"With plycount you can back up and fix the one missing move and then forward to the current move keeping all the other moves in between."
Wanted to correct what I said above (i edited the original to remove that)....You cannot miss a move in plycount (or make a move twice for the same side). You can make an incorrect move....(i.e. move a pawn too far, or the wrong sqr, move a N to the wrong sqr etc) and then backup and correct the bad move leaving the rest of the moves up to current, untouched.
I have a ply counter and I love it !!! But they didn't have white when I purchased mine !! Great product though no complaints so far !!!!
When you download the games to your PC, does it also download the time/move used? Thanks in advance.
cghori,
Yes, time spent on moves is recorded and included in the pgn downloads.
My plycounter device went bust just after a year of buying...so out of warranty :(
The worst part is they are backordered for new device and it costs as much to fix my existing one.
If you plan on playing chess for a long time, recommend Monroi- has better features although little expensive.
Does anybody has a telephone for the company or Paco (the guy who seems to run the company) so I can call? I bought a PlyCount for my son, it worked fine till suddently failed after a couple of months. The only contact info I found on the website is an email address, but he didn't responded. My son was upset.
Even after a re-calibration as instructed on his website, the left side screen doesn't respond.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5csu2902u0ztyb/20150919_164053.mp4?dl=0
I own a Plycounter.
While I haven't considered it to use to study book games, I can see it could work for it.
You could play through the moves of a game and even variations by taking moves back and changing the lines. Of course you could also save one game at a time.
Using an app like Shredder would also have an engine to help you decide on the strength of moves if you want.
Probably not. I doubt it supports variations, the ability to quickly reset a board or to set up arbitrary positions on it. Also, it is primarily designed to notate games and pull them off; I wouldn't think it has the ability to load games from an external location so all games would have to be manually entered.
I could be wrong but I don't see the USCF authorizing the device if it did support those features.
You're right, Martin.
However, he could start a new game and put the moves in from the book while reading it. It does allow you to take moves back during the game. By doing this he could play through variations and then take back enough moves to get to the main line position to continue. He would need to not save the game until done, of course. And he doesn't even need to save that game except to quickly clear the machine for another game.
Oh, I agree.
An Android tablet can be purchased quite cheap. And the apps are not expensive either.
I bought a 7" Toshiba tablet for something like $70 and at 7" it isn't too big.
I personally would get one of these instead of the Plycounter to go through games with.
And, with some of these Chess ebook apps you could play through the game on a chess board in the text.
The Plycounter is not designed for studying and going through games.
I bought several plycounters - 2 are already broken. 1 less than a year and they never respond to any emails. Another just broke 1.2 years and I'm given up trying to contact them
I think you should get a Chessnoter.Details are on this website: https://www.chessnoter.com/
I just ordered and received my plycount device. They have two offerings now. One in white and black. Both are $169 USD + tax. Much cheaper than the other option out there. When I opened the box the stylus was missing from the holster. Didnt see it anywhere in the box so I emailed the vendor, and they agreed to ship me one free of charge. Good prompt customer service is always a bonus!
Plycount is on USCF's approved list of electronic notation devices, so this was obviously important also. The device itself appears to operate as advertised. Its fairly intuitive to use, and they have an online guide that is thorough which walks you through all the features. Moves are easy to enter on the touch screen, and it does record time spent on each move, which is a bonus for me. My coach often wanted to know how much time I spent on certain moves, so its nice to have this recorded automatically.
Games are stored on the device and can be reviewed directly on screen, or you can view games from your pc using their free software. From that software you can save games on your pc and import them into your db software. Simply plug in the usb cable, load the software and the games are shown for easy management.
I've always wanted an electronic notation device to simplify notation during games. During tournaments I would always miss writing down a move at some point and start entering moves out of sync on paper only to realize it a number of moves later. Trying to fix this during a timed event is not fun. With plycount you can back up and fix an incorrect move and then forward to the current move keeping all the other moves in between. Brilliant! I look forward to trying this out during actual tournament play to see if it eliminates my distraction of keeping tidy notation. I know this is probably a discipline thing, but if this keeps me focused on the game rather than note taking then so be it!
Overall, I'd say this product is a very welcome affordable option for electronic notation.