Ratinglist and review Chess programs for Pocket PC and Palm devices.

Last updated 18. September 2005

 

Rank 1

PocketGrandmaster v2.1

K. Skibbe & F. Schneider

Pocket PC

 

This version of PocketGrandmaster is certainly the best chess program currently available for the Pocket PC. The variety of features makes this program ideal for the advanced chess player who really wants to work with this program. For example, it has an analyzing feature and a training mode, that you can use for solving test problems and positions. PGM includes four very good chess engines: Gromit, SOS, Ruffian and Fruit. The very strong engine Fruit can’t be found on the main download page, but is available under: http://www.pocketgrandmaster.com/english/FruitPGM.zip Each available engines has it's own character. The open source Fruit-engine of Fabian Letouze is strong overall and probably the strongest chess playing engine next to Hiarcs, Thinker, Toga (CEBoard) and Shredder (Pocket Fritz 2) available for handhelds. Gromit plays usually solid and rather passive, but is the weakest of the four engines. On the other hand, SOS plays a very aggressive style, while Ruffian plays more ‘human’ and very positional chess. A drawback in PGM is the missing ELO handicapping, which makes it difficult to adjust the strength according to the players strength. Yet, the playing strength can be adjusted by changing hash size, pondering mode and time control. The estimated strength on a 400 Mhz device is approx. 2280 Elo for Gromit, 2540 Elo for Ruffian, 2430 Elo for SOS and 2600 for Fruit. A nice feature is the book control option that allows you to chose between different available opening books and you can set the book moves the program plays. As the only program, PGM offers also voice announcements of the moves on the board which have to be downloaded and are available for English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. One feature that is very good to have is the new training mode. A training database is included which can be enhanced on your own. PGM also includes several very good piece sets. For professional use, I recommend the maple board in combination with the piece-set ‘Cases’. In summary, this program is highly recommended. You will not be disappointed by it. It has more functions than any other chess program and is cheaper than it’s closest rivals Pocket Fritz 2 and Hiarcs. Here a 10 min Blitz game, ponder on against Fruit 2.1 which was somewhat disappointing for Fruit, despite it’s overall strength:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Fruit 2.1 [B90]

B90: Sicilian Najdorf: Unusual White 6th moves, 6 Be3 Ng4 and 6 Be3 e5

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1–f3 d7-d6 3.d2-d4 c5xd4 4.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5.Nb1–c3 a7-a6 6.Rh1–g1 e7-e5 7.Nd4-b3 Nb8-c6  0.17/9  8.g2-g4  0.16/9  Bc8-e6  0.16/10  9.g4-g5  0.16/10  Nf6-d7  0.16/9  10.Bc1–e3  0.16/8  Ra8-c8  0.33/9  11.h2-h4  0.18/8  Nd7-b6 11...Bf8-e7  0.18  0.69/10  12.Qd1–d2  0.73/8  Nb6-c4  0.74/11  13.Bf1xc4  0.80/10  Be6xc4  0.80/9  14.0–0–0 Exerts pressure on the backward pawn  0.74/8  14...Nc6-b4  0.74/10  15.Kc1–b1  0.74/8  Bf8-e7 15...d6-d5  0.74  1.29/11  [15...d6-d5 16.e4xd5 Bc4xb3 17.a2xb3±] 16.a2-a3  1.29/9  Bc4xb3  1.60/10  17.c2xb3  1.60/11  Nb4-c6  1.60/11  18.Nc3-d5  1.60/9  b7-b5  1.60/9  19.Kb1–a2  1.40/9  0–0?? 19...b5-b4  1.40. amazingly terrible, but what else could Black do to save the game? X3DFritz recommends b5-b4. Fruit itself switches to Rg8 after 1:20 m of thinking, and switches again to Qa5 after 3 minutes.   7.70/11  [¹19...b5-b4± 20.Rd1–c1 with about minus two pawn units; 19...Qd8-a5 20.b3-b4 again with about minus two pawn units; 19...Rh8-g8 20.h4-h5 with nearly minus 3 pawn units] Interestingly, when Fruit is given the move b5-b4 for analysis, it likes it.  20.Be3-b6  7.70/10  Rc8-c7  8.77/10  21.Bb6xc7  8.77/8  Qd8-a8  8.77/10  22.Rd1–c1  8.77/8  Kg8-h8 8.86/10  1–0

 

Here a 5 min Blitz game, ponder on against Gromit:

Gromit 3.10.16 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [B94]

B94: Sicilian Najdorf: 6 Bg5 Nbd7

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1–f3 d7-d6 3.d2-d4 c5xd4 4.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5.Nb1–c3 a7-a6 6.Bc1–g5 Nb8-d7 7.Bf1–c4 e7-e6 8.0–0 Qd8-a5 9.Qd1–d2 Bf8-e7 10.Ra1–d1 h7-h6 11.Bg5-h4 Nd7-e5 12.Bc4-e2  0.50/9  Qa5-b6  0.50/8  13.Bh4xf6  0.14/11  Be7xf6  0.14/9  14.Nc3-a4  0.14/10  Qb6-a7  0.11/8  15.Qd2-b4  -0.22/11  [15.Qd2-a5 Bc8-d7=] 15...b7-b5  -0.22/9  16.Na4-c3  -0.22/10  0–0  -0.24/8  17.a2-a4  -0.24/10  a6-a5  -0.24/11  18.Qb4-b3  -0.24/10  b5-b4  -0.24/11  19.Nc3-b5 Menacing  -0.24/11  19...Qa7-c5  -0.07/9  20.c2-c3  -0.19/8  Bc8-b7  0.10/9  21.c3xb4  0.10/10  a5xb4  0.10/10  22.Rd1–c1  0.10/11  Qc5-b6  0.09/9  23.Qb3xb4  0.09/8  Bb7xe4  0.33/9  24.Nd4xe6  0.33/9  Be4xg2  0.33/9  25.Ne6xf8  0.33/8  Bg2xf1  0.33/10  26.Rc1xf1  0.45/8  Kg8xf8  0.45/10  27.b2-b3 Secures c4  0.39/9  [Inferior is 27.Qb4xd6+ Qb6xd6 28.Nb5xd6 Ra8xa4³] 27...Ra8-d8  0.63/10  28.Rf1–d1 The pressure on the isolated pawn grows  0.25/10  28...Qb6-c5  0.25/8  29.Qb4-d2  0.18/9  d6-d5  0.18/9  30.Rd1–c1  0.08/10  Qc5-b6  0.21/8  31.Qd2-c2  0.00/9  d5-d4  0.00/9  32.Rc1–d1  0.00/9  Bf6-h4  0.00/8  33.Qc2-e4 Increasing the pressure on the isolated pawn on d4  0.00/9  33...Qb6-f6 33...d4-d3  0.00  0.44/9  34.f2-f3  -1.73/10  [¹34.f2-f4 saving the game 34...d4-d3 35.Be2-h5² a) 35.Qe4xe5?? White should leave the knight well alone 35...Qf6xe5 36.f4xe5 d3xe2 37.Rd1xd8+ Kf8-e7–+; b) 35.Be2xd3 Ne5xd3 (‹35...Rd8xd3 36.Rd1xd3 Ne5xd3 37.Qe4xd3²) 36.Rd1xd3 Rd8-e8 37.Qe4-b4+ Kf8-g8–+; ] 34...d4-d3  -2.47/9  35.Be2-f1  -1.73/10  Ne5xf3+  -1.73/10  36.Kg1–h1  -1.59/8  Nf3-g5 36...Nf3-e1  –1.59  -0.98/8  37.Qe4-g2  -1.76/9  d3-d2  -1.48/8  38.Bf1–e2  -2.53/10  [38.a4-a5!?–+] 38...Qf6-e6  -2.23/8  39.Be2-c4?? shortens the misery for White  -6.14/11  [39.Nb5-c3–+] 39...Qe6-e1+  -6.14/11  40.Qg2-f1  -6.19/10  Rd8-e8  -6.19/11  41.Nb5-c3  -6.19/10  Re8-e3  -6.19/9  42.Nc3-d5 -6.66/10  0–1

 

Here a game against SOS:

SOS 1.0 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [B96]

B96: Sicilian Najdorf: 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4, lines other than 7...Qb6 and 7...Be7

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1–f3 d7-d6 3.d2-d4 c5xd4 4.Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5.Nb1–c3 a7-a6 6.Bc1–g5 e7-e6 7.f2-f4 Nb8-d7 8.Bf1–c4 Qd8-b6 9.Bc4-b3 Bf8-e7 10.f4-f5 e6-e5  0.25/10  11.Nd4-f3  0.18/8  h7-h6  0.27/10  12.Bg5xf6  0.27/10  Nd7xf6  0.27/9  13.Qd1–e2  0.07/9  Bc8-d7  0.07/10  14.0–0–0  0.07/10  0–0  0.07/9  15.Nc3-d5  0.07/11  Nf6xd5  0.07/9  16.Bb3xd5 White can be proud of that piece  0.07/10  16...Ra8-c8  0.07/8  17.Kc1–b1  0.07/8  a6-a5  0.39/8  [17...Rc8-c3 18.Nf3-d2 Rf8-c8 19.Nd2-c4=] 18.Nf3-d2  -0.04/10  a5-a4  -0.04/8  19.Qe2-d3  -0.11/9  Rc8-c7  0.03/8  20.Nd2-c4  0.01/9  Qb6-b4  0.25/8  21.c2-c3  0.09/11  Qb4-c5  0.10/9  22.Nc4-a3  0.09/9  b7-b5  0.09/10  23.Na3-c2  0.09/9  Qc5-b6 23...b5-b4  0.09  0.73/9  [23...b5-b4 24.Nc2xb4 Bd7-b5 25.c3-c4 Qc5xb4 26.c4xb5=] 24.Qd3-e2  -0.23/10  [24.Qd3-g3 Rf8-c8 25.Rh1–f1 Be7-f6²] 24...Be7-f6 24...a4-a3  –0.23  0.42/9  [24...a4-a3 25.Nc2xa3 b5-b4 26.c3xb4 Qb6xb4 27.Rd1–c1=] 25.h2-h4  -0.08/10  [¹25.a2-a3²] 25...Qb6-a7?? 25...a4-a3  0.08. here I ran into trouble, thereby handing over the advantage to SOS  2.68/10  [25...a4-a3 26.g2-g4 b5-b4±] 26.g2-g4+-  2.11/8  Qa7-c5?? 26...Bf6-e7  2.11. the pressure SOS exerts is simply too much and my positions breaks down..nice play by SOS  3.25/8  [26...Bf6-e7 27.g4-g5 b5-b4 28.Nc2xb4+-] 27.Nc2-b4  2.64/8  [27.g4-g5 Bf6-d8 28.g5xh6 g7-g5 29.f5xg6 Bd7-e6 30.Bd5xe6 f7xe6+-] 27...Rc7-c8 27...Qc5-b6  2.64  4.37/8  28.Qe2-d2  1.86/9  [28.g4-g5 Bf6-d8 29.g5xh6 g7xh6 30.Rh1–g1+ Kg8-h8+-] 28...Bf6-e7 28...a4-a3  1.86  3.25/10  [28...a4-a3 29.g4-g5 Kg8-h7 30.g5xf6 a3xb2 31.f6xg7 Kh7xg7 32.Rh1–g1+ Kg7-h7+-] 29.g4-g5  2.73/8  Kg8-h7  3.25/9  30.Bd5xf7! SOS demolishes my pawn structure  3.25/8  30...Bd7-e8  3.96/8  [30...Rf8xf7 Decoy to f7 31.g5-g6 A double attack] 31.Bf7-e6  3.96/8  Be8-h5  3.96/8  32.Rd1–f1  3.96/8  Rc8-e8  4.23/8  33.Nb4-d5  4.23/8  Be7-d8  4.23/7  34.g5xh6  3.78/10  [34.Be6-d7!? makes it even easier for White 34...Qc5-c4 35.Qd2-g2 Qc4-d3+ 36.Qg2-c2 Bh5-e2+-] 34...g7xh6  3.78/9  35.Be6-d7  3.78/9  Qc5-c4  3.78/7  36.Qd2-e3  3.00/9  [36.Qd2-c2 keeps an even firmer grip 36...Re8-e7 37.Nd5xe7 Bd8xe7+-] 36...Re8-e7  3.71/10  [36...Bh5-e2 37.Rf1–e1 Qc4-d3+ 38.Qe3xd3 Be2xd3+ 39.Kb1–c1+-] 37.Nd5xe7  3.71/10  Bd8xe7  3.71/10  38.Bd7-e6  3.71/10  Qc4-c5  4.03/10  [38...Qc4-e2 is not the saving move 39.Qe3-a7 a4-a3 40.b2xa3+- (40.Qa7xe7+ is not possible 40...Rf8-f7 41.Qe7xf7+ Bh5xf7 42.b2xa3 Qe2xe4+ 43.Kb1–b2 Kh7-g7µ) ] 39.Qe3-d2  4.03/9  Be7-d8  4.49/10  40.Rf1–g1  4.49/8  Bd8-f6  4.50/9  41.Rg1–g3  4.49/8  Bh5-f7 41...b5-b4  4.49  8.84/10  [41...b5-b4+- is the last straw] 42.Be6xf7  8.84/11  Rf8xf7  8.84/11  43.Rg3-g6  8.84/11  Bf6-g7  8.84/8  44.Qd2xd6  6.08/10  [¹44.Rh1–g1 secures victory 44...Qc5-a7 45.Qd2-g2 h6-h5+-] 44...Qc5-e3  6.08/9  45.Rg6-g4  5.44/10  [45.Qd6-d5 seems even better 45...Rf7-d7 46.Rh1–g1 Qe3xg1+ 47.Rg6xg1 Rd7xd5 48.e4xd5 Bg7-f6+-] 45...Bg7-f6  6.73/9  [45...h6-h5 doesn't get the bull off the ice 46.Qd6-g6+ Kh7-g8 47.Qg6xh5 Qe3-d3+ 48.Kb1–a1+-] 46.Qd6-d5  6.73/10  Rf7-g7  6.83/9  47.Rg4xg7+  6.83/9 [47.Rg4xg7+ Bf6xg7 48.Qd5-c6+-]  1–0  Great game by SOS! Unbelievable.

