Handheld Chess Computers

Anyone out there have any recommendations as to which is the best handheld chess computer? Or are there better products available for download to a Palmtop ?

tks

I have Chess Tiger for palm. It's not bad.

i have a Mehpisto something or other. the engine is okay... every now and again it gets confused and makes brainless moves, like moving the rook from a8 to b8 and then back to a8, for no apparent reason. the best feature and the one i would reccommend above all else- no matter what kind you decide to get- make sure it has a backlight. having the screen light up is important. i had a non-backlit one before i got this one and well, it got stolen, but i wasn't all that bummed because it was very difficult to see unless i was sitting directly under a lamp. the one i have i got on wholesalechess.com for something like $65 or $70 USD. i've had it for about a year and still enjoy playing it. it has a variety of openings it plays. i've heard that the best hand-held chess engine you can get is Fritz for a palm pilot, but i have no regrets.

i've had one with a backlight and one without and my key peice of advice is: the light up screen is critical. i can't emphasize this enough.

I have pocket fritz for Pocket PC, and I'm quite happy with it. Admittedly, it's the more expensive option, but it's the best handheld chess program available, and is quite feature rich. It has almost all of the features of Fritz. This includes analysis, saving games, tactics training, hints, and a variety of levels and types of gameplay.

Pocket Fritz is indeed the best handheld chess program, imo...

You also might want to check out Pocket Chess Partner, Chess Genius, and Pocket Grandmaster, which are not as pricey as Fritz, but are also not as good. Pocket Fritz is well worth the money, imo.

I'd recommend checking out the above programs online, and maybe checking out some online reviews to see if they have what you're looking for. Just google each one, and see what you think. With chess software, sometimes you just gotta take the plunge...

Strength-wise, I'd guess that Pocket Chess Partner might be the weakest of the above, but you can set it to play a strong game. Seems to me that Chess Genius is stronger, and Pocket Grandmaster, stronger still. I'm sure Pocket Fritz is the strongest of all of them, and it has the best analysis features as well.

All of the above software allows you to save games, edit positions, etc. They will all let you see the program's 'thinking' but I think only Fritz will show you the top 5 or 6 moves, while the others will only display what they consider the top move, I believe.

If you only get one, I'd recommend Pocket Fritz 2.

Only other thing I'd say is to make sure your handheld meets the specs for installing Pocket Fritz 2. I bought my PDA in late 2002, and purchased PF2 in early 2004 I believe... I ended up having to install Pocket Fritz in a roundabout sort of way, as it would not install directly from the CD. But it works fine.

Thanks for that Guys ...

I had a quick look around and it doesn't look as tho' Fitz runs on a Palm Tungsten (which I get as a perk of the job!) ..... but these other ones do

Palm Hiarc
Palm Genius
Palm Tiger

there's a brief report on

http://www.elhchess.demon.co.uk/palmchss.htm

Think I'll trial for a couple of days then give 1 a go ... true to my clan, its only the price of a couple of bottles of wine :-)

Originally posted by cambridgeian
Anyone out there have any recommendations as to which is the best handheld chess computer? Or are there better products available for download to a Palmtop ?

tks

i have a pocket pc running pocket grandmaster. i primarily use it for tactics study, i have pocket ct-art installed and a pgn version of polgars chess book which is all i need!