Author: Ian Osgood
Date: 15:41:28 03/23/99
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On March 22, 1999 at 21:42:39, D Ridge wrote: >I've recently played a quick 6 game match between the Novag Opal Plus and Pocket >Chess running on a Palm Pilot Pro. At 10 sec/move the Palm Pilot crushed the >Opal Plus 6-0. > >The USCF rates the Opal Plus at 1800 but in my opinion is far less than that. >Still, I was surprized by the result. I found the Opal Plus nothing to write >home about but played well-enough to amuse. I thought the result would be the >other way round. > >This result encouraged me to pit the Palm Pilot against my next strongest >machine, a Karpov Grandmaster. The GM is rated around 2000 and I feel that's >fairly acurate. The GM crushed it. So, Pocket Chess probably plays around 1500 >to 1600 I would say. Not bad for something the size of a deck of cards! > >Dave Interesting test! The difference is the processor speed. I'm sure the Opal couldn't have been more than 4-8MHz, to keep the price down, whereas the Pilot runs at about 20Mhz. This should typically be good for an extra ply, which is everything in computer-computer matches. This is the point of my question. The fastest dedicated chess computers are a mere 32 MHz, because the processor is such a large part of the cost of manufacturing a chess computer. I would think authors would jump at the new PDA's as a chess platform, since you can have a faster processor (up to 160 MHz for a StrongARM!) AND a spiffy graphical, tappable display (no peg pieces to lose). I forget, what is the pedigree of the Karpov Grandmaster (processor/author)? Ian
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