 

SOS was the only program that could win against me. I couldn’t let that happen, so I needed a rematch:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - SOS 1.0 [E61]

E61: King's Indian: Early deviations for White, including Smyslov System

1.Ng1–f3 Ng8-f6 2.c2-c4 g7-g6 3.Nb1–c3 Bf8-g7 4.d2-d4 0–0 5.Bc1–g5 c7-c5 6.e2-e3 Qd8-a5  0.25/9  7.Bf1–d3  0.10/9  d7-d6 Prevents intrusion on e5  0.35/10  8.0–0  0.35/9  c5xd4  0.35/10  9.e3xd4  0.35/9  Bc8-g4  0.54/9  10.Bg5-e3  0.22/8  Qa5-b6  0.60/9  11.Ra1–b1  0.53/8  Qb6-c6  0.68/10  12.d4-d5  0.68/10  Qc6-c8  0.68/10  13.Rf1–e1  0.68/8  Nb8-d7  0.68/9  14.Be3-d4  0.42/10  e7-e5  0.42/11  15.d5xe6  0.42/10  f7xe6  0.48/8  16.Bd3-e2  0.32/8  Bg4-f5  0.46/10  17.Rb1–a1  0.46/9  Qc8-c6  0.46/9  18.Nf3-h4  0.46/9  e6-e5  0.46/10  19.Nh4xf5  0.46/11  g6xf5  0.46/10  20.Bd4-e3  0.46/9  f5-f4 Black gets more space  0.49/10  21.Be3-c1  0.49/9  Nd7-c5  0.54/10  22.b2-b4  0.40/10  Nc5-e6  0.40/9  23.Bc1–b2  0.18/9  Ne6-d4  0.18/9  24.Be2-d3  0.17/9  f4-f3  0.17/9  25.Nc3-b5  0.16/9  f3xg2? 25...Nd4xb5  0.16  1.24/10  [¹25...Nd4xb5!? would allow Black to play on 26.c4xb5 Qc6-d7 27.Bd3-c4+ d6-d5=] 26.Nb5xd4  1.24/10  e5xd4  1.24/9  27.Bb2xd4  1.24/8  Rf8-f7  1.44/8  28.Re1–e3  1.41/8  d6-d5  1.44/8  29.Ra1–c1  1.44/7  Ra8-d8  1.51/8  30.Re3-g3  1.51/8  Qc6-d6  1.70/8  31.c4xd5  1.91/7  Qd6xd5?? 31...Qd6-f4  1.91. Huh, that’s a big blunder, how could SOS miss that? Black crumbles in face of a dire situation. .   9.62/8  [¹31...Kg8-h8+-] 32.Bd4xf6  8.89/6  Kg8-h8  21.45/10  33.Rg3xg7  21.45/11  Rf7xg7  21.45/9  34.Bf6xg7+  21.45/11  Kh8xg7 21.48/9  1–0

 

Here a 5 min Blitz game, ponder on, against Ruffian:

Ruffian 1.04 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [C12]

C12: French: Classical System: McCutcheon Variation

1.e2-e4 e7-e6 2.d2-d4 d7-d5 3.Nb1–c3 Ng8-f6 4.Bc1–g5 Bf8-b4 5.e4xd5 Qd8xd5 6.Ng1–f3 Nf6-e4  -0.07/10  7.Bg5-d2  -0.17/8  Bb4xc3  -0.07/9  8.b2xc3  -0.07/7  c7-c5  -0.07/8  9.Bf1–d3  -0.07/10  Ne4xd2  0.25/9  10.Qd1xd2  0.25/11  c5-c4  0.25/11  11.Bd3-e2  0.25/12  0–0  0.25/11  12.0–0  0.39/11  Nb8-d7  0.39/10  13.Qd2-f4  0.16/11  Nd7-b6  0.16/9  14.Rf1–e1  -0.04/11  Qd5-a5  -0.07/9  15.Qf4-d2  -0.46/11  f7-f6  -0.41/9  16.Nf3-h4  -0.98/12  [16.Qd2-e3!?³ deserves consideration] 16...g7-g5  -0.98/11  17.Nh4-f3  -0.98/13  g5-g4  -0.98/11  18.Nf3-e5  -0.98/12  f6xe5  -0.98/10  19.Qd2-g5+  -0.98/12  Kg8-h8  -0.98/9  20.Be2xg4  -0.98/10  Bc8-d7  -1.19/8  21.Qg5-h5  -1.58/9  Rf8-f4  -1.71/7  22.g2-g3  -1.95/11  Rf4-f6  -1.95/9  23.d4xe5  -2.12/10  [23.Qh5xe5 Nb6-d5 24.Bg4-f3 Ra8-f8–+] 23...Rf6-g6  -2.12/10  24.Bg4-f3  -2.12/11  Nb6-d5  -2.12/7  25.Bf3-e4  -2.31/11  [25.Qh5-h4 Ra8-f8 26.Bf3-g2 Bd7-c6 27.Qh4xc4 Rf8-f7–+] 25...Nd5-f6  -2.42/9  26.Qh5-d1  -2.50/11  [26.Qh5-e2 Nf6xe4 27.Qe2xe4 Bd7-c6 28.Qe4xc4 Bc6-d5–+] 26...Nf6xe4  -2.50/10  27.Qd1xd7  -2.50/11  Qa5xe5  -2.50/9  28.Qd7xb7  -2.50/12  Qe5-d5  -2.62/10  29.Ra1–b1  -3.05/11  Ne4-d2  -3.05/11  30.Re1–d1  -2.99/9  Ra8-d8  -2.97/7  31.Qb7xd5  -3.30/11  Rd8xd5  -3.30/11  32.Rb1–b8+  -3.56/13  Rg6-g8  -3.56/12  33.Rb8xg8+  -3.40/9  Kh8xg8  -3.40/10  34.Kg1–g2  -3.56/13  Nd2-e4  -3.48/11  35.Rd1–e1  -3.56/13  Ne4xc3  -3.48/11  36.Re1xe6  -3.56/11  Rd5-d2  -3.56/10  37.Re6-e8+  -3.56/11  Kg8-f7  -3.56/9  38.Re8-a8  -3.74/11  Rd2xc2  -3.74/11  39.Ra8xa7+  -3.74/11  Kf7-g6  -3.74/9  40.a2-a4  -3.74/11  Nc3-d1  -3.74/9  41.Ra7-a6+  -3.74/10  Kg6-g5  -3.56/10  42.h2-h4+  -4.45/12  [42.Ra6-a5+ doesn't improve anything 42...Kg5-f6 43.Ra5-a6+ Kf6-f5–+] 42...Kg5-g4  -4.45/12  43.Ra6-f6  -4.45/12  c4-c3  -4.50/12  44.Rf6-f4+  -4.50/10  Kg4-h5  -4.50/8  45.Rf4-f5+  -4.50/11  Kh5-h6  -4.50/10  46.Kg2-f1  -4.77/11  Nd1xf2  -4.77/9  47.Rf5-f3  -4.77/11  Kh6-g6  -5.08/9  48.Kf1–e1  -5.61/11  Nf2-e4  -5.61/10  49.Rf3-f4  -5.61/10  [49.h4-h5+ doesn't do any good 49...Kg6-g5 50.Rf3-e3 Kg5-f5–+] 49...Ne4-c5  -5.63/9  50.Rf4-c4  -8.23/11  [50.h4-h5+ does not improve anything 50...Kg6-h6 51.Rf4-d4 Rc2-a2 52.Rd4-d6+ Kh6-g7 53.h5-h6+ Kg7-f7–+] 50...Nc5-d3+  -8.23/13  51.Ke1–f1  -7.00/11  Rc2-f2+  -7.20/11  52.Kf1–g1  -7.20/10  c3-c2 -7.20/9  0–1

 

 

Points:

195

 

Average Price:

25 $

 

Value:

Good

 

Plus: Very strong; Good PGN-support; nice design; various functions

Minus: No ELO handicapping; no online play

 

Engine(s): Gromit, Ruffian, SOS, Fruit

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 2

CE Board v2.1.589.1

A. Zanchetta

Pocket PC

 

Additional to it’s chess playing engines, CEBoard is an application made to enter and view chess games on a Pocket PC. It can be downloaded for free at http://www.zanchetta.net/CEBoard/ .It saves and loads files using the PGN standard which allows to review in software like Chessbase games entered on Pocket PC, and to review on a PPC games published on the Internet. It allows the entering of variations, comments and setup of positions. The best function in my opinion is the support of text annotation in PGN-files. Unfortunately, CEBoard does not have sound support and the design is not as good as it’s commercial competitors, but it is still good enough that you do not get a headache using it. CEBoard comes with currently three engines (more probably to come). The main chess engine is Crafty Classic 2004, developed by Michael Byrne which is a special version of Robert Hyatt's famous Crafty. It has many different personalities against which you can play such as Beginner, Novice, Expert, Anand, Botwinnik, Capablanca, Fischer, Kasparov, Lasker, Steinitz and many others. Additionally, the probably two strongest chess engines Fruit and Toga (based on Fruit) are downloadable (and another chess engine, Homer, will follow soon). Windows CE is not as powerful as Windows XP and does not include a task manager able to kill a process without user interface. Therefore, the engines are integrated into CEBoard's process as DLLs. For the Crafty engine, many opening books are available, however the cab-file does not include any opening books. You have to download them and then copy them into you device and change the registry (this part is explained at the homepage). Crafty Classic 2004 is the only Pocket PC engine that supports endgame-tablebases (entire 4 -man EGTB takes up only about 30 MB). In order to support endgame-tablebases, you have to specify their path in the Pocket PC's registry. For that, you have to use a tool such as PHM Registry Editor. Other valuable features are a logfile function and landscape mode, among others. Unfortunately, CEBoard has neither a Hint button, nor does it have a coach watching feature, which is standard in most other programs. Missing is also an help-file, which may be helpful in figuring out the many features of this program. A nice and unique function of CEBoard is it’s dynamic level adjustment, which adjusts it’s playing strength to the user. In general, CEBoard offers many different playing levels and time control options (incl. Fischer time control), although the time/move feature and predefined time controls are missing. The move entry can also be improved; sliding of the pieces is not supported. Overall, I think that it can be the best chess software for Pocket PC in the near future – and that for free. Therefore, I recommend to everybody to support this software by testing it. I’m sure the programmer Alain Zanchetta will acknowledge any feedback. From my experience, the programmer is very nice guy and he is active in several computer chess forums.

Here a game against Crafty Classic 2004 (5 min Blitz):

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Crafty Classic 2004 [E10]

E10: Blumenfeld Gambit 1.Ng1–f3 Ng8-f6 2.d2-d4 e7-e6 3.c2-c4 Bf8-e7  0.13/11  4.Nb1–c3  0.13/10  0–0  0.28/10  5.e2-e3  0.13/10  Nb8-c6  0.25/11  6.a2-a3  0.22/11  d7-d5  0.15/9  7.Bf1–d3  0.12/11  d5xc4  0.12/11  8.Bd3xc4  0.12/9  e6-e5 8...Be7-d6  0.12  0.57/11  9.Nf3xe5  0.57/11  Nc6xe5  0.57/12  10.d4xe5  0.57/11  Qd8xd1+  0.57/13  11.Nc3xd1  0.57/12  Nf6-g4  0.57/11  12.f2-f4  0.58/9  Bc8-e6 12...Rf8-d8  0.58  1.46/13  [¹12...Rf8-d8!?² has some apparent merit] 13.Bc4xe6  1.46/12  f7xe6  1.46/11  14.Nd1–c3  1.22/9  Be7-c5 14...Ra8-d8  1.22  1.74/12  15.Ke1–e2  1.67/10  Ra8-d8  1.74/11  16.Nc3-e4  1.70/11  Bc5-e7  1.94/11  17.Bc1–d2  1.94/9  a7-a6  2.22/12  18.Bd2-b4  2.22/11  Be7xb4  2.22/11  19.a3xb4  2.22/10  Rf8-e8  2.82/12  20.h2-h3  2.82/14  Ng4-h6  2.82/12  21.Rh1–d1  2.63/10  Rd8xd1  3.01/12  22.Ra1xd1  3.01/11  Re8-e7  3.88/11  23.Ne4-c5  3.88/11  c7-c6  4.15/13  24.Rd1–d8+  4.15/13  Kg8-f7  4.15/11  25.Rd8-b8  4.15/11  Nh6-f5 25...g7-g5  4.15  5.50/11  [25...g7-g5 is not much help 26.Nc5xb7 g5xf4 27.e3xf4+-] 26.g2-g4  5.50/12  Nf5-h4  5.88/11  27.Nc5xb7  5.88/11  Kf7-g6  6.27/11  28.Nb7-d8  6.27/11  h7-h5  7.14/11  29.Nd8xc6  7.14/11  Re7-c7  7.14/10  30.Rb8-b6 7.14/10  1–0

 

Here a game against Fruit 2.1 (10 min Blitz):

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Fruit 2.1 [A04]

