Expert Travel Chess Computer: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games

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2.0 out of 5 stars Ruined by poor implementation, 12 Oct 2008

By	Henry Arnold (London, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars

A lot of people like this machine, but I'm not one of them. Here are the issues I found:

I suppose I could have just been unlucky but, within a few days of using this machine, the LED that is used when the computer wants to make a move on the E file stopped working. I can usually get it going again with a couple of hard taps but this does not feel like a robust machine to me.

The lid is poorly designed. It doesn't always keep all the pieces in their respective holes, and this can lead to pieces spilling out when the lid is opened. I also don't much care for the lid itself - there's no effective way to 'store' it when it's open, and it gets in the way if you want to play as black without the tedium of setting up all the pieces the other way around.

It has 31 holes on the side of the board for captured pieces. Whilst it is true that only 30 pieces can be captured in a game, the set comes with 8 spare pieces (2 pawns and 2 queens for each side). So, in certain hard-fought endgames, I run out of places to put the spare pieces. Annoying.

My last issue is around the programming itself. The machine does have an impressive range of options, and can play chess from beginner to advanced level (I can't confirm how advanced though, as I'm certainly no grand master). However, if I set it to its `Fun' levels and then try to set it back to its normal modes, it suddenly becomes stupidly easy to beat. This was explained in a loose piece of paper in the packaging - apparently, the fun levels restrict its search algorithm, but they forgot to program it to remove this limitation when it's switched to the other modes. There is a workaround - it involves using the master reset button, but this loses all your settings. This has probably been fixed in later versions, but it's no help to me.

Overall, a good chess machine ruined by sloppy implementation.

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