ChessGenius Reviewed

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.mobilecritics.com/content/software2003/chessgenius/index.html">http://www.mobilecritics.com/content/software2003/chessgenius/index.html</a><br /><br />MobileCritics.com has reviewed the chess game <a href="http://www.chessgenius.com/">ChessGenius by Lang Software</a>. ChessGenius uses one of the strongest chess engines, second only to <a href="http://www.chessbase.com">Fritz</a>, I believe. Looks like they have done a great user interface job, too!<br /><br />"In fewer than 200KB ChessGenius offers a deceptively simple drag-and-drop gameplay interface for a 2D chess game. There are a variety of configurable options from selecting the playing level (0-9), game type (including two player or player vs. Genius), to adding a tutor-mode to your game. The tutor-mode is what makes this program so useful for beginning and intermediate players. It guides you step by step through the game, warning you of weak moves in your strategy and giving you an option to take back moves. Advanced players will find ChessGenius challenging by selecting upper playing levels—from 7-9. In addition you can select timed play against the advanced artificial chess intelligence or simply square off against another human player."

[rhmorrison]

I bought ChessGenius v1.3 at the beginning of January and have been very happy with it. It is possible that PocketFritz 2 is a little stronger but I haven't been able to beat ChessGenius yet and I play on Chess Team #2 (of 8) at the Bezirksliga level (2 below national).

Saving multiple games in a single PGN file for later analysis is very nice.

Since PocketFritz 2 costs twice as much I think I made the right choice especially since with ChessGenius you get FREE UPDATES forever!

[Martin I Pettinger]

Hi rhmorrison

Do you know what ELO rating this program has, alternatively what ELO rating do you play off. I am interested in a good strength chess program at a good price point - this may be the one but I need some objective measure of playing strength.

Martin

[rhmorrison]

Do you know what ELO rating this program has, alternatively what ELO rating do you play off. I am interested in a good strength chess program at a good price point - this may be the one but I need some objective measure of playing strength.
It's supposedly rated at 2300 (Blitz), I don't know about tournament but download the program and try it out. You can use it unregistered but some functions don't work and after the 20th move you are in 1 second mode. With the permenant brain turned on this isn't too much of a problem but it won't play near as strong as it would with the registered version so if it's strong enough for you in the unregistered version then BUY IT!!

PocketFritz 2 has a few more functions but it costs twice as much and you have to PAY for every update.

I think you get the most bang for the buck with ChessGenius. Make sure you enable Permanent Brain, set the Hash size to 2MB (if possible) and then the appropriate time to move (per move or per game) however you want to play.

In Blitz (Speed Chess) you don't have a chance unless you are a Grand Master, in regular tournament mode you might have a chance depending on your ELO rating (you better be over 2000 if you want to win).

If ChessGenius is strong enough for your playing ability (i.e. you should be able to set it such that you can't win against it) then BUY IT, otherwise take a look at PocketFritz 2 but also look at what the update from PocketFritz 1 to PocketFritz 2 cost because ChessGenius comes with FREE UPDATES!!

[emarkp]

I bought ChessGenius for the Palm, but when I switched over to a PocketPC, they told me I'd have to pay full price for the PPC version. I told them thanks but no thanks.

Note that the original ChessGenius was written in Motorola assembly, which is why it ran so fast on the Palm processor. I don't know how they wrote it for the PPC.

I'm currently working on-and-off on a frontend for a port of Crafty, and refuse to buy software that is locked to a user.