A04: Unusual lines after 1 Nf3 and King's Indian Attack 1.Ng1–f3 c7-c5 2.g2-g3 g7-g6 3.Bf1–g2 Bf8-g7 4.c2-c3 Nb8-c6 5.0–0 Qd8-b6  0.20/9  6.Nb1–a3  -0.02/11  d7-d5  -0.02/9  7.Qd1–b3  -0.02/10  Ng8-f6  -0.02/10  8.d2-d4  -0.07/9  Qb6xb3  0.11/11  9.a2xb3  0.11/10  c5xd4  0.11/12  10.Na3-b5  0.11/10  0–0  0.11/10  11.Nf3xd4  0.05/10  Nc6xd4  0.05/9  12.Nb5xd4  0.00/9  Bc8-g4  0.22/11  13.Rf1–d1  0.27/9  Rf8-e8  0.27/10  14.Bc1–g5  0.21/9  e7-e5 14...Nf6-e4  0.21  1.12/12  15.Bg5xf6  1.12/11  Bg7xf6  1.12/11  16.Nd4-b5  1.23/9  Bg4xe2  1.38/12  [16...Re8-e7 17.Rd1xd5 Bg4xe2±] 17.Rd1xd5  1.37/10  Re8-e7  1.38/11  18.Nb5-d6  1.32/9  Be2-g4  1.38/10  19.Rd5-a5  1.37/10  Ra8-d8  1.38/12  20.Nd6xb7  1.37/12  Rd8-d2  1.39/10  21.Nb7-c5  1.41/11  Rd2xb2  1.39/9  22.Bg2-e4  1.13/11  Re7-c7  1.13/10  23.b3-b4  1.13/9  Bf6-e7  1.28/11  24.Ra5xa7  1.28/12  Rc7xa7  1.28/11  25.Ra1xa7  1.28/12  Be7xc5  1.32/11  26.b4xc5  1.32/10  Bg4-h3 26...Bg4-e6  1.32  1.82/11  27.c5-c6  1.82/10  Rb2-e2  1.82/12  28.f2-f3  1.82/11  Re2-g2+  1.82/13  29.Kg1–h1  1.82/11  Rg2-e2  2.35/13  30.Ra7-a1  1.79/11  Re2-e3? 30...Kg8-g7  1.79  3.01/12  [¹30...Kg8-g7+-] 31.c3-c4  3.01/10  Kg8-f8  3.01/11  32.Kh1–g1  3.01/9  Re3-c3  3.01/10  33.Be4-d5  2.87/8  h7-h5 33...Kf8-e7  2.87  4.35/10  [33...Kf8-e7 doesn't get the cat off the tree 34.Ra1–a7+ Ke7-d6 35.Ra7xf7+-] 34.c6-c7  4.35/12  Kf8-e7  4.35/10  35.Ra1–a8  4.35/10  e5-e4  5.06/9  [35...g6-g5 does not improve anything 36.g3-g4! the end of the story 36...h5xg4 37.c7-c8Q Rc3-c1+ 38.Kg1–f2 g4-g3+ 39.h2xg3 Bh3xc8 40.Ra8xc8+-] 36.c7-c8Q  5.06/10  Bh3xc8  5.06/10  37.Ra8xc8  5.06/10  e4-e3  5.31/10  38.Kg1–f1  5.31/10  Rc3-c2  5.52/11  39.h2-h4  5.47/10  Ke7-d7  6.34/12  [39...Rc2-f2+ is no salvation 40.Kf1–e1 Rf2-g2 41.Rc8-c7+ Ke7-d6 42.Rc7xf7+-] 40.Rc8-g8  6.40/10  Kd7-e7  6.65/12  41.Rg8-g7  6.65/10  Rc2-f2+  6.65/13  42.Kf1–e1 6.65/12  1–0

 

Here a game against Toga II (based on Fruit; 10 min Blitz):

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Toga II [E20]

E20: Nimzo-Indian: 4 g3 and 4 f3

1.c2-c4 Ng8-f6 2.d2-d4 e7-e6 3.Nb1–c3 Bf8-b4 4.g2-g3 Nb8-c6 5.Bf1–g2 0–0 6.Ng1–f3 d7-d5  0.05/9  7.Qd1–d3  -0.18/9  Bb4-a5 7...d5xc4  –0.18  0.23/11  [7...d5xc4 8.Qd3xc4 Qd8-d5 9.Qc4-d3=] 8.0–0  0.35/9  Nc6-b4  0.35/11  9.Qd3-d2  0.35/9  d5xc4  0.35/11  10.Nf3-e5  0.35/9  Ba5-b6  0.35/10  11.e2-e3  0.35/11  c7-c5  0.35/10  12.Nc3-a4  0.41/8  Qd8-e7  0.45/9  13.a2-a3  0.45/10  Nb4-c6  0.45/10  14.Ne5xc4  0.45/10  c5xd4  0.45/10  15.Na4xb6  0.45/11  a7xb6  0.45/10  16.e3xd4  0.45/9  Ra8-a6  0.51/9  17.Qd2-c3  0.29/10  Nf6-d5  0.29/11  18.Qc3-d3  0.30/10  Rf8-d8  0.34/8  19.Nc4-e3  0.24/10  Nd5-f6  0.30/10  20.Ne3-c2  0.30/9  Ra6-a5  0.52/9  21.Bc1–d2  0.52/8  Ra5-h5  0.74/10  22.Qd3-e2  0.76/8  e6-e5  0.79/10  23.d4-d5  0.79/9  Bc8-g4 23...Nc6-a5  0.79  2.33/10  [23...Nc6-a5!?²] 24.f2-f3  2.33/9  Bg4-f5  2.33/10  25.d5xc6  2.33/8  Bf5-d3  2.87/10  26.Qe2-f2  2.57/8  Bd3xf1  2.97/10  27.Ra1xf1  2.69/8  b7xc6 27...e5-e4  2.69  3.76/11  28.g3-g4  3.76/10  Qe7-d6  4.22/10  29.Bd2-e3  4.22/11  Rh5-h6  4.18/9  30.Be3xh6  3.84/11  g7xh6  3.84/9  31.Nc2-e3  3.84/9  Nf6-d5  4.15/11  32.Ne3-f5  4.28/9  Qd6-f8  4.61/11  33.f3-f4  4.61/11  Nd5xf4  4.62/9  34.Qf2xb6  4.62/8  Rd8-d2  5.43/10  35.Bg2xc6  5.30/8  f7-f6  5.50/10  36.Kg1–h1  5.50/10  Kg8-h8  5.95/11  37.b2-b4  5.95/9  h6-h5  5.95/10  38.g4xh5  5.71/8  Nf4xh5  6.16/10  39.Qb6-c5  6.26/9  Qf8xc5  6.32/12  40.b4xc5  6.32/11  Nh5-f4  6.04/9  41.Bc6-e4 6.03/10  1–0

 

Points:

173

 

Average Price:

Free !

 

Value:

na

 

Plus: Very good PGN-support; various functions, very strong engines

Minus: Average design, occasionally unstable

 

Engine(s): Crafty Classic 2004, Toga II, Fruit 2.1

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 3

Pocket Fritz v2.01

ChessBase

Pocket PC

 

Pocket Fritz achieved nearly the same amounts of points as CEBoard, however since it is not free, it has to take the third place. Pocket Fritz 2 is probably the most famous player in the field of Pocket PC chess software. However, the name Pocket Fritz is a little bit misleading; simply because the engine powering the program is not the famous Fritz engine, but none other than an  engine version derived from Shredder 7.0. Stefan Meyer-Kahlen’s PC-version of Shredder won several world computer championships and is regarded as the best chess playing software available (until the appearance of the open source Fruit). During the 2004 Mainz Chess Classic as a side match, Pocket Fritz managed a draw against a top ten player, GM Peter Leko, currently rated 2741. The estimated rating of PF2 is about 2550 Elo with a 400 Mhz processor. Fritz has a good design and user-friendly menu, although it falls behind other programs in regard to the piece design. The biggest disappointment in Pocket Fritz is that this Chessbase program doesn’t understand the Chessbase format usually found in the ChessBase products. It is not easy to understand why this feature is not integrated into the program, but maybe there are reasons for it? It would be nice to use all the different ChessBase Trainings software on the Pocket PC; which would be especially nice to have when traveling. So far, no program can read this format. It is possible to convert Chessbase files into PGN-files, however all although the text passages within the PGN can be read by some programs (not Pocket Fritz), none is able to read accompanying text in that software, which may be essential to understand the training courses. The best program to use for studying training courses is probably the freeware program CE board, which outperforms PF2 in this regard. This ChessBase product lacks also other compatibilities to other ChessBase products. For example, it would be great to use PF2 to play online on the ChessBase Server PlayChess.com. Well, maybe we will see this feature in the future....Another drawback I noticed is, that although PF2 is a very professional program, it does not support tournament time control. Unfortunately, PF2 seems also to be buggy. On my Dell Axim X50 it usually crashes after I try to shut down the program, which then requires a soft-reset of the Pocket PC, overall a really annoying bug. Although the update on the ChessBase site is supposed to fix this problem, updating didn’t help solving this problem. The same was reported for other devices, such as HP Pocket PCs. Also, there are irritating installation problems with PF2. During installation, an error message may pop up that says the installation program can't find the Pocket PC. In this case you will have to do a manual installation that involves copying the .cab file from the Chessbase directory on your desktop PC to the Pocket PC. Once the .cab file is transferred, you have to find it using a File Explorer and then tap on it to complete the installation. An advantage of Pocket Fritz to most other programs is that it gives you mobile access to the ChessBase Online database with well over two million games. There you can search for the games of specific players, tournaments or openings. You also have online access to a big openings book with over seven million positions and full statistics for each of them. Another unique function of PF2 is the special energy-saving mode for longer battery life, which you may want to use when traveling long distances. Due to the high processor usage of chess engines, battery life is often very restricted. Additionally, PF2 contains a useful tactics training feature which presents the player with different positions. Although Pocket Fritz 2 is a great program to have, one has to keep in mind that the price is very high. Other programs certainly have a better relation between what they offer and what they cost. Still, I think for every professional user, Pocket Fritz 2 may be a must-buy. Here a sample game; Pocket Fritz survives 25 moves:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Pocket Fritz 2 [D14]

D14: Slav Defence: Exchange variation with ...Bf5

1.d2-d4 d7-d5 2.Ng1–f3 Ng8-f6 3.c2-c4 c7-c6 4.c4xd5 c6xd5 5.Bc1–f4 Bc8-f5  0.38/10  6.Nb1–c3  0.12/10  Nb8-c6 7.e2-e3 e7-e6 8.Bf1–b5 Nf6-d7 9.0–0 Bf8-e7 10.Qd1–b3 0–0 11.Rf1–c1 Ra8-c8 12.Bb5xc6 b7xc6 13.Qb3-b7 a7-a5  1.00/12  14.Nc3-a4 The backward pawn on c6 becomes a target  1.01/11  14...Bf5-e4  1.21/12  15.Rc1xc6  1.22/11  Be4xf3  1.47/13  16.g2xf3  1.47/11  Rc8xc6  1.65/13  17.Qb7xc6  1.88/12  Qd8-e8  2.06/13  18.Ra1–c1  2.00/11  Be7-d8  2.21/12  19.Kg1–g2  1.95/12  f7-f6?  2.08/11  [19...f7-f5+-] 20.Bf4-d6  3.69/11  Bd8-e7  3.00/12  21.Bd6-c7  2.75/10  Kg8-f7  3.57/12  22.Bc7xa5  3.36/10  g7-g6?+- 22...g7-g5  3.36  6.86/12  23.Qc6-b7  7.27/11  Qe8-a8  7.86/14  24.Qb7xd7  7.86/12  Qa8xa5?+- 24...Qa8-e8  7.86  10.47/15  25.Rc1–c7  10.68/15  Rf8-e8 10.64/14  1–0

 

  

Points:

171

 

Average Price:

56 $

 

Value:

Poor

 

Plus: Very strong; nice design, online-database, tactics trainer

Minus: Expensive; no online play, buggy

 

Engine(s): Shredder 7

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 4

Majestic Chess v1.10

Fluent Entertainment

Pocket PC

 

Majestic Chess is a very entertaining chess game, which is the reason to put it into the ‘Fun” category, although it contains all essential attributes of a program for the serious player. The main strength of this program are the various special features, including tutorial, puzzles, blindfold chess, shuffle/Fischer chess, and special game modes (e.g. stealth mode). Majestic Chess provides an interface that is particularly easy to understand and players of all levels can enjoy playing against it. The board design is just delicious, although the pieces could look better. You can chose between a standard 2D view and various 3D arrangements, but the images are not true-color quality and therefore fail to do justice for this program. The serious player will probably prefer the standard 2D view. All this features take some memory of the device, so keep in mind that Majestic Chess requires at least 7MB of free memory to run. The engine itself is pretty strong and will challenge also very good players. The engine is a special version of Dave Kittinger’s famous WChess engine. The engine plays very good for a program that comes in the form of a ‘fun’-game. The estimated strength is about 2230 Elo on a 400Mhz Pocket PC. The puzzle engine will provide mate and escape challenges that is opted to help in improving your game play. Also a strong selling-point is the programs price, which is much lower than other good commercial packages. A way to get it for a really good price is via JB software, which offers the PC version for 13$ and adds the Pocket PC version as free bonus. (Information is not guaranteed). The program is difficult to find, though. It comes primarily as bonus with the PC version, but not in every package. I could only find one internet source where it is possible to buy the Pocket PC version alone. Unfortunately, some functions are not supported by Majestic Chess, which should be in an excellent game, such as a coach function, book selection, game annotation or game details in PGN files. Time control features are basically O.K and include Fischer time and a function that gives a different time for each player. However, tournament time support and predefined time controls are not supported. Although the program has some weaknesses, which are mainly interesting for the advanced player, it is overall a very entertaining game. Here a game (5 min Blitz against Majestic Chess):

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Majestic Chess [A07]

