Author: Steven Schwartz
Date: 11:30:38 10/26/98
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On October 26, 1998 at 14:02:43, Pat Barron wrote: >On October 15, 1998 at 17:27:20, Steven Schwartz wrote: >>The handheld LCD chess computers are gone now. At one time, >>we had the Mattel Computer Chess and the Shadow and Executive >>by Saitek, but no more. I think the problem was that the >>pieces on the display were all based upon a triangle with >>little appendages denoting the differences between kings >>and queens and knights, etc. It was very difficult to distinguish >>the pieces from one another. >> >>Chess is tough enough when you KNOW what all the pieces are:-))) >>- Steve (ICD/Your Move) > >The display on the Saitek Shadow isn't _too_ bad - though the hardest >pieces to tell apart are, unfortunately, the King and the Queen. > >I have a Shadow, and I really like it - oddly enough, I was just playing >it last night. Its maximum rating is, I'd guess, somewhere around >1200 USCF (anybody know a more accurate number for this machine?), but >that's still about 200 points higher than me... :-) It does have the >annoying property that it sometimes overlooks the obvious - during one >of my recent games, I was a down a couple of pieces and in bad position, >and the machine was intent on executing a 3 or 4 move mating attack. >There really wasn't any rush necessary on the computer's part - I was >stuck, and wasn't going anywhere - but I still had a potential mate-in-2 >on the computer's back rank. The computer only needed to pause its attack >for one move to play P-R3, to create luft in case I checked on the back >rank. But it didn't - it didn't see that there was a mate in 2 moves, that >it could have avoided trivially, and this was *not* on one of the handicap >levels. Oh well, another point for me ... :-) > >Anyway, the point of that whole story is, I've really been wanting >a stronger handheld LCD-screen computer for a long time. I like the >LCD screen a lot - I can take the thing with me wherever I want, not >have to worry about losing the tiny little plastic peg pieces on the >bus, or in a coffee shop, or wherever. > >In the absence of such a machine, I've recently been thinking about >getting a Novag Jasper - calculator style with a separate board (but >at least the board is not integral to the operation of the machine, >the way it is on a peg sensory machine - if I lose pieces, it doesn't >stop me from using the machine. Anyone know anything about this unit? >It is claimed to have a rating of about 1750 USCF, which is pretty >incredible, considering it supposedly has a 4K program and something like >800 bytes of RAM. > >--Pat. Is this the very same USCF that has a firm policy that no advertiser is permitted to mention any rating that was not acheived through the USCF rating agency tests? ...and then just takes a manufacturer's claim and repeats it in their OWN ad without testing it at all! I am constantly amazed! - Steve (ICD/Your Move)
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