Of course, it helps that Palm's running a promotion for a free keyboard (a $70 value) if you purchase one directly off their site.  I'll update here as soon as it arrives and post a review somewhere.

 

Does anyone know of any "Chess Mentor" like programs for the Palm?  I chatted with the Chess Mentor people for a bit and they're currently not planning on porting it over (boo!), but if there's a similar program, I'd love to know what it is. 

Hi. Just thought I'd add my $0.02 here. You might also want to consider looking at Chess Tiger 15.2 available for the Palm platform. The feature list is pretty exhaustive. Plus, they are running a special now where you can get it for half-price ($14.95).

Wow minimus, that's actually a spiffy little chess program...and you can't beat the price!  Thanks for the heads up, I'm purchasing it now (Besides, who says you can't have 2, 3, or 20 chess programs on a single PDA right? heheh)

For Palm OS, the chess program is available in the download section for FREE. you can set difficulty levels and also play against OS as well as any other partner. You can also use it for analyzing differnt board positions (you can set the board in any position and play against OS also).

Hi Vino,

 

Thanks I had already downloaded it in preparation for the arrival of my TX.  Like I said, I'll probably have multiple chess programs on the one PDA

 

Does anyone know how the free one rates? 

I had installed it. Its intelligent level between OK and reasonably good. But now a days I beat it all the time. Now, I mostly use the feature to analyze other games and try various options on the board (by changing the setting to two players mode).

Ok Stauntonmaster, I'll bite.

What is your personal experience with Hiarcs that makes it so you cannot recommend it?

If you will not say anything then stop posting. Your negative posts are meaningless if you do not have anything to back them up. 

Hiarcs on the iPad shows 6 lines. Stockfish on the iPad shows 1 line. Hiarcs on the iPhone shows 1 line. Stockfish on the iPhone shows 1 line. (I have them all and I just looked.)

Hiarcs does more than Stockfish does. Stockfish is a stronger engine. Big deal, any of them can crush you or me. So, it really doesn't matter - unless you are using it to cheat. 

Now, Stauntonmaster, do you have anything else? 

 

Honestly I am still learning how to use chess software for analysis. And I still have a lot to learn.

I have HiArcs and Deep HiArcs in my laptop. And I also imported the Stockfish and Komodo 9 engines. Just for fun, I decided to play these engines against each other. Here are the results:
1. Stockfish beats them all
2. Deep HiaArcs placed 2nd
3. Not sure if Komodo 9 won or drew with HiArcs

At opening stages, Deep HiArcs at times moves faster than Stockfish. I think it is because of the opening database. But as the game transitions to the middle games and end games, Stockfish moves faster and beats the HiArcs.

I am thinking of getting the Komodo 12 engine until I have a better feel of using these software for game analysis. Then I can have the Engine Wars Part 2!