A07: Réti Opening: New York and Capablanca Systems

1.g2-g3 let’s see if Majestic chess can be kicked out of book early Nb8-c6  0.03/11  2.Ng1–f3 d7-d5 3.Bf1–g2 e7-e5 4.d2-d3 Ng8-f6 5.0–0 Bc8-e6  0.01/8  6.d3-d4  -0.33/12  e5-e4 This push gains space  -0.28/10  7.Nf3-e5  -0.33/11  Nc6xe5  -0.33/10  8.d4xe5  -0.33/10  Nf6-d7  -0.09/11  9.c2-c4  -0.09/10  c7-c6  -0.09/9  10.Bc1–f4  -0.29/9  Bf8-e7  0.00/11  11.Nb1–c3  0.12/9  g7-g5  0.44/10  12.Bf4-e3  0.44/10  Nd7xe5  0.44/9  13.c4xd5  0.44/10  c6xd5  0.44/9  14.Qd1–b3  -0.26/9  Ne5-c4 14...Qd8-d7  –0.26  0.60/8  [¹14...Qd8-d7!? should be investigated more closely 15.Ra1–d1 d5-d4³] 15.Ra1–d1  0.34/7  Nc4xe3 15...f7-f5  0.34  0.91/8  16.f2xe3  0.90/9  0–0  1.13/10  [16...Qd8-d6 17.Nc3xd5 0–0–0 18.Qb3-c3+ Kc8-b8 19.Bg2xe4±] 17.Nc3xd5  1.12/9  f7-f5 17...Be6xd5  1.12  1.54/8  [17...Be6xd5 18.Rd1xd5 (18.Qb3xd5?! Qd8xd5 19.Rd1xd5 Ra8-d8 20.Bg2xe4 Rd8xd5 21.Be4xd5 Be7-c5²) 18...Qd8-b6 19.Rd5-b5+-] 18.Nd5-f6+  1.54/10  Rf8xf6  1.70/10  19.Rd1xd8+  1.70/12  Ra8xd8  1.70/10  20.Qb3xb7  1.70/8  Be7-c5  1.70/10  21.Bg2xe4  1.70/8  Bc5xe3+ 21...Rf6-f8  1.70  2.23/10  [21...Rf6-f8 22.Qb7-a6 Rd8-e8 23.Be4-c6+-] 22.Kg1–g2  2.07/8  Rf6-f7  2.48/10  23.Qb7-c6  2.18/8  Be6xa2 23...Rf7-f6  2.18  2.95/10  [23...Rf7-f6 24.Qc6-b5 g5-g4 25.Rf1xf5+-] 24.Qc6-a6  2.95/10  Ba2-b3 24...f5xe4  2.95  4.34/10  [24...f5xe4 does not solve anything 25.Qa6xa2 Rd8-f8 26.Qa2-e6+-] 25.Qa6-a3  4.34/10  Rd8-b8  4.34/11  26.Rf1xf5  4.01/9  Rf7xf5  4.34/10  27.Be4xf5  4.34/9  Bb3-d5+  4.99/12  28.Kg2-h3  4.99/10  Rb8-e8  4.99/10  29.Bf5xh7+  4.99/11  Kg8xh7  5.78/12  [29...Kg8-f7 is not the saving move 30.Qa3-d3 Bd5-e6+ 31.Kh3-g2+-] 30.Qa3-d3+  5.78/12  Kh7-g7  5.78/11  31.Qd3xd5  5.78/10  Kg7-f6  5.78/10  32.Qd5-f3+  5.69/11  Kf6-g6  5.74/11  33.Qf3-c6+  5.74/12  Kg6-f7  5.74/9  34.Qc6-d7+  5.74/11  Kf7-f8  6.44/11  35.Kh3-g4  6.44/10  Re8-e7  6.44/9  36.Qd7-d8+  6.44/12  Kf8-f7  6.27/10  37.Kg4-f5  6.20/9  Be3-c1 37...a7-a6  6.20  9.26/10  1–0

 

 

Points:

167

 

Average Price:

15 $

 

Value:

Excellent

 

Plus: Nice design, variety of modes, good price

Minus: No coach watching, no book selection

 

Engine(s): WChess 1.1

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 5

Chessmaster v1.56

Ludigames/Gameloft

Palm

 

The famous PC version of Chessmaster is the best selling chess program ever. One reason is it’s huge amount of different features. The Palm version does not have to hide itself compared to it’s big brother, it is loaded with special features and offers a great learning and practicing opportunity for people on the go. All of this extras help in making Chessmaster the number 1 under the Palm chess programs. However, the program is not so much targeted at the serious player, who may prefer Hiarcs or Chess Tiger for their Palm device. One of the main selling-points are the various mentoring/tutor functions in Chessmaster, including quick advice, detailed advice, analysis and teaching mode. The program offers also several lengthy tutorial sessions such as Chess Rules, Chess Tutor (10 levels ranging from the Basics to Kings and Pawns, Queens and Rooks, Mating, Basic and Roots Combos and Sacrifices), opening practice mode and a chess rater. Another good feature of this program is it’s annotated game database, which covers over 150 classic matches including Kasparov vs. Deep Thought, the great Byrne vs. Fischer match, Anderssen vs. Kieseritsky and many more of the greatest battles in chess history. Contrary to it’s PC version, the Palm version is rather sparse in graphical features, so that it takes only 900K in memory and needs about 2MB RAM to run. The board (which can’t be modified) and especially the chess pieces could need some improvement though. The weakest point for the serious chess addict is the lack of PGN support. The chess engine is reasonable strong and has no major weaknesses. I estimate it’s strength at around 2150 Elo on a good Palm device. The program has many playing levels to chose from, however some time modes, such as Fischer time or tournament time control are not supported. A really great feature of this program is the ability to create your own personalities to play against, similar to the PC version. Additionally, Chessmaster offers also the possibility to alter some rules of the game. Overall, this program is recommended for fun-loving chess newbies and experienced chess veterans of all ages.

 

 

Points:

161

 

Average Price:

19 $

 

Value:

Very good

 

Plus: Multiple special features

Minus: Unstable, mediocre design, no book selection, no PGN support

 

Engine(s): The King ?

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 6

Chess Tiger v15.2

Christophe Theron

Palm

 

Chess Tiger and Hiarcs are nearly of the same quality (156 points each) and both programs have all the main features for the professional player. However, due to it’s excellent price, Chess Tiger manages to take the 6th spot. Chess Tiger was probably at one time the leading chess program for the Palm, however recently it has fallen behind Hiarcs in regard to playing strength, partly due to processor issues. At least, the latest version (15.2) brings Chess Tiger up to Palm OS6 compatibility. Chess Tiger is certainly a program for the chess enthusiast. It provides a myriad of functions, of whom some are unique to this program. Chess Tiger includes an opening book of 8000 chess positions, which is enough for most players, although other competitors, such as Pocket Grandmaster for Pocket PC have much bigger opening libraries. The opening book can be turned off if you want to practice a special opening. The chess engine is well known from the PC platform, where it is available from Chessbase and Lokasoft. The Palm version includes all the chess knowledge of the PC version and is actually the same engine, with the only difference that support for endgame databases has been removed. Chess Tiger has achieved a rating of 2101 SSDF Elo, or 2101 FIDE Elo (more than 2300 USCF Elo) and plays a relative aggressive play. With a 400 Mhz device the rating is rather at 2350 FIDE Elo. You can chose between different engine setting that play different styles, ranging from the quiet "Normal” style to the more aggressive "Gambit suicidal" mode. Level options include also 8 "trainer levels", which are designed to provide opponents with a known strength level opponent regardless of the PDA hardware you are using, although there are probably not enough levels for the beginner. Trainer level 1 corresponds to an USCF Elo rating of 1000 while Trainer level 8 represents an USCF Elo rating of 2000. Chess Tiger also has an "Anti-human mode" which means that Chess Tiger will do its best to avoid closed positions which usually create more problems for computer programs. The board design is relatively simple, which may be partly due to the generally lower graphic abilities of Palm devices compared to Pocket PCs. However, the board can be adjusted to any need; in total there are 6 different "views" including full screen board or smaller board with loads of information around it (clocks, move list, thinking, icons etc..). Games can be saved in PGN format into the standard Memo Pad application, which is again quite annoying and common on the Palm compared to Pocket PCs. Anyway, your games can be automatically transferred to your PC when you press the HotSync button. Chess Tiger doesn’t need much memory and uses only about 295 KB RAM. A nice option of Chess Tiger is the "Speed Index" function where you can determine the "Tiger Mark Index" value of your particular Palm. Overall, Chess Tiger is a very developed, highly recommended program for the advanced player. Additionally, it is also affordable and registered owners can get future upgrades of Chess Tiger at no additional charge. Chess Tiger is frequently improved and updated, so over time you may get even a better program. Here a 5 min Blitz game against Chess Tiger 15.2:

Chess Tiger 15.2 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [C26]

C26: Vienna Game: 2...Nf6, sidelines 

1.e2-e4 e7-e5 2.d2-d3  -0.12/9  Nb8-c6  -0.12/8  3.a2-a3 Controls b4  -0.31/11  3...Ng8-f6  -0.37/9  4.Nb1–c3  -0.38/9  Bf8-e7  -0.12/10  5.Nc3-d5  -0.13/9  0–0  -0.08/9  6.h2-h3 Secures g4  -0.44/10  6...Be7-c5  -0.44/9  7.Ng1–f3  -0.48/11  Nf6xd5  -0.48/10  8.e4xd5  -0.48/11  Nc6-e7  -0.48/10  9.Nf3xe5  -0.48/9  Ne7xd5  -0.48/10  10.d3-d4  -0.48/9  d7-d6 10...Rf8-e8  –0.48  -0.05/9  11.c2-c4  -0.14/9  [11.d4xc5 d6xe5 12.g2-g3 Bc8-e6=] 11...Bc5-b6  -0.14/10  12.Ne5-f3  -0.14/9  Bb6-a5+  -0.12/11  13.b2-b4  -0.10/9  Rf8-e8+  -0.09/11  14.Ke1–d2 14.Bc1–e3  –0.09  -0.56/10  14...Nd5-f6  -0.56/9  15.Bf1–d3 15.Kd2-c2  –0.56  -1.23/10  [15.Kd2-c2 Nf6-e4 16.Bc1–e3 f7-f5=] 15...Ba5-b6 15...d6-d5  –1.23  -0.59/9  16.Rh1–e1 16.Kd2-c2  –0.59  -1.11/8  [16.Kd2-c2 c7-c5 17.Bc1–e3 c5xb4 18.a3xb4 Bb6-c7µ] 16...c7-c5 16...d6-d5  –1.11  -0.57/9  17.Bc1–b2 17.Kd2-c2  –0.57  -1.16/6  [17.Kd2-c2 c5xb4 18.a3xb4 Re8xe1 19.Qd1xe1 Bc8-d7³] 17...c5xd4 17...d6-d5  –1.16  -0.33/9  18.Nf3xd4³  -0.34/7  d6-d5 18...Bc8-d7  –0.34  0.09/10  19.c4-c5 White gains space  0.09/10  19...Bb6-c7  0.09/10  20.Re1xe8+  0.09/10  Qd8xe8  0.09/9  21.Qd1–f3 21.Qd1–e2  0.09  -0.40/8  [21.Qd1–e2!? is interesting 21...Nf6-e4+ 22.Kd2-e1=] 21...Nf6-e4+³  -0.03/11  22.Bd3xe4  -0.03/9  d5xe4  -0.03/10  23.Ra1–e1  -0.03/7  f7-f5  -0.03/10  24.Qf3-b3+  -0.05/9  Kg8-h8  -0.03/10  25.Qb3-d5  -0.31/8  Qe8-d7 25...Qe8-g6  –0.31  0.25/9  26.Qd5-c4 26.Qd5xd7  0.25  -0.80/8  [26.Qd5xd7 Bc8xd7 27.f2-f3 Bc7-f4+ 28.Kd2-c3 Ra8-e8²] 26...a7-a5 26...b7-b6  –0.80  0.20/9  27.Kd2-e2 27.b4-b5  0.20  -0.57/9  [¹27.b4-b5!?² is a viable option] 27...a5xb4  -0.33/10  28.a3xb4  -0.33/10  b7-b5  -0.33/11  29.Qc4-b3  -0.33/10  Ra8-a6  0.04/10  30.Re1–d1 30.c5-c6  0.04  -0.78/10  [¹30.c5-c6!? should be considered 30...Qd7-e8 31.Ke2-f1²] 30...Ra6-g6  -0.78/10  31.Ke2-f1  -0.78/10  f5-f4  -0.68/8  32.Bb2-a1 32.c5-c6  –0.68  -1.17/10  32...Bc8-b7  -1.17/9  33.Nd4-f3  -1.25/10  Qd7-e7  -1.25/9  34.Nf3-h4? 34.Rd1–e1  –1.25  -2.38/10  [¹34.Rd1–e1!?µ] 34...Rg6-g5–+  -2.09/8  35.Rd1–e1  -2.42/9  Bb7-d5  -2.32/9  36.Qb3-d1  -2.78/10  Qe7-f7  -2.78/9  37.Kf1–g1 37.Qd1–d4  -2.78  -4.51/10  [37.Qd1–d4 f4-f3 38.Re1–e3 Bd5-c4+ 39.Kf1–g1–+] 37...f4-f3  -4.51/8  38.g2-g3 38.g2-g4  -4.51  -7.33/10  38...Bc7xg3  -6.77/8  39.f2xg3  -8.18/9  Qf7-f4  -8.18/10  40.Ba1xg7+  -8.18/10  Kh8xg7 -8.18/9  0–1

 

 

Points:

156

 

Average Price:

15 $

 

Value:

Excellent

 

Plus: Different personalities, many functions, good analysis mode

Minus: No coach watching, limited PGN support, no Fischer time

 

Engine(s): Chess Tiger 15.2

 

Category:

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 7

Palm HIARCS v9.5

Mark Uniacke

Palm

 

HIARCS, which stands for ‘Higher Intelligence Auto Response Chess System’ is in general a high-end software and certainly the strongest chess software currently available for the Palm. So far I have not heard of comparison to the Fruit engine, which is available in Pocket Grandmaster and CEBoard (both Pocket PC). On a 400Mhz device, the engine is rated about 2610 Elo. In the beginning of 2005, HIARCS played a four game internet match against the strong Grandmaster Jan Gustafsson of Germany, who has a current FIDE rating of 2614 Elo. HIARCS won 3-1 with 2 wins and 2 draws. Hiarcs plays a very positional style without major flaws and offers the ability to handicap the chess engine with an ELO rating between 1350 and 2000 on all its levels, including the timed levels. Palm HIARCS offers also a number of large up-to-date opening books including a big tournament book with a lot of recent opening theory. The program will also display book moves and rank them so you can learn opening moves. The board design of HIARCS is very basic and not that fancy. Personally, I don’t like the available colors, but people might see that different. Also, I would like to see a more crisp piece design (e.g. a classic Merida), similar to ChessPartner or Pocket Grandmaster. The menu is not really straightforward, it takes some time find out how to change things. Unfortunately, although HIARCS supports PGN and even extended PGN, the compatibility is still limited and games cannot be commented within PGN files, nor can comments be read. On the http://www.bobnewell.net/ homepage you can find a PGN to HIARCS database conversion tool (PERL script) that converts PGN notation files to the Palm Hiarcs database format with several useful utilities for creating and managing HIARCS databases (although it requires a console mode input, which is ‘a bit geeky’ like somebody else wrote. However, this tool gives you the opportunity to have thousands of chess problems on your Palm, which is a good learning tool. HIARCS offers also player statistics and several different playing levels as well as a good analyzing mode. However, it was reported that when analyzing a game, you cannot try a variation without overwriting game's moves; you have to reload the game each time you make some alternative moves. The program supports furthermore most time-controls, including Fischer time and tournament time control. Overall, a recommendable software, targeted more to the heavy, advanced user. HIARCS is on rather the expensive side, but still cheaper than Pocket Fritz.

