Excalibur Platinum Series LCD Chess

by Excalibur

Product Features

• Hand held electronic chess game

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• ASIN: B00004YT1U
• Item model number: LCDChess
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,363 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

Product Description

Hand held electronic chess game

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tiny Chess, November 16, 2001

By 

David Egdoll (Glasgow, Scotland) - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Excalibur Platinum Series LCD Chess (Toy)

I found the playing strength of the program to be quite poor - a bit like the old small peg in products of 5 or so years ago.

Some of the pieces were not easily recognizable eg bishop and rook, which resulted in my making poor moves. They do not look like the conventional diagram pieces one sees in magazines, books etc.

Even setting up positions is extremely fiddly and is hardly worthwhile as the program has such a low rating.

On the plus side, it is fun to use in a non serious manner such as passing the time on a long or medium bus, train or plane journey.

Unfortunately, because of the poor piece design I would not recommend it for learning purposes but if this problem was resolved it would be OK for a beginner.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this cheap tacky thing - get a decent chess game, December 12, 2001

By 

Rebecca Harrop (Enfield,United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Excalibur Platinum Series LCD Chess (Toy)

I was VERY disappointed with this hand held game.
You can't see the characters, the game play is really poor, the whole thing has a whole 'tacky' cheap feel to it and it beeps constantly (even when I _eventually_ found out how to turn the sound off I discovered that it does not actually turn the sound off but limits the sounds to whenever you move a piece - which you obviously do often in a game of chess!). It also has the worst user interface I have ever seen, moving pieces and using the buttons/menus is not intuitive at all.
I stopped playing pretty quickly and I have since returned it. Unfortunately I can't find a better hand held alternative. So if like me you definitely are after an electronic travel chess there may not be much choice - but I'm warning you - it's naff!
:o(

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not 1750 USCF!!, April 22, 2003

By 

BLITZERMAT (California) - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Excalibur Platinum Series LCD Chess (Toy)

I just purchased this and King Arthur. I beat them both without
too much difficulty on the strongest settings. I even pitted
them against each other, and they played a rather even, weak
game but King Arthur won eventually. I am rated 1480 and play
regular tournaments. The
claims that these are 1750 USCF is not true. I'd say they are
about 1300-1350. LCD Chess is a lot of fun, though for someone
in the 1200 range or below. No pieces means that they won't shake out when you carry it in your pocket. The module truly
is small and convenient to carry in your coat pocket. However it
accidentally turns on sometimes if you bump it, so many times I've brought it out of my pocket and it's on. It offers a very
bad opening book package (30 openings) which only go a few moves
deep, so that's a worthless feature. Plus, the openings are rather sophisticated (Bogo-Indian? c'mon!) for novices, which is
the only player this thing is fun for. The piece diagrams are a little weird too, and take some getting used to. Also, it "saves" your game, but not your move history, so unless you write your game down, forget it. But ... what do you expect?