Handheld Chess Computers

I think the best combination of price, features, strength, and ease of use for a handheld is to buy a Palm Z22 on eBay and load it up with Palm Hiarcs 9.7. I don't ude the PDA for any other reason except chess on the go. Check out these links

http://www.hiarcs.com/palm_hiarcs.htm

http://blog.chess.com/likesforests/happy-holidays--palm-hiarcs

Hey Chessroshi

     That seems to be a big problem with Chessmaster being designed for small hand held units. It's great on my PC and Laptops, but you loose a lot when it's on the DS, etc. Although the PSP version is great for what it is I was looking at the Palm Hiarcs and that looks great. I like the idea of buying a Palm on ebay and using it for chess.

Chessmaster for PSP has some ok features, but the maximum opponent is 1800 which is too low

Hi everyone,

any pocket pc will do, there is really great software (commercial and freeware).

ceboard is a free chess program which really kicks as (several engines with gm strength). There are the great convekta programs e.g. ct-art, and there is pocket fritz3 that even plays chessbase media(audio). Don't think even about palm or any other handheld if you're serious about chess. (i loved palm for many years, i am a mac addict, i don't like windows that much but a pocket pc can be really the holy grail for mobile chess)

and a litle hardware tip: the asus a626 is a fine priceworthy ppc.

Regards

have fun

Eckensteher makes a good point in that not only will any pocket PC work but you'll have many more options (chess programs) for your PDA; that is a fact. I have no loyalty to Pocket PC, Palm, or any other platform. At one time I did have a Pocket PC but when it came time to look for a pocket chess solution, I no longer owned the Windows device. So I looked at all platforms objectively with my main focus being to provide myself with the best (in my opinion) pocket chess solution, not a PDA, not a handheld chess computer per se, not PSP, not GameBoy but what are my options for putting together or buying an all in one chess computer. The conclusion I came to was that generally most of the pocket PC options cost waaaayyyy more than the Palm and I wasn't interested in all the "features" of the PDA itself. I did not need to review Excel spreadsheets nor did I have a need for reading Word documents or even sending/receiving email. I just wanted a pocket chess solution. When I compared price, strength, features, ease of use, etc., I concluded that the best "package" (not cheapest) was the Palm Z22 with Palm Hiarcs. The new Z22 sells for around $100 I think. I bought mine used/refurbished on eBay for $60... add Palm Hiarcs 9.7 for $40 and there you have a nice handheld chess computer. If you are looking for a great PDA that you can use as a handheld chess computer, this combo might not be the best but if you"re looking for a good engine in a handheld platform to be used for mainly for playing chess on the go (not analysing or studying or watching chess videos), I think the Palm/Hiarcs is going to be hard to beat. Here is a link that is a bit dated but it might help you in making your decision. By the way, the asus a626 will cost you about $300.

http://www.grailmaster.com/misc/chess/comp/chessrev/chessreview.html

Have fun with your final decision

actually the asus sells at 230 at amazon and you can get one much cheaper at ebay. with the mentioned freeware you got unbeatable value.

but whatever makes people happy, if its a palm...

For my (Windows Mobile) PDA, I use Pocket GrandMaster, which I can heartily recommend.  It's got excellent piece sets and options, and can use a variety of engines (including the latest, very powerful Toga engine).  Excellent program.

I've also ordered Pocket Fritz 3 for the PDA, which is actually a port of the Hiarcs engine.

Yeah, I wish that the PSP would have built in a better learning program and level system into the Chessmaster PSP edition.

I have Maestro Travel Chess Computer and I really like it!

http://www.chesshouse.com/Maestro_Travel_Chess_Computer_p/b14.htm

The IPAQ 110 PPC and Pocket Grandmaster 3.0 are an excellent choice. The PPC cost me $265.00 and $37.50 for the software. Good battery life, large screen and excellent PGM graphics make for good chess.

I used the Saitek Cosmic Chess handheld computer until it finally gave up the ghost.  I ordered their Maestro verion and expect to receive it tomorrow.  My older game was not backlit, and that was a drag!  The problem it developed was that the stylus pen no longer worked on the 1st rank or 8th file.  I hope the new one is better.

Backlit is the only way to go. I have an older handheld without back lighting and its a pain to use.

The Palm/HIARCS 9.7 combo has one very large advantage to the above 'freeware' (and maybe also Pocket Fritz 3, although this does also use the HIARCS engine) in that the program can be set to play at ~800 - 2000 ELO (inluding various  beginner levels). These ELO levels play a more relistic game (and more human like) than any of the above mentioned freeware. This is important for training purposes when online or OTB play is not possible.

(also at its highest level, HIARCS is far stronger than anyone reading these forums!)

Ceboard has adjustable strength with crafty. And not only that it has personalities too. A week ago i had a palm z22 in my hands, even to compare this device to a pocket pc is a joke. The display is ridiculous.

But again whatever makes people happy....

Yees but somehow, smartphone isn't >> dedicated<< chess computer. Beside of distractions running in paralel of your chess app, you're not reaching The Zen. You cater to all of phone's f-tions just to his very small part of memory actualy running chess. Also, however the phone strong is, there's no instantenious, brisk reaction of chess program. Even here, on this app I can't disable animation of pieces but all must be "sweety" and "jelly"...

You're precise, I went little off disapointed why android "rules"... I once had "Iphone" in my hand, it's relly cool but somehow I miss that old rugged PDA's...

(Pda's are as close as possible to "mephisto maestro" lcd handheld dedicated which I recently aquaried)

*acquired, sorry for spamming.

For PC you can get old editions of Fritz at a really good price on ebay. Download and install the latest version of Komodo that they are giving away for free, then turn it down to your level.

For a handheld device... just use the chess dot com or Lichess computer engines.

Thank you for your advice. I personaly, yesterday, won over "beginner" level over "Chess V+" (1st time in life) long-lived franchise for Symbians and androids but not on googleplay anymore. It's called "beginner" but it's not. Tacticaly very "mad" but with zero openings. 5dys before I beat "Bogie" bot for the 2nd time (in my life) on cm9000. On "maestro" won over level 63... just not forcing to save my gray matter.