 

Here a game played on the Chessbase playchess server:

GM Piotr Bobras  - Palm Hiarcs [B46]

B46: Sicilian: Taimanov: 5 Nc3 a6

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1–f3 Nb8-c6 3.d2-d4 c5xd4 4.Nf3xd4 e7-e6 5.Nb1–c3 a7-a6 6.Nd4xc6 b7xc6 7.Bf1–d3 d7-d5 8.0–0 Ng8-f6 9.Rf1–e1 d5-d4 10.Nc3-b1 e6-e5 11.Nb1–d2 Bc8-e6 12.Nd2-c4 Bf8-b4 [12...Nf6-d7!?=] 13.Bc1–d2² Bb4xd2 14.Qd1xd2 [Not 14.Nc4xd2 0–0=] 14...Be6xc4 15.Bd3xc4 0–0 16.c2-c3 c6-c5 17.c3xd4 c5xd4 18.b2-b4 Qd8-d6 19.a2-a4 White prepares the advance b5 19...Rf8-b8 20.b4-b5 [¹20.Ra1–b1!?= would keep White in the game] 20...a6xb5µ 21.Bc4xb5 Nf6xe4! Black has managed to stay ahead 22.Re1xe4 Rb8xb5! Eliminates the defender b5. 23.Ra1–e1 [23.a4xb5 Exploits the pin 23...Ra8xa1] 23...Ra8xa4–+ 24.f2-f4 f7-f6 25.f4xe5 Rb5xe5 26.Qd2-c2 Ra4-a8 [26...Ra4-a8 27.Qc2-b3+ Kg8-h8–+]  0–1

 

Jan Gustafsson - Palm Hiarcs 9.5a [E04]

E04: Open Catalan: 5 Nf3

1.Ng1–f3 d7-d5 2.d2-d4 Ng8-f6 3.c2-c4 e7-e6 4.g2-g3 d5xc4 5.Bf1–g2 Nb8-c6 6.Qd1–a4 Qd8-d5  -0.12/9  7.Nb1–c3  -0.20/11  Bf8-b4  -0.23/9  8.0–0  -0.39/11  Qd5-a5  -0.39/9  9.Qa4-c2  -0.48/10  0–0  -0.60/8  10.Bc1–d2  -0.75/9  Rf8-d8  -0.75/9  11.a2-a3  -0.83/10  Bb4-e7  -0.83/9  12.e2-e3  -0.94/9  Qa5-h5  -0.94/9  13.Qc2-a4  -0.94/9  e6-e5  -0.94/9  14.Qa4xc4  -0.94/9  e5-e4  -0.94/10  15.Nf3-e1  -0.94/9  Bc8-e6  -0.71/10  16.Qc4-a4  -0.73/8  Qh5-h6  -0.48/9  17.f2-f4  -0.86/9  [17.Ra1–d1!? must definitely be considered 17...Nf6-g4 18.h2-h3³] 17...Be6-h3µ  -0.86/10  18.Rf1–f2  -0.86/8  Bh3xg2  -0.86/10  19.Rf2xg2  -1.13/8  Qh6-g6  -0.84/9  20.Ne1–c2  -1.02/9  a7-a6  -1.02/10  21.Qa4-c4  -1.08/9  Rd8-d7  -0.80/9  22.b2-b4  -0.93/9  Ra8-d8  -0.80/10  23.Ra1–c1 23.g3-g4  –0.80  -1.29/10  23...Qg6-g4  -0.88/10  24.Nc2-a1 24.Qc4-e2  –0.88  -1.36/9  24...Nc6-a7  -1.02/11  25.Na1–b3  -1.02/10  c7-c6  -1.02/11  26.Qc4-e2  -1.06/9  Qg4-h3  -0.49/10  [26...Qg4-e6 27.Nb3-c5 Be7xc5 28.b4xc5µ] 27.Nb3-a5? 27.g3-g4  –0.49  -1.48/11  [27.g3-g4 Na7-b5 28.Rg2-g3 Nb5xc3 29.Bd2xc3² (29.Rg3xh3?? too greedy 29...Nc3xe2+ 30.Kg1–f1 Ne2xc1 31.Bd2xc1 Nf6xg4–+) ] 27...Na7-b5µ  -1.48/10  28.Na5-c4  -1.62/10  h7-h6  -0.69/9  [28...Nb5xc3 29.Bd2xc3 Nf6-d5 30.Qe2-c2µ] 29.Kg1–h1 29.g3-g4  –0.69  -1.39/9  [29.g3-g4 Nb5xc3 30.Bd2xc3 Rd8-e8³] 29...h6-h5  -1.05/9  30.Rc1–a1  -1.39/10  [30.Nc3-a4!?µ] 30...Nb5xc3  -1.39/12  31.Bd2xc3  -1.39/11  Nf6-d5  -1.39/10  32.Bc3-d2  -1.41/9  Rd7-c7  -1.16/10  33.Ra1–g1  -1.27/9  Rc7-c8  -0.50/10  [33...Qh3-g4 34.Qe2xg4 h5xg4 35.Nc4-e5µ] 34.Bd2-e1? 34.g3-g4  –0.50  -1.58/9  [34.g3-g4 h5-h4³] 34...Rd8-e8  -0.76/10  [34...Qh3-g4 35.Qe2-c2 Qg4-e6 36.g3-g4³] 35.Be1–f2  -1.08/9  [35.g3-g4!? might be a viable alternative 35...Qh3-f3 36.g4xh5 Qf3xe2 37.Rg2xe2=] 35...Nd5-f6µ  -1.08/10  36.Bf2-e1  -1.18/10  Rc8-d8  -1.18/10  37.Be1–c3  -1.13/11  Nf6-d5  -1.29/11  38.Bc3-b2  -1.29/9  Be7-d6  -1.18/10  39.Bb2-c1  -1.18/9  Bd6-c7  -0.62/9  [39...Bd6-f8 40.g3-g4 h5xg4 41.Qe2xg4 Qh3xg4 42.Rg2xg4µ] 40.Bc1–d2 40.g3-g4  –0.62  -1.26/9  [40.g3-g4 h5-h4³] 40...Re8-e6  -0.59/10  [40...Qh3-g4 41.Qe2xg4 h5xg4 42.h2-h3 g4xh3 43.Rg2-h2µ] 41.Nc4-b2 41.g3-g4  –0.59  -1.49/8  [41.g3-g4 Qh3-f3 42.g4xh5 Qf3xe2 43.Rg2xe2 Kg8-h7³] 41...Rd8-e8  -0.66/10  [41...Qh3-g4 42.Nb2-a4 b7-b6 43.Qe2xa6µ] 42.Nb2-d1 42.g3-g4  –0.66  -1.25/9  42...Qh3-g4  -1.20/10  43.Qe2-c4  -1.51/8  Bc7-d6  -1.28/9  44.Rg1–f1  -1.35/9  Re6-g6  -1.35/10  45.Nd1–f2  -1.52/10  Qg4-f3  -1.29/11  46.Nf2-d1  -1.29/11  Nd5-b6  -1.29/12  47.Qc4-e2  -1.29/11  Qf3-g4  -1.29/10  48.Nd1–b2  -1.41/10  Re8-d8  -1.41/10  49.Rf1–c1  -1.42/9  Bd6-e7  -1.29/9  50.Qe2xg4  -1.39/12  h5xg4  -1.39/12  [50...Rg6xg4?! 51.Nb2-d1 f7-f5 52.h2-h3=] 51.Nb2-c4  -1.51/13  Nb6xc4  -1.49/12  52.Rc1xc4  -1.49/11  Kg8-h7  -1.39/11  53.Bd2-e1  -1.49/13  Rg6-h6  -1.48/11  54.Rg2-c2  -1.51/13  Kh7-g6  -1.48/11  55.a3-a4  -1.48/10  Rh6-h5  -1.48/10  56.Rc2-b2  -1.60/11  Kg6-f6  -1.60/10  57.Rc4-c1  -1.61/10  Rd8-d5  -1.60/12  58.Rc1–c2  -1.60/13  Kf6-e6  -1.62/11  59.Rb2-b1  -1.62/11  Rh5-h3  -1.61/11  60.Be1–f2  -1.65/10  Rd5-h5  -1.64/11  61.Bf2-e1  -1.65/10  g7-g5  -0.97/12  62.f4-f5+  -0.97/14  Ke6xf5  -0.97/13  63.b4-b5  -0.97/11  c6xb5  -0.97/12  64.a4xb5  -0.97/12  a6-a5  -1.16/10  65.b5-b6  -0.77/13  a5-a4  -1.26/11  66.Kh1–g1  -1.27/10  Be7-d6  -1.13/11  67.Rb1–b5+  -1.46/12  [67.Rc2-g2!?µ] 67...Kf5-e6–+  -1.36/11  68.Rb5-a5  -1.36/12  a4-a3  -1.36/11  69.Ra5-a7  -1.69/11  [¹69.d4-d5+!? Ke6-f5 70.Ra5-a7–+] 69...f7-f5  -1.46/11  70.Ra7xb7  -1.62/8  f5-f4  0.27/10  71.d4-d5+  0.27/11  Ke6xd5  0.27/10  72.Rb7-d7  0.00/6  a3-a2  0.27/8  [72...f4xg3 73.b6-b7 g3xh2+ 74.Kg1–h1 Rh3xe3 75.Rd7xd6+ Kd5-e5 76.Be1–c3+ Re3xc3 77.b7-b8Q+-] 73.Rc2xa2  0.27/10  Kd5-c6  0.27/9  74.Rd7xd6+  0.27/11  Kc6xd6 A deflection  0.27/9  75.b6-b7  0.27/10  Rh5-h8  0.27/8  76.Ra2-a8  0.27/10  Rh3xh2  0.27/8  77.b7-b8Q+  0.27/10  Rh8xb8  0.27/9  78.Ra8xb8  0.27/11  Rh2-e2  0.29/9  79.e3xf4  -0.01/10  g5xf4  0.00/9  80.g3xf4  -0.29/12  Re2xe1+  -0.29/12  81.Kg1–f2  -0.29/11  Re1–h1  -0.18/10  82.Rb8-g8  -0.18/10  Rh1–h3 -0.05/10  ½–½

 

 

Points:

156

 

Average Price:

45 $

 

Value:

Acceptable

 

Plus: Multiple features, very strong, Shuffle/Fischer Chess

Minus: Mediocre design, no playout

 

Engine(s): Hiarcs 9.5

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 8

ChessGenius v.1.7

Richard Lang

Pocket PC

 

For several years, Richard Lang's ChessGenius was the only seriously strong chess program available for mobile devices until other programs surpassed it in strength. Richard Lang is famous for his long programming career, for example he wrote programs for several systems including for dedicated Chess Computers Cyrus , Psion or Mephisto. The board design is simple but good. As the only program it offers the possibility to display board coordinates on the squares itself. This seems a bit unusual, however for the beginner it may be not only helpful, it may also enhance chess vision. The program comes with three piece-sets to chose from, I would recommend the ‘Royal’ set, the other two are not so good to play with. The program is probably not as fancy as other commercial programs, but that is not always a disadvantage. ChessGenius has all the major standard features you would expect from a good chess program. The engine is relatively strong, tactically excellent, and it is very fast (e.g. it searches sometimes over 100.000 positions per second). The opening book consists of 9442 positions and recognizes transpositions  in the move order thus remaining in the book irrespective of the move order played. The estimated rating of Chess Genius is about 2380 Elo on a 400 Mhz Pocket PC. The original engine became the first program ever to beat a World Champion (Gary Kasparov) at a non-blitz time level. A weakness of ChessGenius are the limited or non-available book-features. Also, although it supports PGN, it can’t be used to annotate games or to read commented games. Time customization is relatively limited, for example it offers time/move but no Fischer time nor tournament time control (but the analyze mode is pretty good). The level adjustment is adequate, several Easy-levels are available for the beginner and intermediate player. Overall a nice program to have, although for the same price you may want to prefer Pocket Grandmaster. Her a game against Chess genius (5 min Blitz), where Genius proofed to be a hard nut:

Chess Genius 1.7 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [B40]

