Friday, November 15, 2002
New Version of PocketGrandmaster
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "SOFTWARE" @ 05:43 AM
http://www.pocketgrandmaster.com/english/index.html
PocketGrandmaster 2.0, a strong shareware-chess program for Pocket PC is now available in a new version. Features include a new engine called Ruffian by Perola Valfridsson (in addition to Gromit and
SOS), support for the electronic chessboard by DGT and spoken announcements of moves in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish! My first question when I saw this announcement was how PocketGrandmaster stacks up against my favorite Pocket PC chess program "Pocket Fritz". This is the response from the makers of PocketGrandmaster. I include the entire response as it is in itself evidence that these guys are serious chess players!
"There have been no "official" tournaments, but some of our beta-testers
played testgames before we released PGM 1.0 last year. Here are some collected results:
PGM - Pocket Fritz: 6.5 - 9.5
PGM - Chess Genius: 33.5 - 26.5
PGM - other: usually like 3.5-0.5, 4-0, ...
Currently I would rank Pocket PC chess engines like this:
1. Pocket Fritz. PF is strongest, especially in engine-engine matches.
2. PocketGrandmaster (with default engine, Ruffian might become stronger)
3. Chess Genius. PocketGrandmaster and Chess Genius are quite close. At very short timecontrols (faster than blitz), CG may be stronger, but at slower timecontrols PocketGrandmaster is stronger.
big gap
4. all the rest: Palm Chess CE, Pocket Chess, Graduate Chess, Mobile Chess,...
Since PocketGrandmaster has a "multi engine"-feature, it might come closer to Pocket Fritz, when the "Ruffian"-engine further improves. Ruffian is *very* close to Shredder [engine in Pocket Fritz. Andy comment] on desktop PCs, but lost some of its speed on the Pocket PC. However, the most important difference between PocketGrandmaster and Pocket Fritz is probably that a customer can download and test PocketGrandmaster
before buying it, whereas Pocket Fritz is only available on CD."
PocketGrandmaster 2.0, a strong shareware-chess program for Pocket PC is now available in a new version. Features include a new engine called Ruffian by Perola Valfridsson (in addition to Gromit and
SOS), support for the electronic chessboard by DGT and spoken announcements of moves in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish! My first question when I saw this announcement was how PocketGrandmaster stacks up against my favorite Pocket PC chess program "Pocket Fritz". This is the response from the makers of PocketGrandmaster. I include the entire response as it is in itself evidence that these guys are serious chess players!
"There have been no "official" tournaments, but some of our beta-testers
played testgames before we released PGM 1.0 last year. Here are some collected results:
PGM - Pocket Fritz: 6.5 - 9.5
PGM - Chess Genius: 33.5 - 26.5
PGM - other: usually like 3.5-0.5, 4-0, ...
Currently I would rank Pocket PC chess engines like this:
1. Pocket Fritz. PF is strongest, especially in engine-engine matches.
2. PocketGrandmaster (with default engine, Ruffian might become stronger)
3. Chess Genius. PocketGrandmaster and Chess Genius are quite close. At very short timecontrols (faster than blitz), CG may be stronger, but at slower timecontrols PocketGrandmaster is stronger.
big gap
4. all the rest: Palm Chess CE, Pocket Chess, Graduate Chess, Mobile Chess,...
Since PocketGrandmaster has a "multi engine"-feature, it might come closer to Pocket Fritz, when the "Ruffian"-engine further improves. Ruffian is *very* close to Shredder [engine in Pocket Fritz. Andy comment] on desktop PCs, but lost some of its speed on the Pocket PC. However, the most important difference between PocketGrandmaster and Pocket Fritz is probably that a customer can download and test PocketGrandmaster
before buying it, whereas Pocket Fritz is only available on CD."
