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Date: 29 Aug 2006 13:05:34
From: Ange1o DePa1ma
Subject: PocketPC and chess servers
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Does anyone know if any of the major chess servers support PDAs? I've
emailed the guys at ICC but received no response.
adp
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Date: 30 Aug 2006 00:50:16
From: Dave (from the UK)
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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Ange1o DePa1ma wrote:
> Does anyone know if any of the major chess servers support PDAs? I've
> emailed the guys at ICC but received no response.
>
> adp
>
>
As someone else said, Thinkerboard and Intellichess do. I've tried both
and have a few comments.
1) I'm 99% sure the Intellichess download came with a virus. So be very
careful about that.
2) Intellichess is commercial but has a very poor interface .
3) Thinkerboard has a slightly better interface, but is again poor. It
has the advantage of being free.
I've yet to find any chess program that runs on a PDA that has a decent
interface and connects to ICC or FICS.
The producers of pocket grandmaster:
http://www.pocketgrandmaster.com/english/index.html
which is a very nice chess program for the PDA, have indicated to me by
email that might at least consider supporting ICC and FICS, but they are
certainly not committed to it, as it is a lot of work.
I had someone email exchanges about how it might be possible to do by
writing a "virtual" chess engine, which instead of computing moves,
simply connected to ICC and passed the moves back and forth. It would
just telnet pocket the users interface to ICC in the same way it would
pass them to a chess engine. It would relay the moves back from ICC to
pocket grandmaster, in the exact same way the moves would be relayed fro
m a chess engine.
In order words, Pocket Grandmaster would think it is a chess engine, but
in fact it just passes command back and forth via telnet.
The developers admitted that this should work, and even passed me the
details of the interface so I could write it, but I never have. I'm a
competent C (but not C++) programmer and don't have any experience of
writing software for the PDA. There would be a lot of work for me to do
it. If I had lots of free time, I'd have a go at it, as Pocket
Grandmaster is IMHO the best PDA chess program. But alas I don't have
the time.
If you feel and ICC/FICS interface would be useful, why not suggest it
to chessbase (developers of Pocket Fritz) or email the developers of
Pocket Grandmaster?
info <<<AT >> pocketgrandmaster <<DOT>> com
There are some comments about ICC/FICS interface on the Pocket
Grandmaster guest book too:
http://two.guestbook.de/gb.cgi?gid=555102&prot=ophvsa
--
Dave (from the UK)
Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: [email protected]
Hitting reply will work for a few months only - later set it manually.
http://witm.sourceforge.net/ (Web based Mathematica front end)
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Date: 30 Aug 2006 10:45:17
From: Ange1o DePa1ma
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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"Dave (from the UK)" <[email protected] >
wrote
> If you feel and ICC/FICS interface would be useful, why not suggest it to
> chessbase (developers of Pocket Fritz) or email the developers of Pocket
> Grandmaster?
I'm surprised CB has not figured out a way to incorporate this feature in
PocketFritz. Had they, I would have purchased that program instead of Pocket
GM, even if it meant having to connect to PlayChess (I prefer ICC). I'm
assuming it's a big project, which based on sales of Pocket Fritz does not
have a lot of $$ potential.
Besides, you've got to be kidding -- email CB with a suggestion? They don't
even support their existing products.
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Date: 29 Aug 2006 22:30:42
From: Tony M
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:05:34 -0400, "Ange1o DePa1ma"
<[email protected] > wrote:
>
>Does anyone know if any of the major chess servers support PDAs? I've
>emailed the guys at ICC but received no response.
>
>adp
>
IntelliChess (http://www.intellichess.com/) and MobileThinkerBoard
(http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.htm) both
apparently can connect to ICC.
I got the info from here (warning, large page, takes time to load):
http://www.grailmaster.com/misc/chess/comp/chessrev/rev_pda_chess.htm
Tony
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Date: 30 Aug 2006 10:49:18
From: Ange1o DePa1ma
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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"Tony M" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:05:34 -0400, "Ange1o DePa1ma"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>Does anyone know if any of the major chess servers support PDAs? I've
>>emailed the guys at ICC but received no response.
>>
>>adp
>>
>
> IntelliChess (http://www.intellichess.com/) and MobileThinkerBoard
> (http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.htm) both
> apparently can connect to ICC.
>
> I got the info from here (warning, large page, takes time to load):
> http://www.grailmaster.com/misc/chess/comp/chessrev/rev_pda_chess.htm
>
> Tony
Thanks, Tony. I hate to be a wet blanket but there is absolutely no
information on piecing together the various components of ChessTHinker, or
on how to install it/them. I always wonder why someone would go to the
trouble of writing a free program and posting it to the web, but not
including that type of information.
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Date: 30 Aug 2006 17:06:10
From: Dave (from the UK)
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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Ange1o DePa1ma wrote:
>
> Thanks, Tony. I hate to be a wet blanket but there is absolutely no
> information on piecing together the various components of ChessTHinker, or
> on how to install it/them. I always wonder why someone would go to the
> trouble of writing a free program and posting it to the web, but not
> including that type of information.