B40: Sicilian: 2...e6, Unusual lines

1.e2-e4 c7-c5 2.Ng1–f3 e7-e6 3.Bf1–e2 Nb8-c6  0.39/9  4.0–0  0.39/11  Ng8-f6  0.39/11  5.Nb1–c3  0.39/10  d7-d5  0.39/11  6.e4xd5  0.39/11  Nf6xd5  0.39/10  7.Be2-b5  0.39/10  Bf8-e7  0.44/10  8.Nf3-e5  0.44/10  Bc8-d7  0.54/9  9.Ne5xc6  0.53/9  b7xc6  0.53/11  10.Bb5-c4  0.53/9  0–0  0.53/9  11.Qd1–f3 11.Rf1–e1  0.53  0.00/12  [11.Rf1–e1!?²] 11...Nd5-b4  0.00/10  12.Qf3-e4  -0.19/11  Be7-d6  0.20/9  13.Nc3-e2 13.Bc4-b3  0.20  -0.59/11  [13.Bc4-b3 Nb4-d5=] 13...Kg8-h8  0.04/11  14.Bc4-b3  0.04/10  f7-f5  0.04/9  15.Qe4-c4  0.04/10  Bd7-c8  0.04/10  16.d2-d3  0.04/10  Bc8-a6  0.04/11  17.Qc4-c3  0.04/10  [17.Qc4xe6? leads to nothing 17...Rf8-e8 18.Qe6xf5 Re8xe2–+] 17...f5-f4  0.04/9  18.f2-f3  0.04/10  Nb4-d5  0.04/11  19.Qc3-e1  0.14/9  Bd6-e5  0.23/8  20.Qe1–f2  0.06/10  Qd8-d6  0.06/9  21.Rf1–d1  0.05/10  Nd5-e3  0.09/12  22.Bc1xe3  0.09/11  f4xe3  0.09/12  23.Qf2xe3  0.16/10  Be5xh2+  0.16/11  24.Kg1–f2  0.08/9  Bh2-e5  0.16/10  25.Ra1–b1  0.16/9  Ra8-d8  0.26/11  26.Rd1–h1  0.32/9  Ba6-c8  0.71/10  27.Qe3-e4  0.71/11  h7-h6  0.71/10  28.Bb3-c4 A sound move  0.48/10  28...Rf8-f7  0.93/10  29.Rh1–h4  0.93/9  Bc8-d7  1.12/9  30.b2-b3  0.85/9  [30.Rb1–h1!?+-] 30...Rf7-f5  0.88/11  31.Rb1–h1  0.88/9  Be5-f6  0.88/10  32.Rh4-g4 32.Rh4-h3  0.88  0.29/11  [32.Rh4-h3!?±] 32...Bf6-g5  0.36/9  33.d3-d4 33.Bc4-a6  0.36  -0.21/9  [33.Bc4-a6 Rd8-f8²] 33...Bd7-c8  0.25/8  34.Bc4-d3  0.21/9  Kh8-g8  0.21/8  35.f3-f4  0.21/9  c5xd4  0.21/10  36.Kf2-e1  0.21/9  Bg5-f6  0.21/9  37.Rh1xh6  0.21/8  Kg8-f8  0.32/10  38.Rh6-h8+  0.32/10  Kf8-e7  0.32/9  39.Rh8-h7  0.30/8  Rd8-g8  0.88/7  40.Ke1–d1  0.50/8  [40.a2-a3 Rf5-a5²] 40...Rf5-a5  0.80/8  41.Ne2-c1 41.Ne2-g3  0.80  -0.39/10  [¹41.Ne2-g3!? and White is still in the game 41...e6-e5 42.Rg4-g6²] 41...Ke7-d8  -0.39/8  42.Rg4-g6  -0.39/11  Bc8-d7  -0.54/9  43.a2-a4  -0.92/11  Bd7-e8  -0.92/10  44.Rg6-g3  -0.92/9  Ra5-h5  -0.77/9  45.Rg3-h3  -0.84/10  Rh5xh3  -0.84/10  46.Rh7xh3  -0.84/9  g7-g5  -0.82/8  47.Rh3-h6  -1.00/10  Rg8-f8  -0.84/9  48.Nc1–e2  -1.00/10  Be8-d7  -1.11/8  49.Rh6-h7  -1.29/9  g5xf4  -0.91/11  50.Ne2xf4  -0.63/9  Rf8-h8  -0.63/9  51.Rh7xh8+  -0.63/11  Bf6xh8  -0.63/10  52.Bd3-c4  -0.63/12  e6-e5  -0.63/11  53.Nf4-d3  -0.64/9  Bh8-g7  -0.63/10  54.a4-a5 54.b3-b4  –0.63  -1.31/10  54...Qd6-f6  -0.75/10  55.Nd3-b4 55.Nd3-c5  –0.75  -1.61/9  [¹55.Nd3-c5!?µ] 55...Bg7-h6  -1.34/9  56.Nb4-d3  -1.34/10  Qf6-f1+  -1.34/13  57.Nd3-e1  -1.34/11  Qf1–f2  -1.34/12  58.Bc4-e2  -1.34/10  Bh6-f4  -1.34/12  59.Qe4-f3  -1.34/12  Qf2-g1  -1.34/11  60.b3-b4  -1.34/9  Kd8-c7  -1.34/10  61.Be2-d3 61.c2-c4  –1.34  -1.79/10  61...Qg1–h1  -1.77/9  62.Bd3-e4  -1.93/10  [62.Bd3-e2 Qh1–h2–+] 62...Qh1–h4  -1.93/11  63.Qf3-e2  -2.12/9  Bf4-g3  -1.93/11  64.Ne1–d3  -1.93/10  Bd7-g4  -1.93/12  65.Be4-f3  -1.93/10  Bg4-f5  -1.93/11  66.Nd3-f2  -2.01/9  Bg3xf2  -1.49/11  67.Qe2xe5+  -1.49/11  Kc7-d8  -1.49/9  68.Kd1–e2  -1.49/9  Bf5-d7  -1.49/10  69.Qe5-b8+  -1.49/11  Kd8-e7  -1.49/10  70.Qb8-e5+  -1.49/11  Bd7-e6  -1.49/9  71.Qe5-c7+  -1.49/12  Ke7-f6  -1.49/10  72.Qc7-d8+  -1.49/12  Kf6-g7  -1.49/11  73.Qd8-c7+  -1.49/10  Be6-f7  -1.49/10  74.Qc7-e5+  -1.49/11  Kg7-h6  -1.49/9  75.Bf3-e4  -1.49/10  Bf7-h5+  -1.49/10  76.Be4-f3 76.Ke2-d3  –1.49  -2.05/10  76...Bh5xf3+  -2.05/9  77.g2xf3  -2.05/10  d4-d3+  -2.05/10  78.c2xd3  -2.05/10  Bf2-d4  -2.05/11  79.Qe5-e6+  -2.05/11  Qh4-f6  -2.05/10  80.Qe6-d7  -2.22/10  a7-a6  -2.04/9  81.f3-f4  -2.46/11  Bd4-c3  -2.38/9  82.Qd7-c8  -2.56/10  Bc3xb4  -2.56/9  83.Qc8xa6  -2.89/10  Qf6-e6+  -2.89/10  84.Ke2-f2 84.Ke2-f3  -2.89  -3.97/9  [84.Ke2-f3 does not save the day 84...Kh6-h5 85.Qa6-c4 Qe6xc4 86.d3xc4 Bb4xa5–+] 84...Qe6-e1+  -3.97/11  85.Kf2-f3  -3.97/9  Qe1–f1+  -3.97/10  86.Kf3-e4  -3.97/9  Bb4-d6  -3.97/11  87.Ke4-e3  -3.97/9  Bd6-c5+  -3.97/11  88.Ke3-d2  -3.97/9  Qf1xf4+  -3.97/10  89.Kd2-d1  -3.97/10  [89.Kd2-c2 doesn't change the outcome of the game 89...Qf4-a4+ 90.Kc2-d2 Kh6-g5–+] 89...Qf4-a4+  -4.00/9  90.Kd1–d2  -4.27/9  Kh6-g5  -4.27/8  91.Qa6-c4 91.Qa6-c8  -4.27  -#24/8  [91.Qa6-c8 does not win a prize 91...Qa4xa5+ 92.Kd2-c2 Qa5-a4+ 93.Kc2-d2 Kg5-f4–+] 91...Qa4xa5+  -3.84/10  92.Kd2-c2  -3.93/10  Qa5-b5  -3.93/9  93.Qc4-e6  -4.26/10  Qb5-a4+  -4.26/11  94.Kc2-d2  -4.26/9  Qa4-f4+  -4.21/11  95.Kd2-c2  -4.21/10  Bc5-d6  -4.21/9  96.Qe6-g8+  -4.26/10  Kg5-f6  -4.26/8  97.Qg8-d8+  -4.29/11  Kf6-e6  -4.27/9  98.Qd8-g8+  -4.29/10  Ke6-d7  -4.29/9  99.Qg8-h7+  -4.29/10  Bd6-e7  -4.29/9  100.Kc2-d1  -4.79/11  [100.Qh7-g7 does not help much 100...Qf4-e3–+] 100...Qf4-g4+  -4.79/10  101.Kd1–d2  -4.79/10  Kd7-e6  -4.79/9  102.Qh7-h6+  -5.00/9  Be7-f6  -5.00/9  103.Qh6-e3+  -6.46/8  [103.Qh6-h7 doesn't get the cat off the tree 103...Qg4-g2+ 104.Kd2-d1 Bf6-e5 105.Qh7-h6+ Ke6-d5–+] 103...Ke6-d5  -6.46/8  104.Kd2-c2 104.Qe3-e8  -6.46  -#20/3  0–1

 

Points:

130

 

Average Price:

25 $

 

Value:

Good

 

Plus: Clear design, landscape mode, VGA support

Minus: No book features, no game annotation, limited time adjustments

 

Engine(s): Genius

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 9

ChessPartner v1.02

Lokasoft

Pocket PC

 

I have to say, I like this program. It is simple but good. It doesn’t have all the gadgets you will find in the leading competitors, however all essential features such as position setup, book, several playing level, PGN support, analysis feature etc.. are there. The menu is easy to understand and the piece set is one of the best I have seen for Pocket PCs. The standard book has unfortunately only a small variety and was probably adapted from the PC ChessPartner book. It plays some unusual moves from time to time and the moves seem not to be weighed. The latter can be corrected by using the PC ChessPartner Book Converter. If you don’t own the PC version, you may download the trial version of the PC version of ChessPartner, which you can use to create your own book PGN-files. You have to backup or rename your original book first, as any new book will automatically overwrite the original lchess.bk1 book (you may to download a patch from the Lokasoft site because the initial version had a bug and didn't accept the custom made books. Keep in mind that the book has to be called "lchess.bk1"). The chess engine plays at an estimated ~2050 Elo on a 400Mhz device with longer time controls, so it will challenge the good club player, however players who want to study games in detail will probably prefer a stronger program. On the negative side, since the program is targeted more on the average and casual payer, a coach function is missing and only a few playing levels are available. Overall I can recommend this software for the casual player, especially since it is affordable. Here is a sample game (5 min Blitz); ChessPartner survives 22 moves:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - ChessPartner [C70]

C70: Ruy Lopez: 3...a6 4 Ba4, Norwegian and Delayed Schliemann

1.Ng1–f3 Nb8-c6 2.e2-e4 e7-e5 3.Bf1–b5 Ng8-e7 4.c2-c3 a7-a6 5.Bb5-a4 b7-b5  -0.03/10  6.Ba4-b3  0.28/9  f7-f6 Consolidates g5  0.44/9  7.d2-d4²  0.59/9  Ne7-g6  0.97/9  8.Bb3-d5  0.97/9  Bc8-b7  1.22/10  9.d4xe5  1.53/8  f6xe5  1.72/9  10.Nf3-g5+-  2.00/9  Qd8-f6  1.88/9  11.Ng5-f7  2.19/9  Bf8-c5  2.09/9  12.0–0  2.41/10  h7-h6  2.25/8  13.Nf7xh8  2.56/11  Ng6xh8  2.41/9  14.a2-a4  2.31/9  Bc5-e7+-  3.50/9  15.a4xb5  3.81/11  a6xb5  3.50/10  16.Ra1xa8+  3.84/11  Bb7xa8  3.72/9  17.Qd1–e2  3.81/9  Qf6-f8  4.94/9  18.f2-f4  4.50/9  e5xf4  5.06/8  19.Bc1xf4  5.37/8  Be7-c5+  6.56/10  20.Kg1–h1  6.72/8  Qf8-e7  6.56/8  21.Bf4xc7  6.87/9  d7-d6  7.16/9  22.Bc7-a5! White has to consider giving back material  7.47/8  22...Qe7-g5?+-  10.41/10   1–0

 

 

Points:

129

 

Average Price:

15 $

 

Value:

Very good

 

Plus: Crisp nice design, good menu, several time-control options

Minus: No coach watching, few levels

 

Engine(s): LChess v5.0.0.7

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 10

Chess Genius v2.22

Richard Lang

Palm

 

The Palm version of Chess genius is not as feature rich as the Pocket PC version, but is still one of the best programs for Palm. ChessGenius automatically records the move of your games. The time levels are not very sophisticated and if "time per move" is selected, you have your choice of "Instantaneous", 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 1, 2 or 3 minutes per move, which are not fixed times but "per move averages" over the course of a typical game. A special feature is the "mate in" selection that allows you to analyze a specific board position in search of a mate in X (up to 10 moves). Another good function is the ability of Chess Genius to override your Palms' auto-off setting when playing, which is good when playing slow games. Auto-off can be set to "default" (system) setting, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes. Tapping on "Engine Preferences" will allow those with newer Palm devices (OS5 or higher) to access the new ARM engine based on Intel's "XScale" architecture. This gives you access to a much stronger chess engine with an estimated Elo of 2300 on a newer device. You will also have the option to increase the hash table size larger than the default of 64KB, resulting in even stronger play. Unfortunately, ChessGenius for Palm does not allow you to choose the file name under which you wish to save your game, you have to live with names such as [Event "7/4/05 8:16 p.m."].As the only Palm program it offers also the possibility to display board coordinates on the unoccupied squares itself in algebraic notation. This seems a bit unusual, however for the beginner it may be not only helpful, it may also enhance chess vision. The program is probably not as fancy as other commercial programs, but that is not always a disadvantage. ChessGenius has all the major standard features you would expect from a good chess program.. Although ChessGenius supports PGN, it can’t be used to annotate games or to read commented games. The level adjustment is adequate, several Easy-levels are available for the beginner and intermediate player. Overall a good program to have. Registered owners of ChessGenius can get free upgrades of the program for life. Here a game against the chess engine (5 min Blitz):

Dr. Axel Schumacher - Chess Genius 2.2 [A30]

