Customer Reviews

Saitek CH03 Travel Chess computer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not an excessively strong chess player (at my best I'm in the 1500s). If you're around 1200 or 1300 and patient this will be a fine game to carry when you travel; but it's too slow and even on the highest level surprisingly beatable even by me.

However, if you're even worse than that, if you just need practice avoiding blunders, the levels are fine. You can move up as you improve; at the highest level you'll need a little positional understanding as well as tactical discipline to beat it consistently. So it's a decent trainer for beginners.

Past that, it needs to be faster and smarter; I suspect there are cell phones that can beat it. (Edit: a few years later, I'm confident that cell phones can beat it!)

One final note: the pieces are very small, they are not magnetic and they do not settle very securely into their places on the board. That is, they fall out and get lost too easily.

Shop around before you buy this one, at any rate.

The Saitek Travel Chess Computer has many of the virtues of its more powerful cousins at a fraction of the cost. It has a multi-move "take back" feature, 64 playing levels, teaching modes, and a rudimentary stock of openings. It can be slow and, like just about all computers, will make the same tactical blunders repeatedly. Its playing strength is strictly for beginners but at the highest level it can be challenging to the beginner who will soon move into the intermediate ranks. The Saitek is a useful, entertaining teaching tool for the child who knows the moves to the game. It can be a boon companion on a long car trip or flight (it can beat the woeful on-board chess programs) without all the beep-beep and toot-toot of those mindless hand-held computer video games. The manufacturer's suggested age range of eight years and up is too cautious; this game can be both entertaining and beneficial to the child of four who knows how the pieces move. It is not overly daunting. It will build confidence.

Nice little handheld computer.

I like the peg pieces because they are less annoying then some of the tiny LCD style screens out there. The cover helps to preserve a position when I want to stop a game in progress and come back to it later.

Having a lot of fun with this. I was a little leary at first about being complicated but after the third game attempt everything clicked. Just read the manual. I'm learning chess so even the mid fun level is wiping the floor with me but I'm learning.
For the cost you can't go wrong and the only con I have found is that I had to use a toothpick sometimes because it seemed the contacts pegs weren't long enough but that is easing up to rare now as things are getting worn in.
A great buy and if you are learning you will get more than your monies worth.
Update:
Sometimes when it makes a move it just brings up checkmate when nothing is even near the king. You have to press new game to get out of it. Having said that I'm still pleased with it.

This game is a good game but it isn't that hard to beat. It seems that it is not rated very high as a chess player. I still enjoy it and I will try different openings to try to get different ideas of playing chess. If you are looking for a stronger game I would not reccommend this game. I would find one that has a chess player rating of 2000 to 2700 yet still play a relatively easy game at the lowest level. You are probably not going to find one like that if you don't play against it prior to purchase and I don't think anyone will give you a trial period. I probably would purchase it for a brand new beginner but probably not for someone who has played chess for a few years. I would not purchase it for a high rated player of 1500-1800.

There is no setup capabilities for problem solving or error correction. The pieces are a trifle small for my tastes. The bishop, queen and rook pieces are too similar, especially the bishop which has a flat top, in my opinion it should be pointed, queen is second worse, rook is actually not to bad.Saitek CH03 Travel Chess Computer Game w/ 64 Playing Levels & 11 Teach Modes

I have not snapped this chess computer in half or smashed it into tiny pieces for insolence or cheating. It has also not insulted me. In the past, I have been forced to destroy all of my other chess computers (each of which had it coming), but so far it looks like this one might avoid the big box of led lights, plastic squares and fractured pawns. While it has currently not caused me grief or crossed me in any way, its current status as "good" may change after I turn it on and play my first game with it.

Also, I swallowed a rook.

I think this toy is handy to carry around and at the same time stimulating. It would be best suitable if it is for one player with the other player automatically built in, however i cannot tell that from the available details.