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Chessville
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Pocket Mania Playing chess, learning chess, practicing chess, has undergone a revolution with the advent of the personal computer. Laptops brought that revolution one step closer to home, allowing the serious chess player to study, practice and play, carrying their entire library of chess knowledge with them wherever they go. That revolution has taken a new turn with the powerful PDA technology, allowing an entire library of games analysis, and powerful chess programs to come with us wherever we go, in our shirt pocket rather than a briefcase. Now this revolution has taken a new turn with the arrival of the new generation combining a cell phone and PDA into a single device. This article will be a short review of several chess programs running on the two competing platforms used in PDA’s and PDA/Cell phones. The Palm operating system and Microsoft’s Pocket PC are competing head on at present for market domination in this new and exciting arena. Palm, the original pioneer of the handheld computing market, nifty, innovative, and yes, powerful, V.S. Microsoft… um… any guesses as to who the winner will be? For the purposes of our favorite subject, er… CHESS… yes there is a clear winner in the contest, but there are good points for both systems, so we’ll have a look at the pro’s and cons of the leading software for each platform. The great thing about the new Cell phone PDA’s is that the new devices mean we can carry our PDA, i.e. all our documents, schedules, phonebook, and yes our CHESS computer, right inside our handy little cell phone. Seeing as we are already carrying a cell phone anyhow, this means you can be working on your chess anywhere… everywhere. Palm vs Pocket PC, Cell phone/PDA vs PDA Palm, at least at present, seems to be winning the Cell phone race, which means if you are buying a phone, you are probably looking at a Palm powered device. The only phones I have seen with the Pocket PC operating system are big and clunky and look like a PDA not a phone. I don’t know about you but I would find it a little conspicuous to walk through a crowd with a big flat PDA on my ear… it just doesn’t look like a phone. If this changes I’ll be the first to buy a decent phone powered by Pocket PC, but for now I bought a Palm powered phone, even though I think Pocket PC is way better (especially, as you will see in this article, for CHESS). So, I have a PDA built into my cell phone, and I also carry a Pocket PC powered PDA for the applications that do not run on my phone. Silly, but there it is. So let’s look at the chess programs. Palm OS vs. Pocket PC To begin with there are several important differences between the operating systems that dictate some of the key functions of the chess programs that run on them. For most players, i.e. anyone under 1800 -2000 it is not in the playing of the program where the difference will be, but in the other features that help us work with chess ideas for practice and learning that one system shines over the other. For what it is worth though, Chess Tiger and Pocket Fritz have both been rated well over 2000 Fide elo with Chess Genius, slightly coming in at around 1800. The Palm OS applications have a proprietary file structure which restricts the user’s ability to place native PGN files onto the device. Because of this the serious chess player that wants to bring in databases of games to study etc. is restricted to having to copy a single game from a .pgn file into the scratch pad of the palm transfer program, which then brings the chess file in as a memo. Two of the three programs evaluated here (Chess Tiger and Chess Genius) will read these files as if they were native .pgn files, but the files are restricted to one game, a crippling limitation severely restricting any serious student of the game. On my Pocket PC I have dozens of fantastic databases I carry with me everywhere, many of which are available free on the internet, such as the complete games libraries of the great players, tactics practice databases, as well as my own games played over ICC or FICS. On a moments notice I can access any one of the thousands of games, well organized on my Pocket PC, whereas for practical purposes, I can copy in a couple of dozen games at most into my Palm. On the good side of having a chess program on the Palm system is the fact that it is available with some pretty slick phones, and the sheer portability of having your phone always with you makes it very valuable indeed, even with the limitations listed above. The Software On the Palm I have looked at 3 of the leading chess programs, Chess Tiger, Chess Genius, and $9.95 Chess. On the Pocket PC platform I looked at Pocket Fritz 2 and Chess Genius. All the products had the ability to set up new positions, select a play level in game time or move time, get hints from the computer, and one very handy feature, if you switch the program off, i.e. to take a phone call, when you resume, you are back in the game where you left off. This is particularly fun if studying a specific position. All programs worked from an opening book, which means the program is capable of providing and working from book on a wide variety of starting positions which is great for practicing openings. A very major weakness of all the programs on the Palm platform is the inability to keep track of variation lines. Analyzing and comparing various approaches to a position is a staple in any chess player’s thinking process. All of the Palm products keep track of a single line only, so no comparisons are possible. Chess Tiger $19.95
My first choice for the Palm platform. Simple interface and an extremely strong chess engine, with lots of good features. There are more view options than Chess Genius so you can select the interface that best suits you in terms of board size and info onscreen. There are also some advanced features such as the ability to set hashtable size (internal memory affecting the strength of the chess engine), as well as much more selection in the setup of levels of play, allowing you to find a play level most suited to your style and level of play. The software claims to be able to automatically adjust to your level of play, which is a good, intuitive feature. Also a very nice feature is the ability to see the analysis engine with an assessment of the best line of play and the point value of the position in terms of who is ahead and by how much. This program does allow you to copy single games (as memos), so you can study positions, games, etc.