A30: Symmetrical English: Double Fianchetto and Hedgehog

1.c2-c4 c7-c5 2.g2-g3 Nb8-c6 3.Ng1–f3 g7-g6 4.d2-d4 c5xd4 5.Nf3xd4 Bf8-g7 6.Nd4-c2 Qd8-a5+ 7.Qd1–d2  -0.18/10  Qa5-c5  -0.18/10  8.Qd2-d5  -0.18/9  Qc5-b6  -0.03/10  9.Qd5-b5  -0.03/10  Qb6xb5  0.10/12  10.c4xb5  0.10/11  Nc6-d8  0.11/12  11.Nb1–c3  -0.04/13  b7-b6  -0.04/11  12.Bf1–g2  -0.04/12  Bc8-b7  0.00/10  13.0–0  -0.04/11  Ra8-c8  0.01/10  14.Bc1–d2  0.01/11  Ng8-f6  0.01/11  15.Ra1–c1  0.01/10  Bb7xg2  0.01/11  16.Kg1xg2  0.01/10  Nd8-b7  0.17/10  17.Nc2-b4  0.17/9  e7-e6 Covers d5  0.25/9  18.f2-f3  0.25/9  Rc8-c4  0.46/10  19.Nb4-d3  0.23/10  0–0  0.27/10  20.b2-b3  0.27/11  Rc4-c8  0.32/12  21.e2-e4  0.32/10  d7-d6 Consolidates c5+e5  0.32/11  22.Nd3-b4  0.32/9  Rf8-e8  0.70/11  23.Nb4-c6  0.79/9  Nb7-d8 23...Rc8-a8  0.79  1.38/12  24.Nc6xa7  1.37/11  Rc8-c7 24...Rc8-a8  1.37  2.25/11  [24...Rc8-a8!? 25.Na7-c6 Nd8xc6 26.b5xc6 Re8-c8+-] 25.Na7-c6  2.23/9  Nd8xc6  2.25/10  26.Nc3-a4  2.25/9  Re8-a8  2.74/10  27.Bd2-e3  2.74/9  Rc7-c8  3.44/10  28.Na4xb6  3.44/10  Nc6-e7 28...Ra8xa2+  3.44  8.40/11  [28...Ra8xa2+ desperation 29.Rf1–f2 Ra2xf2+ 30.Kg2xf2 Rc8-c7+-] 29.Rc1xc8+  8.40/12  Ra8xc8  8.65/12  30.Nb6xc8  8.65/12  Ne7xc8  8.65/11  31.Rf1–c1  7.82/9  Nc8-e7 9.81/11  1–0

 

 

Points:

116

 

Average Price:

25 $

 

Value:

Acceptable

 

Plus: Clear design, Mate in X feature

Minus: No infinite level, no game annotation, limited time adjustments

 

Engine(s): Genius

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 11

PocketChess Deluxe v2.51

Handmark/Pocket Express Inc.

Palm

 

PocketChess Deluxe, which was the original brain child of Scott Ludwig, is a somewhat “old” but still relatively good chess program. For a long time it was one of the best-selling chess software titles for the Palm, however with the arrival of Chess Tiger and Hiarcs it lost it’s top position especially in terms of quality. Some of it’s special features include multi-player options including infrared play, creation of color schemes and some chess problems. However, PocketChess Deluxe does not have the strongest engine and simply can’t compete with other programs. It estimated strength is about 1700 Elo in longer games. So, to really analyze your games, you have to export them from your Palm and import them into another program, which is basically useless. Therefore, the program is not targeted at professional users, it is rather suitable for the casual, medium strong player who does not analyze games. You can view variations and comments so its good for learning openings and endings on the move. Annoyingly, the design is not very good, the pieces are difficult to identify and the chess board is obscured when reading annotations. Also, an option for a smaller board would be handy with the game moves and text alongside it. A nice thing is that it comes with a library of over 3000 Grand Master games like Fisher and Kasparov and World Chess Championship games from the mid-1800s to the present. A good feature, especially compared to other Palm programs is the full PGN support, where you can add new games and problems to your chess library in just a few quick steps. Additionally, the included Desktop Companion allows you to categorize and organize your growing game library and you can walk through games move-by-move on the larger screen. A great extra feature is the Blindchess option. The program comes with a book, however it is not very deep and the opening choices are rather unusual; typical lines are rarely played. The program requires a minimum of 263 KB free memory, optional game databases and puzzle packs require an additional 25KB to 1273 KB. Overall the game can be recommended to casual player, but people who use their Palm often and more seriously should stay with Chess Tiger and Hiarcs. Here a game against PocketChess Deluxe at 5 min Blitz, which displays the weaknesses of the engine:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - PocketChess Deluxe [C11]

C11: French: Classical System: 4 e5 and 4 Bg5 dxe4

1.e2-e4 e7-e6 2.d2-d4 d7-d5 3.Nb1–c3 Ng8-f6 4.Bc1–g5 Nb8-c6  0.54/10  5.e4xd5  0.16/10  e6xd5  0.21/8  6.Bf1–b5  -0.02/9  Qd8-e7+ 6...Bf8-e7  –0.02  0.64/10  [6...Bf8-e7!?=] 7.Ng1–e2  0.54/10  Bc8-g4  0.74/8  8.0–0  0.66/9  Bg4xe2 8...Qe7-d6  0.66  1.17/9  9.Nc3xe2  1.17/9  Qe7-e6 9...Qe7-d7  1.17  1.91/9  [9...Qe7-d7!?±] 10.Ne2-f4  1.91/9  Qe6-d6  1.91/8  11.Rf1–e1+  1.79/9  Ke8-d7?? 11...Bf8-e7  1.79. terrible, but what else could Black do to save the game?  4.86/8  [¹11...Bf8-e7 12.Bg5xf6 g7xf6+-] 12.Nf4-d3  4.05/10  Kd7-c8  4.05/8  13.Nd3-c5  4.05/8  Nc6xd4 13...Kc8-b8  4.05  7.05/8  [13...Kc8-b8 the last chance for counterplay 14.Bg5xf6 a7-a6 15.Re1–e8+ Kb8-a7 16.Re8xa8+ Ka7xa8+-] 14.Qd1xd4  7.05/8  Qd6xc5 14...c7-c6  7.05  9.45/9  [14...c7-c6 is not much help 15.Bg5xf6 Qd6xc5 16.Re1–e8+ Kc8-d7 17.Re8xa8 Qc5xd4 18.Bf6xd4 c6xb5 19.Bd4xa7+-] 15.Qd4xf6  9.45/11  b7-b6 15...Bf8-d6  9.45  22.62/9  [15...Bf8-d6 praying for a miracle 16.Qf6xg7 Rh8-d8 17.Bg5xd8 Qc5xb5+-] 16.Bb5-a6+ 22.34/12  1–0

 

 

Points:

112

 

Average Price:

20 $

 

Value:

Good

 

Plus: PGN transfer, Blindchess, Grand Master database

Minus: Design flaws, weak engine

 

Engine(s): unknown

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

Rank 12

ChessAx v1.4.09

P.H. Nguyen

Pocket PC

 

This Vietnamese program has basically all the features you can expect from a good program. It is targeted at the intermediate player and includes an opening book of 12.000 chess positions. Additionally, as one of the very few programs, it shows which of your pieces are attacked. This might be helpful against blunders for the beginner. The board and piece design is mainly good, but not as sophisticated as some competitors. Missing is a coach function, a hint button and first of all some different playing levels. The only way to decrease the engine’s strength is by changing the ply depth. It has several different time modes, but a tournament time with different time controls is not possible. A very fancy feature is the graphical view of the evaluation over the game (similar to the feature in Chessbase and Arena GUI for PC). The engine of this program is the same which is available as Winboard engine for the PC. On a 400Mhz Pocket PC the estimated strength is ~1875 Elo. Some information for the programming geeks: The somewhat unusual board representation of this engine is a simple array of 64 (not bitboard) and it does not use attack table nor pawn hash table. SEE (Static Exchange Evaluation) function is recursive style with implementation of PVS search, history search, fractional depth, null move, hash table etc..... Ax is programmed by an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) method, using Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) without any Assembly line and compiled by Visual C++ 6.0. Overall, the program has surprisingly many features, some of them unique for this program. Yet, it is not really clear who can Prot from this program; as strong player you may want to check out stronger programs, as weak player you may want a program which is easier configurable. So it may be for the casual, semi-experienced player. Here a 10 min Blitz game against ChessAx:

Dr. Axel Schumacher - ChessAx [D61]

D61: Queen's Gambit Declined: Classical: 7 Qc2

1.c2-c4 Ng8-f6 2.d2-d4 e7-e6 3.Nb1–c3 d7-d5 4.Bc1–g5 Bf8-e7 5.e2-e3 0–0 6.Ng1–f3 Nb8-d7 7.Qd1–c2 c7-c5 8.Ra1–d1 c5xd4 9.Nf3xd4 h7-h6 10.Bg5-h4 Nd7-b6 11.Bf1–e2 Nb6xc4  1.39/9  12.Be2xc4  1.39/11  d5xc4  1.39/10  13.Nd4xe6  1.39/11  Bc8xe6  1.50/10  14.Rd1xd8  1.50/9  Ra8xd8  1.66/11  15.0–0  1.62/9  Rd8-d7  1.66/10  16.Rf1–d1  1.29/11  Rd7xd1+  1.29/12  17.Qc2xd1  1.29/11  Rf8-d8  1.29/10  18.Qd1–f3  1.29/10  Rd8-d7  1.63/12  19.h2-h3  1.45/10  a7-a6  1.63/10  20.g2-g4  1.30/11  Be7-d8  1.31/10  21.Bh4-g3  1.19/10  b7-b5  1.57/11  22.Qf3-a8  1.57/10  Nf6-e8 22...b5-b4  1.57  2.41/11  [22...b5-b4 23.Nc3-e2 Rd7-d1+ 24.Kg1–h2+-] 23.a2-a3  2.41/11  Rd7-d2 23...a6-a5  2.41  3.28/11  24.Kg1–f1  3.00/9  a6-a5  3.65/9  25.Kf1–e1  3.65/12  Rd2-d7  3.65/11  26.Nc3xb5  3.65/10  Kg8-f8 26...Be6-d5  3.65  4.85/11  [26...Be6-d5 cannot undo what has already been done 27.Qa8-c8 Bd5-e6 28.Qc8-c6+-] 27.Nb5-d4  4.85/10  Be6-d5  6.04/11  [27...Bd8-f6 is no salvation 28.Nd4xe6+ f7xe6 29.Qa8xa5+-] 28.Qa8-c8  6.04/12  Ne8-f6  6.04/10  29.Bg3-e5  6.04/11  Bd5-b7  5.88/9  30.Qc8xc4  5.88/8  Kf8-e8  7.63/10  [30...Bb7-g2 is still a small chance 31.f2-f3 Nf6-e8+-] 31.Nd4-f5  7.62/8  g7-g6  9.86/10  32.Nf5-d6+  9.86/13  Rd7xd6  9.86/11  33.Be5xd6  9.86/11  Nf6-d7 9.86/10  1–0

 

 

Points:

105

 

Average Price:

20 $

 

Value:

Good

 

Plus: Learning, Graphical Evaluation, many functions

Minus: No Coach function, no hint button, weak engine

 

Engine(s): Ax Engine

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

Rank 13

Kasparov Chessmate v1.0.9

Hexacto

Pocket PC

 

Kasparov Chessmate is a program somewhat different than the others. It certainly belongs more in the Fun category, although it will challenge also the advanced player. The engine is ported from the Winboard engine Ruffian, developed by Perola Valfridsson. This engine plays a very human and strong game. On a 400 MHz device the estimated rating is around 2350 Elo, providing a consistent opponent who doesn't make dumb mistakes, even at lower levels. The playing level can be adjusted with a slider, ranging from 500 up to 2300 so that kids can still have a chance of beating it in a realistic competition as well as advanced players will have a real challenge (the Elo values do not necessarily represent FIDE ratings). A very nice feature is the Club mode where you can play different characters of different strength. You can create a Profile for yourself where you can enter your name or you can chose the default Prole called Guest if you wish to keep your humiliating defeats secret. The Guest Profile has a permanent rating of 1200 Elo which can’t be changed, and Kasparov Chessmate does not keep track of the game statistics for this Profile. You can furthermore personalize you Profile by picking a portrait from a library of ~30 differing faces. The Kasparov Chess Club has a championship mode, where you have to defeat every club member in progressive bronze, silver and gold groups to finally face-off against Garry Kasparov for ultimate victory. During a game you can have a hint from the virtual Garry Kasparov, but this will stop you receiving a rating for the game. Additionally, you can chose your preferred notation for the move list, either algebraic or figurine. The game 3D graphics are surprisingly clear, with customizable options to play on a 2D or the 3D board with a choice of three different chess sets. The 2D view is probably better for playing, but some player prefer the 3D view, which has very realistic playing pieces. A good idea was the ‘swap back’ function that gives you the possibility to switch forth between the views while playing. The game is presented only in fixed landscape screen format and has a "statistics" feature, which however only tells you the total number of wins, losses and draws. It has also a "training" page, but it is very limited, basically deals with how the pieces move, rules, and a few strategic explanations. A huge drawback for the professional user is the lack of evaluation tools or pgn support. If you get checkmated or checkmate/stalemate or lack of material you cannot choose to 'undo' the game, which makes game analysis painful. Saved games are automatically assigned a name by the program using the date and the name of the opponent, so if you forget to exit the program and change the name, the saved game will be overwritten if you save another game against the same opponent. Overall, if you're a serious player, don't bother getting this, stay with Pocket Grandmaster or CEBoard. However, casual player, kids and people who just want to have fun playing can have a good time with this software. Here a game against the Ruffian engine (5 min Blitz):

Kasparov Chessmaste 1.0.9 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [C11]

