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for the Palm Computing® Platform FAQ | Written by Richard Lang |
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Requirements: Which devices will ChessGenius run on? |
ChessGenius runs on all current Palm devices including
Centro, Lifedrive, Z22, Tungsten, Treo's, Zire's, TX, m130, i705, m515, m505, m500, m125, m105,
m100, Vx, V, III, IIIc, IIIe. It also runs on all Sony Clie's, Handspring
Visors, the TRGpro, IBM Workpad, Handera 330 and Kyocera
Smartphone An OS5 device is required in order to use the ARM native chess engine. ChessGenius is a very compact program and only requires 180 KB of storage memory. |
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I have a Palm Tungsten T3 device. Why does ChessGenius 2.3 not use the full 320x480 screen?. | The Tungsten 3 device requires the T3_DIA_Compatibility_prcs to be installed in order to allow programs such as ChessGenius to take advantage of the full size screen. Download and Unzip and install the two .prc files. Click here to download now. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Which Palm Computing® platform device is best for ChessGenius? | ChessGenius v2.3 plays strongest on OS5 devices. It is especially strong on devices
with a 400Mhz Intel XScale processor such as the Tungsten C or Tungsten
T3.
The ARM native chess code has been optimized for Intel XScale processors.
The table below compares the performance of different device models. Details of the test here.
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How much do program updates cost? | Updates are free for registered users. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I have bought ChessGenius, what happens if I upgrade or replace my Palm device. Will I need a new License? Is there a charge? | The
License Key system is designed to prevent wholesale copying of the
program, not to make life difficult for owners. Most times a new License Key will not be required. If you do need a new or updated License Key - for any reason - we are always happy to send them to any registered user. There is no charge for this. |
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How
do I access the game commands? The game is just paused at the end of my first game. How do I start a new game? |
Tap
the Palm Menu icon to get access to the "game commands".
The Menu icon is at the bottom left of the screen on your Palm device.
(below the area used by ChessGenius and to the left of the writing area).
It is circled in white on the diagram. Tap this to bring up the "ChessGenius" menu. The top menu item is "New Game /N". Tap this to start a new game. Or tap "Takeback /T" to takeback etc. |
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I bought ChessGenius more than 48 hours ago and have not received my License Key. What should I do? | Send an email to support@chessgenius.com. The most common reason for delay is that we are unable to contact you due to a miss-spelling or typing error in the email address that was quoted on your order. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Please explain in detail how to install ChessGenius onto my Palm device? | 1) Download the file "ChessGenius.zip". Download
now 2) Zip files are compressed files. Next you must unzip ( de-compress) "ChessGenius.zip". To do this you need a program such as "winzip" or "zipmagic". You will then have a file called "ChessGenius.prc". 3) Next, install the ChessGenius.prc file onto your Palm device. From "My computer" double click on "ChessGenius.prc". You will see a message informing you that ChessGenius will be installed next time you "HotSync" with your Palm. 4) Place your Palm in its cradle and do a "HotSync". This will install ChessGenius. 5) You will now be able to run the unregistered ChessGenius on your Palm. To unlock the full features you must register. You will then be sent a License Key by email which you enter into your Palm device. |
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How do I castle with ChessGenius? | To
castle move your king two squares to the right or left. If castling is
legal ChessGenius will accept the move and move your rook. Castling is legal if the king and rook have not moved before in the game, the king is not in check and the squares that the king moves through are not attacked. For a better explanation and an excellent tutorial see www.chesscorner.com |
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ChessGenius made an illegal pawn capture | This is probably an en passant capture. To find out more see the next question. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How can I find out about the rules of chess? | For an excellent tutorial see the learn section at www.chesscorner.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What is the rating of ChessGenius? | The estimated rating of ChessGenius on a Tungsten T3 is 2647 USCF elo. (2447 elo ). Calculated from the claimed 2493 USCF elo. rating of Chess Tiger and the 8.5-3.5 win for ChessGenius in a head to head match. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How do I use the "Mate in" levels? | These levels are designed to solve the type of chess problem
that you may see in newspapers, where there is a diagram of a chess board
and it may say "White to move and checkmate in 3 moves". You
look at the position and try to fathom which move by a white piece leads
to White winning in 3 moves. ChessGenius can solve this type of problem as follows: Use "Set up position" to set up the position on ChessGenius with White to move. Then set the Play level to "mate in 3 moves". Then select "Swap sides/Move" to start ChessGenius thinking. ChessGenius will think (sometimes for several minutes) and if it finds a move that leads to Checkmate in 3 moves it will play it. If not it will stop thinking. These levels cannot be used for playing normal games of chess or for Palm vs. Palm. ChessGenius will only play a move if it finds a checkmate. |
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Is ChessGenius for the Palm Computing® platform an actual World Champion Chess program? | Yes, the standard chess engine comes from the 1987 World
Championship winner - the Mephisto Roma program. It was originally written
in Motorola 68000 assembly language and so runs unchanged on Palm devices.
