Saitek Maestro Travel Chess Computer Review

justechn writes "I just finished my review of the Maestro Travel Chess Computer, sent to me by Saitek. If you really like chess and are always on the go then this device will give you the chess fix that you desire without the hassle of lugging around a real chess board and pieces."

Comments

Why?

[kisielk]

Why buy a device dedicated to playing chess when you can pick up a Palm Zire 21 for just over $70 USD most places and then buy a chess program for a few bucks more? Not only does it have much more features but is also smaller and lighter. Alternatively you can get an even older Palm off of eBay if you want to get one that's really cheap.

Re:Why?

[jjhlk]

It's possible the hardware is specialized for chess and thus a better quality player, and it has excellent battery live.

You might not need the other features of a Palm. This device was about $60, and there are cheaper models.

Re:Why?

[Kris_J]

I think perhaps the GBA version of ChessMaster is a better investment, unless this dedicated peice of hardware is a much better opponent.

Re:Why?

[badfrog]

I was going to say just get a PalmIII for $10 on Ebay and a shareware chess game. I could never beat the damn thing. Then again, I suck.

Re:Why?

[kisielk]

Somehow I doubt they'd be selling it for $60 if they went through the trouble of designing custom hardware (think.. expensive) to play chess. I bet you it's just an inexpensive ARM processor or something. And like I said, you can get a Palm for slightly more. Also, GBA as the other poster mentioned.

Re:Why?

[koi88]

From the article:
"64 Study Positions - see how the experts do it"

See how the experts do it? Now this is a feature I haven't found in my chess program. What could it be? A stripping queen? Pawn mass gang-bang? The horse... uh...
I'm not sure if I need this function on a portable device.

A Better Idea

[jack's wasted liver]

I'll bet not many of these are sold
Wouldn't you rather have a palm top with a chess game?
Most cheap pdas are under $100 and they aren't just for chess.

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[Usquebaugh]

Just one question.

Have you _EVER_ played chess?

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[Vaevictis666]

And this is why more people should play Go. A computer Go player is halfwise decent, and I'm getting some knowlege by playing against one, but once you pass an Intermediate level (~10k I think), you can kinda hose any program out there.

Still doesn't compete with a real live opponent though.

You know

[Apreche]

You know. This is the kind of thing that is going to be obsoleted by the Nintendo DS. Play pickup games of chess, wirelessly with people you pass by in the street or train. Then upload all the rankings online wirelessly when you pass by an open access point.

I think two arm processors can do as well as a specialized chess machine. Especially a handheld one. Not to mention that playing with two screens, one of them being a touch screen should be quite nice.

Someone needs to make all kinds of board games for the DS, it is so perfect. I know at least in Japan they are making mah-jong. We need some European board games though, like Settlers, Tigris and Euphrates, or the best of all time Puerto Rico!

If there was Puerto Rico for the DS I would buy two copies.

Also, I know lots of people who would like to play go.

Are you listening Nintendo?

Re:You know

[radio.cgt]

You'll get your copy of Go, if you wait a couple of months I'm pretty sure you'll have at least 6 versions to choose from.

The DS is coming fom Japan!
If it has nothing else you can guarantee it will have: Go, Mahjonng, a really long RPG about avenging your father's death, and some sort of anime strip poker game or possibly anime strip mahjongg.

Re:You know

[hunterx11]

If a Cray sucks at Go, I don't think a Gameboy will do particularly well.

Re:You know

[Flyboy Connor]

Also, I know lots of people who would like to play go.

I know a lot about Go playing programs. To make a long story short: they all suck. AI research is simply not up to the task of getting a computer to play Go. It will take a long time before we get a challenging Go program.

Re:You know

[Rahga]

It's obvious to tell by the design that the Nintendo DS was built around another, completely different classic game: Battleship.