C11: French: Classical System: 4 e5 and 4 Bg5 dxe4

1.e2-e4 e7-e6 2.d2-d4 d7-d5 3.Nb1–c3 Ng8-f6 4.Bc1–g5 d5xe4 5.Nc3xe4 Bf8-e7 6.Bg5xf6 Be7xf6 7.Ng1–f3 0–0 8.Qd1–d2 b7-b6 9.Ne4xf6+ Qd8xf6 10.Bf1–e2  -0.05/11  Bc8-b7  -0.04/9  11.0–0  -0.15/10  Nb8-d7  -0.15/9  12.Rf1–e1  -0.15/10  c7-c5  -0.15/10  13.Ra1–d1  -0.15/10  Ra8-c8  -0.15/9  14.d4xc5  -0.45/10  Nd7xc5  -0.45/10  15.Qd2-d4  -0.48/10  Rf8-d8  -0.48/12  16.Qd4xf6  -0.34/11  g7xf6  -0.34/10  17.Nf3-d2? 17.b2-b3  –0.34  -1.64/12  [¹17.b2-b3³ and White hangs on] 17...Nc5-a4  -1.64/11  18.Nd2-c4  -1.64/12  Rd8xd1  -1.64/12  19.Re1xd1  -1.64/11  Na4xb2  -1.64/11  20.Rd1–d4  -1.64/9  Nb2xc4  -1.64/11  21.Be2xc4  -1.90/11  e6-e5  -1.90/12  22.Rd4-g4+  -1.90/12  Kg8-f8  -1.94/10  23.Bc4-d3 23.Bc4-b3  –1.94  -2.67/11  [23.Rg4-h4 Kf8-g7–+] 23...e5-e4  -2.67/13  24.Rg4xe4  -2.67/12  Bb7xe4  -2.67/13  25.Bd3xe4  -2.64/11  h7-h6  -2.63/13  26.Kg1–f1 26.Be4-d3  -2.63  -3.61/14  [26.Be4-d3 Rc8-c5–+] 26...Rc8-c4  -3.61/13  27.f2-f3  -3.61/12  Kf8-e7  -3.60/12  28.g2-g4  -3.69/13  Ke7-d6  -3.69/11  29.Kf1–e2  -3.69/12  Rc4-a4  -3.69/12  30.h2-h4  -4.08/12  Ra4xa2  -4.08/12  31.Ke2-d3  -4.20/12  a7-a5  -3.92/10  32.c2-c4 32.Kd3-c4  -3.92  -6.71/11  32...Ra2-h2  -6.55/12  33.Kd3-c3  -6.26/10  Rh2xh4  -5.64/11  34.Be4-d5  -7.21/12  f6-f5 -7.21/10  0–1

 

 

Points:

100

 

Average Price:

17 $

 

Value:

Good

 

Plus: Nice graphics, 2D/3D board, chapmpionship mode

Minus: No evaluation tools, no board setup

 

Engine(s): Ruffian

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 14

Pocket Grandmaster Light

K. Skibbe & F. Schneider

Pocket PC

 

This is the small brother of the ‘big’ version of Pocket Grandmaster and probably the best deal you can get. The variety of features makes this program ideal for the beginner and intermediate chess player who really wants to use this program. It has the majority of feature you will find in the full version. However, this version is lacking the book features of it’s bigger brother (but contains a big 23.000 move opening book). A drawback in PGM light is again the missing ELO handicapping, which makes it difficult to adjust the strength according to the players strength. Yet, the several different playing levels are available, which are usual enough for most users. Unfortunately, you can’t use the same engines as in PGM, so you have to be satisfied with the Gromit engine. On the good side, PGM light also includes several very good piece sets. For professional use, I recommend the brown squares in combination with the piece-set ‘Cases’. In summary, this program is highly recommended for the casual player. You will not be disappointed by it. It has more functions than any other chess program in that price range.

 

 

Points:

96

 

Average Price:

7 $

 

Value:

Excellent

 

Plus: Multiple features, nice design

Minus: No hashtable settings, no book features selectable

 

Engine(s): Gromit

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 15

PocketCrafty 2004 v1.0

Pocket Chess Champion

Pocket PC

 

This version of Pocket Crafty (see below) is basically the same you can download for free. So, the Pocket Crafty 2004 chess program should actually also be free, however, the producer asks for a $2 charge for the complete World Computer Chess Championship games (1974 - 2004) in PGN format that also comes with this package. Additionally, the program comes with new graphics; if they are better than the original is difficult to decide, at least it’s in color. Unfortunately, there are not many possibilities to change the board design. PocketCrafty 2004 has many features, which makes this program usable, yet it doesn’t reach the quality of other programs. No coach function is available and you will look without success for a web-support. But then, what can you expect for a 2$ program?! With an estimated strength of the Crafty engine of around 2250 Elo on a 400 Mhz Pocket PC, the software delivers one of the stronger programs. There are several books available which the Crafty engine can use. To create an opening book, you have to use Crafty (the same version 18.6 would be best) on your PC to create the files ‘books.bin’ and ‘book.bin’. The crafty documentation explains how to do this. You may want to start using the small book (small.pgn), which will give you a ‘book.bin’ of about 1.2 MB. Alternatively, you can prepare a custom set of openings of your own design. To use the new books, copy ‘Books.bin’ and ‘book.bin’ into the Pocket PC root directory ("My Pocket PC"). After using PocketCrafty, the book learning files "book.lrn", "position.bin" and "position.lrn" will be created in the same directory. It is also possible to change the playing style of the Crafty engine by changing a file called ‘crafy.rc’, which is basically a simple text file you can edit yourself (you have to copy crafty.rc also to the root directory). Here's an example rc.file (don’t write the comma “,”; all entries should be separated by a line-break: hash 4M, hashp 1M, cache 1M, log off, learn 7, book on, book random 1, book width 2, resign 6, tbpath=CFCard\tbs, egtb .You should change the tbpath to the directory where your tablebases are and change the memory allocations. If you want a more sophisticated time-management, keep in mind that Crafty can use "adaptive hash tables", which means that it will automatically adjust the hash tables according to the time control. In general, the longer the time control the large the hash needed. In this case you have to add the following example line ‘adaptive 0.1M 2M 12M 1M 8M’ to the rc-file. The first entry ‘0.1M’ represents the speed of crafty of 100.000 nodes per second on a fast Pocket PC (depending on your device you may want to set it lower). The next two entries allows you to control the minimum and maximum hash tables you want to allow (the values should depend on you available RAM), while the last two entries represents the minimum and maximum hash tables you want to allow for pawn hash. The minimum requirements for Pocket Crafty 2004 are a hashtable of 48K, which takes about 1.5 MB of your Pocket PC's memory !! So, make sure you have space to run it. You can learn more about Crafty’s setting at this location: http://www.limunltd.com/crafty/crafty-faq.html . Pocket Crafty has also the option to log on a internet chess server via xboard (the way to do that is explained below in the next window for Pocket Crafty). Overall, both Pocket Crafty and Pocket Crafty 2004 are more directed at the chess computer geek :-) If you know how to use these programs you will have a lot of fun, if not, better use another program. Here a game, 5 min Blitz against the engine, a god game of Crafty until it ran out of time:

PocketCrafty 2004 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [C22]

C22: Centre Game

1.e2-e4 e7-e5 2.d2-d4 e5xd4 3.Qd1xd4 Nb8-c6 4.Qd4-d3  -0.19/9  Ng8-f6  -0.19/9  5.Nb1–c3  -0.19/10  Bf8-c5  -0.19/8  6.Nc3-a4  -0.48/10  Qd8-e7  -0.48/9  7.Na4xc5  -0.48/10  Qe7xc5  -0.48/9  8.c2-c4  -0.76/10  0–0  -0.75/8  9.f2-f3 Controls g4  -0.82/9  9...d7-d5  -0.82/9  10.Bc1–e3  -1.00/9  d5-d4  -0.89/9  11.Be3-f4  -1.25/10  Nf6-h5  -1.25/10  12.Bf4-d2  -1.25/10  f7-f5  -1.24/9  13.0–0–0  -1.27/9  f5xe4  -1.11/10  14.Qd3xe4  -1.11/10  Nh5-f6  -1.11/10  15.Qe4-h4  -1.11/10  Bc8-f5  -1.11/9  16.Qh4-g5  -1.11/9  h7-h6  -1.11/10  17.b2-b4  -1.11/10  h6xg5  -1.11/12  18.b4xc5  -1.11/11  g5-g4  -1.14/9  19.Bd2-f4  -1.24/9  Rf8-f7  -1.24/9  20.h2-h3  -1.40/9  g4xh3  -0.85/12  21.Ng1xh3  -0.86/10  Nf6-h5  -0.73/12  22.Bf4-h2  -0.73/11  Bf5xh3  -0.73/12  23.g2xh3  -0.73/10  Nh5-f4  -0.73/11  24.Rd1–e1  -0.80/9  Rf7-f6  -0.64/11  25.Rh1–g1  -0.64/10  Nf4-e6  -0.64/9  26.Kc1–b1 26.Kc1–d2  –0.64  -1.11/9  26...Ra8-f8  -0.98/10  27.Bf1–g2  -0.98/10  Rf8-d8  -0.73/10  28.Bh2-g3  -1.00/9  Rf6-g6  -0.72/12  29.Bg3-h2  -0.66/10  Rd8-d7  -0.45/12  30.f3-f4  -0.45/12  Ne6xc5  -0.45/10  31.Bg2-d5+  -0.45/12  Kg8-h7  -0.56/10  32.Rg1xg6  -0.64/11  Kh7xg6  -0.64/10  33.f4-f5+  -0.88/11  Kg6-g5  -0.85/9  34.Re1–e8  -0.88/10  Nc6-b4  -0.88/10  35.Bd5-f3  -0.88/8  Nb4-d3  -0.88/10  36.Bh2-g3  -1.05/11  Rd7-f7  -1.05/10  37.Bf3-g4  -1.05/9  b7-b6  -0.98/10  38.Re8-d8  -1.35/11  Nc5-e4  -1.35/11  39.Rd8xd4  -1.35/12  Ne4xg3 The pressure on the isolated pawn grows  -1.35/12  40.Rd4xd3  -1.35/11  Ng3xf5  -1.35/10  41.Kb1–c2  -1.74/11  g7-g6  -1.74/10  42.Kc2-c3  -1.87/11  Nf5-d6  -1.53/9  43.Rd3-d4  -1.65/11  Rf7-f1  -1.62/9  44.h3-h4+  -1.65/11  Kg5-f6  -1.65/9  45.h4-h5  -1.65/10  g6xh5  -1.65/12  46.Bg4xh5  -1.64/10  Rf1–a1  -1.57/11  47.Kc3-b3  -1.57/10  Ra1–e1  -1.57/10  48.a2-a3  -1.89/9  Re1–e3+  -1.89/11  49.Kb3-a4? 49.Kb3-b2  –1.89  -3.18/10  [¹49.Kb3-b2–+] 49...a7-a6  -3.18/10  50.Bh5-g4 50.Rd4-f4+  -3.18  -5.26/10  50...Nd6-b7  -5.26/11  51.Bg4-d1 51.Rd4-d5  -5.26  -13.09/10  51...c7-c6  -13.09/12  52.Rd4-d5  -13.09/10  c6xd5  -13.09/10  53.c4xd5  -13.09/10  Kf6-e5 -13.09/10  0–1

 

 

Points:

88

 

Average Price:

2 $

 

Value:

na

 

Plus: Can work with WinBoard, strong engine

Minus: No level adjustment, no tournament time control

 

Engine(s): Crafty 18.6

 

Category:  

Fun

 

Casual

 

Pro

 

 

 

 

 

Rank 16

Pocket Crafty v1.0

Robert Hyatt

Pocket PC

 

Pocket Craft is basically the same program as Pocket Craft 2004 (see above) with the exception that it doesn’t come with a game database and features only a b/w board. It can be downloaded for free at Bob Hyatts ftp server: ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/iPAQ/ or from PocketPCFreeware: http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?download=960 . Pocket Crafty is a chess game based on the chess engine Crafty, which itself is derived from Cray Blitz (World Champ 1983-89) and is designed around bitboards (a 64-bit data structure) for reasons of speed of execution. Pocket Crafty 2004 has many features, which makes this program usable, yet it doesn’t reach the quality of other commercial programs (or the free CEBoard). No coach function is available and you will look without success for a web-support. But then, what can you expect from a free program?! With an estimated strength of the Crafty engine of around 2250 Elo on a 400 Mhz Pocket PC, the software delivers one of the stronger programs. There are several books available which the Crafty engine can use. How to set them up is explained in the paragraph above (in the Pocket Craft 2004 window). Pocket Crafty has also the option to log on a internet chess server via xboard. For that, you need winboard installed on you PC, which has to be connected to you Pocket PC (either via the cradle or wireless LAN, Bluetooth etc..). First you have to copy the ‘AutoCrafty.exe’ file into the WinBoard directory of your PC and then create a WinBoard shortcut invoking AutoCrafty as the first engine (if you don’t know WinBoard, try to get accustomed to it first, you can find it under: http://www.tim-mann.org/xboard.html ). After connecting your Pocket PC to your PC with ActiveSync, the TCP/IP is enabled on the serial connection (which is needed for PocketCrafty to talk to AutoCrafty). Now start Pocket Crafty on your Pocket PC and invoke the Advanced dialog. Next, start WinBoard with AutoCrafty on your PC; this will start AutoCrafty listening to port 4999. Now you have to click the xboard checkbox in Pocket Crafty's advanced dialog (see screenshot), which enables to find your computer (the pseudo-address "ppp_peer") and connects a socket to port 4999. All output should now goes over the socket to AutoCrafty and WinBoard, allowing you to connect Pocket Crafty to a chess server or to match another engine. To disconnect, simply uncheck the xboard checkbox. After that, refresh the board and check your options, since WinBoard may have changed them. Overall, both Pocket Crafty and Pocket Crafty 2004 are more directed at the chess computer geek :-) If you know how to use these programs you will have a lot of fun, if not, better use another program.

Dr. Axel Schumacher - PocketCrafty [B01]

B01: Scandinavian Defence 1.e2-e4 d7-d5 2.e4xd5 Qd8xd5 3.Ng1–f3 Bc8-d7  0.45/11  4.d2-d4  0.50/9  e7-e6  0.56/12  5.c2-c4  0.69/9  Qd5-e4+  1.00/12  6.Bc1–e3  1.01/10  Bf8-b4+  1.04/11  7.Nb1–c3  1.08/9  Nb8-c6 7...Ng8-e7  1.08  1.51/12  8.a2-a3  1.51/11  Bb4xc3+  1.51/13  9.b2xc3  1.45/10  Ng8-f6  1.59/13  10.Bf1–d3  1.59/12  Qe4-g4  1.59/11  11.0–0  1.60/9  0–0  1.64/12  12.Ra1–b1  1.73/10  Nc6-a5  1.76/11  13.h2-h3  2.00/12  Qg4-h5  1.59/11  14.Be3-f4  1