The chess engine is a further development of the famous Mephisto Amsterdam
program and contains many thousands of man hours of work. The new ARM engine is a modern chess engine which supports hash tables and is much stronger. |
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What language was ChessGenius written in? | The Arm native chess code is written in C. The standard engine is written in 68000 assembly language and the user interface is written in C using the CodeWarrior development system. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What is the Permanent Brain option? | When the Permanent brain option is ticked ChessGenius will play stronger because it also 'thinks' whilst it is waiting for the human player to move. It guesses the move that the human will play and computes its reply whilst waiting. If it guesses correctly it will often play its move instantly. In this way it saves time and can spend more time thinking about other moves and so plays better. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What about Hash tables? | The new ARM native chess code supports hash tables of up to 16MB in size. The actual maximum size that you can set depends on which model device you have. For example, the Tungsten T allows a maximum of 8MB hash tables. The Tungsten E allows 1MB. Older OS5 models generally allow up to 512KB. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
How can I transfer a game from my Palm device to my Desktop PC? | 1) After playing the game, choose Menu/Commands/Save game as
Memo (or shortcut /G) Note: ChessGenius will display this message: "Game has been saved as [Event "Today's Date and Time"] Use Memo Pad to edit, delete or beam the game." 2) HotSync your Palm to copy memos to your Palm Desktop. 3) After HotSync is complete, open Palm Desktop on your PC and go to Memo Pad area. 4) Choose the game of interest from the list pane. 5) Copy ( or use the "Drag to" Clipboard feature) and paste to your desired ASCII text file. |
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How can I transfer a game from my Desktop PC to my Palm device? | 1) On PC, open the text file containing the chess game move
listings in PGN format. Use Notepad or other word processor. 2) On PC, open Palm Desktop and go to Memo Pad area. 3) Click the New button in the list pane. 4) Copy and paste one (and only one) game from the source text file into the memo. 5) Click the Apply button to update the Memo list pane. Note: To transfer more than one chess game repeat Steps 3,4,5 for each game. -one chess game per memo. 6) HotSync your Palm to copy Palm Desktop Memos to your Palm. 7) Launch ChessGenius on your Palm device as normal and choose Menu/Commands/Load Game (or shortcut /L) and tap on the desired game. 8) To replay from the beginning of the game, choose Menu/Commands/Take back all (or shortcut /A) then Step forward. Note: The ChessGenius Load game command lists ALL memos that start with a PGN tag. e.g. [text"text"] . The first character must be a '['. Note: ChessGenius can load standard PGN games. Comments and variations are ignored. |
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ChessGenius saves/loads games in PGN format. What is PGN? | PGN
is "Portable Game Notation", a standard representation of chess
game data in ASCII text files. It is used by most Chess software. For full
details see: http://www.chessclub.com/help/PGN-spec Here is a sample game: [Event "Kasparov vs
ChessGenius"] |
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Please explain the meaning of the information displayed on the small board. |
Didn't find the answer to your question? Email your question |
Copyright © 2008 Lang Software Limited. All rights reserved |