Author: Chris Kantack
Date: 21:12:06 07/30/02
I answered an email tonight with quite a lengthy response. I thought some of you may be interested in this. Here's a portion of the original letter: ....I was trying to decide if I should buy the Touch Chess or LCD Chess. Now I see that Talking Chess is available. I do not necessarily want the talking feature but the other improvements might be interesting. What should I buy? You were very hot on both touch and lcd chess in your reviews. If the extra $20 isnt an issue to me which should I buy? Lastly, is the screen on Touch Chess that bad or would an average person like myself not even notice if I didnt have LCD Chess to compare it to? Here's my response: I probably use my Touch Chess unit more than any other handheld. To me the ease of use of Touch Chess really sets it apart from the other units. There's no doubt though, that the screen of LCD Chess is much easier on the eyes. If I'm going to take a chess computer somewhere where the amount of light is questionable, I'll take my LCD Chess unit to better ensure I'll be able to read the screen. Touch Chess' screen is not all that bad however. It certainly is a lot nicer than any GameBoy screen. Playing handheld chess with any GameBoy (B&W, Color, Advance) is toughest of all for me. Touch Chess can also fit in a shirt pocket. Not so with LCD Chess and Talking LCD Chess. The LCD Chess units are very nice handhelds but too large and thick to fit in a shirt pocket. I can play Touch Chess with the unit being totally silent. (I rarely get error buzzes with Touch Chess.) With LCD Chess and Talking LCD Chess, I'm more likely to get several error buzzes over the course of a game. (Due to the many keystrokes required.) This makes Touch Chess, for me anyway, "the quietest" unit of them all. I believe Touch Chess is worth the extra money. I have gotten one or two letters from people who found Touch Chess' screen not to be acceptable, but I've received many dozens of emails from those who love Touch Chess. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------As for the new units. There are a few issues to consider. Talking LCD Chess won't be on the market until sometime in August. I agree, the talking feature isn't all that important. But Talking LCD Chess has many other improvements. First of all, it is much smarter. It has a much larger opening book and can think somewhat faster than LCD Chess. Excalibur estimates Talking LCD Chess to be 400 Elo points stronger than the original LCD Chess. So, if you're a strong player or want as strong a unit as possible for the money, Talking LCD Chess is, in my opinion, easily worth $10 more than LCD Chess. I don't have any idea what the street prices will be for Talking LCD Chess. But since the retail price is only $5 more than the original LCD Chess unit, it most likely will be priced quite close to LCD Chess. Secondly, Talking LCD Chess is more "chess like" in its strength levels. Rather than have 72 fixed time levels like LCD Chess, the talking unit has completely redesigned strength levels based on a number of different criteria. For example, you can set play strength by "ply depth", or # of moves in a certain time control. There are many other options as well. Talking LCD Chess is quite flexible when it comes to controlling the strength of your opponent. However, if you are a weak player, you might not gain much with Talking LCD Chess. (The other units, while not as strong, still play some very fine chess.) But if you're really serious about your chess, I think Talking LCD Chess is going to be worth the extra money. My main complaint with Talking LCD Chess is that it operates a bit differently from the original LCD Chess unit. This won't be a problem for those who are not familiar with the original LCD Chess. But for people who may be considering owning both units, there are just enough operational (keystroke) differences to make things really confusing when switching between the original model and the new Talking one. Talking LCD Chess has several nice sound options. (You can control whether or not to have sound effects, position announcements, and other items.) But you cannot completely silence the unit. (Invalid keystrokes always produce a loud beep.) I consider the lack of an "all silent mode" a major oversight by Excalibur. Would I personally pick Talking LCD Chess over Touch Chess? No. I'm not that strong a player so I don't really derive that much extra benefit from playing against Talking LCD Chess. I also very much value the quietness of Touch Chess' operation. I will end up using Talking LCD Chess a lot though as I enjoy experimenting with its many options and strength levels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chess Station/Pocket LCD Chess Chess Station consists of a slick new portable handheld that docks with a small chessboard. I'm not very impressed with the docking chess board. My Chess Station board is already full of "dents" as it requires a lot of "piece pressure" to register a move. Undocking the portable from its chessboard also requires considerable strength. The new handheld, however, is very nice. It can fit in a shirt pocket like Touch Chess but has the nice bright screen of the original LCD Chess unit. The features of Pocket LCD Chess are basically the same as Touch Chess with a few minor additions. Eventually Pocket LCD Chess will be available as a separate product from Chess Station. That is, you won't have to buy it with the board. I don't know how much Pocket LCD Chess will cost (by itself) but I do like its thinner profile and 8 directional button layout. (I find this layout slightly easier to use than the original LCD Chess unit. But it certainly isn't as easy as using Touch Chess.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To summarize: If I were buying a new unit today, I most likely would not get the original LCD Chess unit unless it was considerably cheaper than the other options. (If I had a choice between say $15.00 for the original versus say $30.00 for Talking LCD Chess, I might go for the original.) But for $10 difference or less, I'd easily go for the newer Talking LCD Chess unit. Touch Chess remains my favorite Excalibur unit. Though I must admit the advance features/strength of Talking LCD Chess and the portability of the new Pocket LCD Chess make these new units fine choices as well. (And the "non-touch" units have a much brighter screen than Touch Chess.) It certainly is getting tougher for me to say which unit is best. A lot will depend on your own personal preference and chess playing ability. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Excalibur units mentioned above in this letter. For the money, they are all good deals. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Units I've tried that I don't like or units I've heard many bad things about: e-Chess - runs a bit slower than Excalibur/difficult unnatural interface for moving pieces Virtual Kasparov on GameBoy Advance - few features and very weak Saitek Cosmic - heavy unit, weak player, unit has some real problems Novag Star Sapphire - expensive, non-existent unit, will it ever ship?????? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CCC Addition: Of course, if you're looking at spending $100 or more for a chess handheld, to me the choice is very clear. Get a Palm and Chess Tiger (and/or) ChessGenius. I love the Palm with either of these programs. (My favorite being a Palm with Chess Tiger. The ultimate handheld chess computer.) Chris Kantack http://home.earthlink.net/~kantack/lcdchess/home.htm
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