Re:You know

[hibiki_r]

There are a few Go games for the GBA already. Hikaru no Go 1 and 2 are go games that include a story mode mimicking the manga and Anime plots. The AI is pretty bad, a whole 3 days of go playing is all you really need to trounce the computer. And all of this on 9x9 boards most of the time. Playing on a 19x19 is a terrible experience. the computer needs over a minute to think about every single move, wether it's completely obvious or not, and it is even a worse player than it is in 9x9. The games are good enough for people that are just then learning the game, but a 15 Kyu would have to play with obscene handicaps to get a challenging game. It's been said that playing like that is actually BAD for your go game, since you end up setting stupid traps for the computer to fall into, and acting in a way that would be considered reckless against any human player.

Re:You know

[VendingMenace]

Be that at it may a Go program for the DS would still be appealing for at least 2 reasons;

1) For begginners an easy go program can still be challanging and they can still learn from it

2) More importantly, GO on the DS would be quite a bit more portable than most "travel" and folding GO products. The inclusion of a touch screen would make it so that it would be easy for two people to play head to head on the same board DS while the fact that there is wireless capability makes two people on two DS easy to accomplish.

WHile i know it would most likely NEVER happen given how few DS's there will be compared to the general population and how few people actually play GO, but it would be a blast to play a 9X9 with some guy on the bus on the way to work!

Anyways, of course these reasons are valid for other board games too like Chess, othello, Risk, ect. ect. as well as card games. It would be awsome to see some of these make it onto the DS. I am sure they will though, becuase the cobination of the touch screen with the wireless makes the DS an almost natural ground for these types of games.

Review of the review:

[cryptor3]

You will get the Device itself, a case to protect it while traveling, and an instruction manuel

Manuel? Who's manuel? Is that like a grandmaster who helps give you instructions on how to play?

Seriously though, it seems like there wasn't a lot to review here. It's like you state the features, and there's really not much else to tell.

The clasp is interesting. It seems like a magnet, but it is attracted to a small clear plastic strip that is on the bottom portion of the case. I personally didn't know magnets were attracted to plastic. Maybe it has some metal in it.

Hm, good to know. I'll definitely factor that in when I'm thinking about buying it.

The computer will not allow you to make illegal moves, so it is helpful to have all the moves memorized.

If you ask me, all chess computers are expected not to allow you to make illegal moves. If you they don't do that, IT'S NOT CHESS.

What was missing from the review, IMHO:
- Pictures. All the descriptions of where buttons and indicators were would have left me more satisfied if I could actually have seen where they were, rather than simply imagining it.
- How tough are the levels? Something like, "I've been playing for x years, my rating is yyy (or, I don't have a rating), and I was beaten thoroughly past level zzz."
- Are all the computer's moves instantaneous? Does it take longer for the computer to think on higher levels? How much longer?
- Battery Life.
- What competing products are there? If Saitek won't let you mention competitors, then you're just being an advertising stool pigeon for them.

For some reason, I like this line:

you have to pack a big board and lots of pieces. This makes it very inconvenient to whip it out for a quick game.

Besides having some innuendo, I must say that it is tough to play at a moment's notice. Is carrying a chess board around what's really stopping you from playing all the time? I mean, unless you just go around challenging the guy sitting next to you on the bus, I don't think carrying a chess board around is going to do you any good. Just my opinion. I'm sure there are contradictory examples.

Must have been a slow news day for this to get onto slashdot.

Re:Review of the review:

[markimusk]

Wow, what an incredibly useless product. The review says it's bigger and heavier than most PDA's. So I would want one why?

And what kind of review doesn't have a picture of the product? I googled for one and guess what? It looks just like a PDA.

Nothing to see here...

Re:Review of the review:

[cryptor3]

They had a picture in the upper left of the article, but it was a little small.

I dunno, it seems more like a gift you'd give to your local chess fanatic or young child.

It's not that bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought when I read the "article" that it sounded pretty cool and thought I should get one. Guess I was wrong...

To the people that say "Get a Game Boy" - I don't want a game boy. Game boys are for kids. Maybe the new one will be better, but it's not out yet and no chess game is available.

To those that say "Get a Palm" - I don't want one. I already carry a sub notebook for all my computing needs including internet through a cellular thigamajig. I don't need a lesser computer taking up space in my bag.