>
>
Angelo,
if you download ChessThinker / Thinkerboard (yes, they do use the name
inconsistently), you will probably *not* want to bother piecing bits
together to make a complete chess setup. This is because the user
interface is very poor on that program. It's hard to tell sometimes if a
piece has moved, and if so where to/from. I tend to look at the clocks,
then hunt around the board looking for the small red lines that tell you
where a piece was moved from and to. It's not a nice program to use. In
fact, if it was not for the fact it is the only half sensible option to
use on ICC, I would just delete it.
The use of the world "Alpha" by the way indicates it is very early
development stage.
I think you are best to use that program *only* for playing chess on
ICC. For this use there is no other option apart from the even poorer
(but commerical) Intellichess.
If you want a complete package, without spending any money, look at CE
Board.
http://www.zanchetta.net/CEBoard/default.htm
and piece the bits (engines, announcements etc) together there. The
interface is much nicer than that of Thinkerboard and documentation is a
lot better.
I've not personally integrated the chess engines to CEboard, but I'd
certainly not waste my time on Thinkerboard for this, since there are
much better programs around.
As I said in another post, I have 4 chess programs installed on my PDA
and use different ones depending on what I want to do.
1) ThinkerBoaed (online chess support, cost is $0.00). But still a poor
program.
2) CE board (best PGN support). Again zero cost.
3) PocketGrandmaster (best interface). Commerical.
4) Pocket Fritz (online database support when it worked) Commerical.
It would be great if there was one solution that one could piece
together to make one excellent program, but I've come to the conclusion
you are best using them separately, making the best use of each tool.
--
Dave (from the UK)
Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: [email protected]
Hitting reply will work for a few months only - later set it manually.
http://witm.sourceforge.net/ (Web based Mathematica front end)
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Date: 02 Sep 2006 11:08:58
From: Ange1o DePa1ma
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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"Dave (from the UK)" <[email protected] >
wrote
> Angelo,
>
> if you download ChessThinker / Thinkerboard (yes, they do use the name
> inconsistently), you will probably *not* want to bother piecing bits
> together to make a complete chess setup. This is because the user
> interface is very poor on that program. It's hard to tell sometimes if a
> piece has moved, and if so where to/from. I tend to look at the clocks,
> then hunt around the board looking for the small red lines that tell you
> where a piece was moved from and to. It's not a nice program to use. In
> fact, if it was not for the fact it is the only half sensible option to
> use on ICC, I would just delete it.
>
> The use of the world "Alpha" by the way indicates it is very early
> development stage.
>
> I think you are best to use that program *only* for playing chess on ICC.
> For this use there is no other option apart from the even poorer (but
> commerical) Intellichess.
>
> If you want a complete package, without spending any money, look at CE
> Board.
>
> http://www.zanchetta.net/CEBoard/default.htm
>
> and piece the bits (engines, announcements etc) together there. The
> interface is much nicer than that of Thinkerboard and documentation is a
> lot better.
>
> I've not personally integrated the chess engines to CEboard, but I'd
> certainly not waste my time on Thinkerboard for this, since there are much
> better programs around.
>
> As I said in another post, I have 4 chess programs installed on my PDA and
> use different ones depending on what I want to do.
>
> 1) ThinkerBoaed (online chess support, cost is $0.00). But still a poor
> program.
>
> 2) CE board (best PGN support). Again zero cost.
>
> 3) PocketGrandmaster (best interface). Commerical.
>
> 4) Pocket Fritz (online database support when it worked) Commerical.
>
> It would be great if there was one solution that one could piece together
> to make one excellent program, but I've come to the conclusion you are
> best using them separately, making the best use of each tool.
>
Thanks, Dave. CE Board is by far the best of the free programs out there.
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Date: 30 Aug 2006 10:52:26
From: Ange1o DePa1ma
Subject: Re: PocketPC and chess servers
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"Ange1o DePa1ma" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Tony M" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:05:34 -0400, "Ange1o DePa1ma"
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Does anyone know if any of the major chess servers support PDAs? I've
>>>emailed the guys at ICC but received no response.
>>>
>>>adp
>>>
>>
>> IntelliChess (http://www.intellichess.com/) and MobileThinkerBoard
>> (http://www.geocities.com/thechessthinker/download.htm) both
>> apparently can connect to ICC.
>>
>> I got the info from here (warning, large page, takes time to load):
>> http://www.grailmaster.com/misc/chess/comp/chessrev/rev_pda_chess.htm
>>
>> Tony
>
> Thanks, Tony. I hate to be a wet blanket but there is absolutely no
> information on piecing together the various components of ChessTHinker, or
> on how to install it/them. I always wonder why someone would go to the
> trouble of writing a free program and posting it to the web, but not
> including that type of information.
Also, they call the program ChessThinker, but the download page lists (in
addition to several engines) "RemoteThinker" and "MobileThinker Board ...
Pre-Alpha Version..." Which is which??
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