Monroi Chess Recorder

Tell your friend to sell it on ebay. You'll be surprised how many people will buy it for so much more.

lol, I'm seeing him later, I'll see if I can get the name and post a link. It's a marvel of Chinese Technology.

Hopefully you say that your friend's DGT chess set is crap only because you do not like it and not because it's broken and unusable to anyone else. Otherwise don't even list it for sale.

Or were you referring to the rubber rollup USB-based chessboard that can only be played with its own chess program for Windows? If that's what he owns, then I would discourage you from reselling it.

Yeah, that sounds like it....

I can't believe there is a device with the sole purpose of recording chess moves! As if the traditional pen and an old newspaper would not suffice?

Would you believe that there's a device that allows you to watch shows when looking at the stars used to do the trick?

There are even devices to help people keep score in bowling too...

But you'd have to admit, scorekeeping for bowling gets complicated

after a case of beer.

Try playing serious chess after a case of beer.

You'll need a DGT chessboard to record your "interesting" game. Forget about using a Monroi or you might mistake it for a coaster.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the dark side of the monroi; it could theoretically increase the possibility of cheating. 

I've had opponents with monrois

A) ask me for my scoresheet to re enter the game from scratch.  How am I to know whether they used it as an analysis board to help them calculate? 

B) Leave the playing hall with the monroi.  How am I to know that they aren't showing the game to their buddy? 

On top of that the possibility that someone could fiddle with a monroi device and enter the playing hall with a modified device is another concern. Food for thought. 

I tried the MonRoi once in my most recent tournament. I couldn't focus on the game, so I abandoned it after 5 moves.

I bought one for my son who (on paper) kept recording incorrect moves and missing moves altogether. After he started using Monroi -- no more problems with unreadable scoresheets. Many other kids who frequent our area's tournaments have it, and I haven't heard many complaints about it; I recall someone mentioning just one failure when the thing has locked up during a game.

Some kids (mine included) have a temporary slump in the results after getting a Monroi; the presence of the device may be distracting. Setting the screen backlight to turn off after a couple seconds may help here (the screen goes mostly dark and stops being a distraction).

The recording interface is very intuitive - point at the piece to be moved, point at the square where it should go, and that's all. Correcting errors is easy - just back up to the error, and re-do the moves.

Browsing past games is a bit annoying; after old games are erased from the memory, the sequence of games in the database may not be the same as the order in which they were played. The only way to export the games is via a memory card (SD); the device has an USB connector, but all it does is recharge the battery.

One thing you should be aware of is that once you record the owner's name into the Monroi device, it cannot be changed, so if you don't like it, selling it may be a problem.

One very useful feature is that the device records the time spent on each move (somewhat annoyingly, this information is NOT recorded as comments in PGN but in a separate file, and can be viewed and printed only from Monroi's software). One discovery my son and I made after he started using the Monroi was that 95% of his blunders were moves on which he spent less than 15 seconds of thinking time; typically 7-10 seconds that cost a game.

A much cheaper solution is the eNotate program that runs on some PDAa; it is USCF-certified, but since the manufacturer's website does not mention any other certification, it is probably not useful outside of the US. Cost: $125 with Dell Axim PDA. I have no experience with that product, and have seen it in a tournament just once.

Keep your money like the others said, and buy a leopard skin pill box hat instead.

Anything new is distracting, but we learn to adapt the new technology with enough practice.

GPS navigation screens, Bluetooth headsets and handsfree speakerphones may take a couple of days to get used to while driving, but it does not deter thousands of motorists who use them on a daily basis.

Using new cellphones for the first time can be frustrating, but everyone eventually learns to make and receive calls with them.

If at first you don't succeed...

Or you can let the backlight dim down just after a few seconds as LegoPirateSenior suggested.

To be more clear: I don't own one, I was offered by the tournament organizers to use one. He gave me a short tutorial, I started playing and using it, but stopped after 5 moves.

I have no doubt that they're useful little things. You can call me a Luddite, but I will try it again.

Great points. I have been waiting for such comments and ideas ever since I did my own research on the Monroi.

I am not sure if you are allowed to leave the playing area with your scoresheet or Monroi in the middle of the match. Even when one leaves empty-handed, anyone can easily consult others by recalling the games just from memory. When that happens again, ask them to leave the Monroi or hand it over to an arbiter.

Consider it as a compliment when Monroi users who mess up have to refer to your hand-written scoresheets. Also, you have the option to say, "No."

I understand your trepidation when you play someone who uses a PDA and imagine that it could be modified to run a strong chess engine. Here are a few ways to catch them:

1. They nervously hide the Monroi from being seen closely by arbiters and other players

2. They glance or stare too much at the Monroi's screen instead of the pieces on the board especially when they are running out of time.

3. There is too much activity on the Monroi screen even when moves are not being entered. 

4. They take too long to move in the endgame even when they are running out of time

Occassionally, lockups on Monrois happen when people press the wrong buttons. Sometimes pressing the Back or Cancel buttons can fix the issue.

I believe that users are given the chance to enter more information for the tournament that they will be playing in such as tournament names, places, dates and locations. More data can be entered before each match such as player names, time controls and game numbers. This should allow you to keep your game database organized.

After you mentioned the fact that Monroi devices permanently set the names of the owner for each device, I wonder how dragon-warrior will be able to record games properly using the son's older PCM per an earlier post.

The time record is indeed a very neat piece of information that is great for post-mortem evaluation.

Finally, using a standard PDA for chess notation will always raise concerns as it is one step away from accessing chess engines unlike the one-trick-pony that the Monroi is made for.

Also, happyfanatic would flip out on such a player.

Although I'm not 100% certain, I believe that it is a USCF rule that you always have to show your opponent your scoresheet upon request. 

It's true that you can keep an eye out on your opponent in the case of suspicious behavior, but I didn't show up at the tournament to take on the added anxiety of acting as if I am proctoring an exam.  So far as I know it is against the rules to leave the playing hall with your scoresheet, but when my opponent left the playing hall with his expensive monroi and I asked a tournament director about it, nothing was done. 

 I believe the majority of people I sit down across from would not cheat and just want to play a game of chess with their own skills.  If it's a smaller tournament I don't worry about this issue, but at larger national/regional tournaments where the cash prizes are substantial, that's when the paranoia sets in.  

When Monroi users mess up and wipe out their entries, you can ask the arbitrator to intervene to remove doubts of cheating. Also it raises the flags of authorities when the same players do it every time.

A compliance with such requests is encouraged but not mandatory. A player whose opponent refused to share the scoresheet may stop the clock and ask the TD for assistance. If the TD agrees that the request is appropriate, the scoresheet must be loaned to the requestor (this is because the game records belong to the tournament organizers).

Both players must have at least 5 minutes on the clock for such requests to be valid. Borrower's clock must be running while the scoresheet is on loan.

I wanted to bring this excellent argument for Monroi as a cheating tool from another previous post:

WanderingWinder wrote:

"This will lie with your local chess federation and, more specifically, the tournament's rules. But generally, the answer is no. OTB you can't use anything as an analysis board."