$9.95 Chess $9.95 I had two major problems with this product, the first being that I could not get it to work. It crashed constantly in various operations. However, assuming this technical glitch could be solved (editor's note: 9.95 SOFT Founder & CEO Philippe Piernot, Ph.D. advises "It is worth noting that the bugs that the reviewer has experienced have been fixed in version 2.2.") the product suffers a very major flaw for any chess player in that there is no way to import a game from a .pgn file, as you can with Tiger and Genius. On the good side, the chess interface is pretty and the game very simple. The product has many less features than its competitors. Pocket Fritz 2: $46.95 Although there are several chess programs available for the Pocket PC including Chess Genius, I am reviewing only Pocket Fritz 2, which, although a little more expensive, is so far above its competitors that I do not believe any serious or aspiring chess player with a Pocket PC device should even consider anything other than Pocket Fritz 2. PF2 has so many features it is hard to know where to start. This is a ROBUST program, filled with the expertise of years of development of Fritz and Chessbase, staples of the chess playing world.
The Interface There is a very BIG difference between the interface of PF2 and all of its competitors. PF2’s pieces and play are a pleasure to use, rich wood colors, big pieces, even on the small screen, a great interface to play and work with. Single click icons allow you to see Fritz’s analysis of the situation with a point value rating (i.e. who is ahead) and the best line of play.
Working with PGN files Yes, you can import .pgn files, a fantastic feature in itself but PF2 allows you to read Annotated .pgn files, a huge plus! If you look hard enough there are hundreds of amazing databases available containing great games, and even chess books converted over to .pgn. Some you can purchase, many are free. The ability to read comments, annotations, etc. on these chess files allows you to read rich content, a massive difference over seeing just the moves. Also, PF2 has been through 2 evolutions of managing and organizing your .pgn files. Finding files, saving files and using files has been streamlined and simplified to the point of perfection. I probably have 10,000 games on my Pocket PC, and using the powerful PF2 interface, can find anything I want in moments.
One of the best features of PF2 is its powerful ability to work with and organize unlimited lines of variations. Analyzing various lines of play can be difficult for the novice and even intermediate player. As we cannot see all of this in our head, we need to play it out on the board. PF2 is fantastic for this. In analysis as you come up to a variation you are prompted to enter whether this is a variation or the main line. From a specific board position you can enter any number of variant lines of play. When replaying that position the first move of all of the lines stemming from the position come up for selection and as you select the variation you move to that branch of the decision tree. A great feature of PF2 is the ability to skip back to the start of the variation you are on with a single click rather than having to reverse back move by move and then try to remember where the variation started to start going forward again. Then when you go forward again, PF2 presents you with all the variation trees to select from. With a single click you can flip to the end of each and compare PF2’s analysis of which leaves you better off. It is details like this that make PF2 a pleasure to use! For those connected to the internet with their Pocket PC (i.e. if you purchase a combo cell/PDA based on Pocket PC) the program 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 giant state-of-the-art openings book with over seven million positions and full statistics for each of them. Other new functions: extended, user-friendly move entry and annotation; automatic game replay with adjustable speeds; special energy-saving mode for longer battery life. Overall, a well evolved program! Final Analysis For any serious student of the game, the Pocket PC platform is still the way to go, but if buying a phone with the Palm OS onboard, you will still get lots of mileage out of your phone!
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