Ratinglist and review Chess
programs for Pocket PC and Palm devices.
Last updated 18. September 2005
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PocketGrandmaster v2.1 |
K. Skibbe & F. Schneider |
Pocket PC |
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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 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 |
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Points: |
195 |
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Average Price: |
25 $ |
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Value: |
Good |
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Plus: Very strong; Good PGN-support; nice
design; various functions Minus: No ELO handicapping; no online play |
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Engine(s): Gromit, Ruffian, SOS, Fruit |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 2 |
CE Board v2.1.589.1 |
A. Zanchetta |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
173 |
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Average Price: |
Free ! |
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Value: |
na |
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Plus: Very good PGN-support; various
functions, very strong engines Minus: Average design, occasionally unstable |
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Engine(s): Crafty Classic 2004, Toga II, Fruit 2.1 |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 3 |
Pocket Fritz v2.01 |
ChessBase |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
171 |
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Average Price: |
56 $ |
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Value: |
Poor |
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Plus: Very strong; nice design, online-database,
tactics trainer Minus: Expensive; no online play, buggy |
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Engine(s):
Shredder
7 |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 4 |
Majestic Chess v1.10 |
Fluent
Entertainment |
Pocket PC |
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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: 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 |
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|
Points: |
167 |
|
|
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|
Average Price: |
15 $ |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Value: |
Excellent |
|
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|
Plus: Nice design, variety of modes, good
price Minus: No coach watching, no book
selection |
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|
Engine(s): WChess 1.1 |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 5 |
Chessmaster v1.56 |
Ludigames/Gameloft |
Palm |
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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, |
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|
Points: |
161 |
|
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Average Price: |
19 $ |
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||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Value: |
Very good |
|
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Plus: Multiple special features Minus: Unstable, mediocre design, no book
selection, no PGN support |
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Engine(s): The King ? |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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|
Rank 6 |
Chess Tiger v15.2 |
Christophe Theron |
Palm |
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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 " Chess Tiger 15.2 - Dr. Axel Schumacher [C26] C26: 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 |
|
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|
|
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 |
|
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|
Engine(s): Chess Tiger 15.2 |
|
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|
Category: |
Fun |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Casual |
|
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Pro |
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|
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|
Rank 7 |
Palm HIARCS v9.5 |
Mark Uniacke |
Palm |
|
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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 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 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rank 8 |
ChessGenius v.1.7 |
Richard
Lang |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
130 |
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Average Price: |
25 $ |
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Value: |
Good |
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Plus: Clear design, landscape mode, VGA
support Minus: No book features, no game annotation,
limited time adjustments |
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Engine(s): Genius |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 9 |
ChessPartner v1.02 |
Lokasoft |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
129 |
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Average Price: |
15 $ |
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Value: |
Very good |
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Plus: Crisp nice design, good menu,
several time-control options Minus: No coach watching, few levels |
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Engine(s): LChess v5.0.0.7 |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 10 |
Chess Genius v2.22 |
Richard
Lang |
Palm |
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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 " 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 |
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Points: |
116 |
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Average Price: |
25 $ |
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Value: |
Acceptable |
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Plus: Clear design, Mate in X feature Minus: No infinite level, no game
annotation, limited time adjustments |
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Engine(s): Genius |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 11 |
PocketChess Deluxe v2.51 |
Handmark/Pocket
Express Inc. |
Palm |
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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 |
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Points: |
112 |
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Average Price: |
20 $ |
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Value: |
Good |
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Plus: PGN transfer, Blindchess,
Grand Master database Minus: Design flaws, weak engine |
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Engine(s): unknown |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 12 |
ChessAx v1.4.09 |
P.H. Nguyen |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
105 |
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Average Price: |
20 $ |
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Value: |
Good |
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Plus: Learning, Graphical Evaluation,
many functions Minus: No Coach function, no hint button, weak
engine |
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Engine(s): Ax Engine |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 13 |
Kasparov Chessmate
v1.0.9 |
Hexacto |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
100 |
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Average Price: |
17 $ |
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Value: |
Good |
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Plus: Nice graphics, 2D/3D board, chapmpionship mode Minus: No evaluation tools, no board setup |
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Engine(s): Ruffian |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 14 |
Pocket Grandmaster Light |
K. Skibbe & F. Schneider |
Pocket PC |
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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. |
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Points: |
96 |
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Average Price: |
7 $ |
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Value: |
Excellent |
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Plus: Multiple features, nice design Minus: No hashtable
settings, no book features selectable |
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Engine(s): Gromit |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 15 |
PocketCrafty 2004 v1.0 |
Pocket Chess Champion |
Pocket PC |
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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 |
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Points: |
88 |
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Average Price: |
2 $ |
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Value: |
na |
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Plus: Can work with WinBoard, strong engine Minus: No level adjustment, no tournament
time control |
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Engine(s): Crafty 18.6 |
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Category: |
Fun |
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Casual |
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Pro |
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Rank 16 |
Pocket Crafty v1.0 |
Robert Hyatt |
Pocket PC |
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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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