I have a chess program on my PC, but it's slow to boot and my PC eats batteries like pac man eats "power pellets."

If I can pull this thing out my pants (no, not that thing you fag - I'm talking about the chess game) from a pouch in a few seconds that's cool. If it has a "rapid resume" feature, double cool. If it has long battery life, triple cool, especially if it has a vibrate function.

Re:It's not that bad

[Dehumanizer]

"To the people that say "Get a Game Boy" - I don't want a game boy. Game boys are for kids."

You've just shown that you know nothing whatsoever about Game Boys.

Re:It's not that bad

[drinkypoo]

Look, this basically is a PDA that just plays chess. Even the form factor is the same. Your objection about not wanting to buy a palm pilot, which you should be able to do for less than fifty bucks, is especially ridiculous because this thing is a computer. Did you think there was a chess-playing gnome inside of it?

Re:It's not that bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I know they look like toys and thus don't complete the PHB look I've got going on. Perhaps where you work they fit in and look "cool", but that's not the case here.

Re:It's not that bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha - flamebait for defending the Gameboy. Go back to your Pokemon junior.

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[hunterx11]

The last two major Man vs. Machine matches (Kramnik - Deep Fritz and Kasparov - Deep Junior) were draws, actually. In both cases, the humans demonstrated their ability to play better chess than the computer can. The computer, however, never falters in the slightest. While it is a bygone conclusion that computers will someday surpass humans at chess by a large margin, this has yet to happen. Computers are getting better at chess, but so are people.

Though I do prefer playing against people :)

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[Flyboy Connor]

While it is a bygone conclusion that computers will someday surpass humans at chess by a large margin, this has yet to happen.

Hm. Computers play a draw against the top-three of all human chess players. They beat everyone else. So, basically, computers play better chess than (5,999,999,997 / 6,000,000,000) * 100 % = 99.99999998 % of all humans, and lose of no-one. To me, that is no different than saying that computers are better at playing chess than humans.

Irrelevant

[Anonymous Coward]

This may be true, but it's still completely irrelevant. Humans are still enjoying playing chess with each other, the fact a computer plays even with the best humans (with brute-force algorithms) does not change anything to that.

Chess has actually had a higher level in competitions thanks to engines and databases. It's now widely used even by amateurs to check their openings, find new ideas and detect errors.

On the other hand, palm-format computers is a sad topic since they have been reportedly used by cheaters in tournaments.

What I would like to see in the review is an estimated elo rating of the computer: a 1500-level computer is completely useless for me. Also, the depth of the opening book and the availability of an analysis mode seems much more important than the number of moves one can take back (no real chess player takes back a move !)

Mark, rated 1900 (FIDE)

Re:Irrelevant

[Flyboy Connor]

You'll get no argument from me, I completely agree.

I was just reacting to the parent's statement that humans are better chess players than chess computers. They are not.

Furthermore, I would say that not only the game of chess remains interesting when humans play each other, but also when humans play against a computer. The reason is that chess games against a computer feel completely different from chess games against humans. And computers sometimes come up with very surprising moves.

Of course, I may have a coloured view because chess programs are part of my studies.

get a new phone

[matts.nu]

There are great chess software for free that you can install on a phone.
http://www.yipton.demon.co.uk/content.html#EChess- P800

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[Weh]

It is not really true that "computers" are better than humans. Not all chess programs are equally good, good programs will have different strengths depending to the type of hardware they run on and the way that they are set-up. I doubt the handheld computer being reviewed has the Elo rating of say Fritz. But I suppose that it is true that some programs on some machines are better than 99%+ of all chess players.

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[GigsVT]

I don't even know what to say. When I see people mention Go in every damn chess story, I'm filled with murderous rage. Can't you all just shut the fuck up about it?

Re:Chess computers have ruined the game of chess.

[ctid]

The latest major Man vs Machine match (October 2004) ended in heavy defeat for the humans. These were not world champions, but very strong players. The final score was: humans 3.5 - 8.5 programs

There is a report on the tournament here.