It's back and it's better
By Peter Schreiner
The need for a handy, portable chess playing computer is great. Unlike a notebook
or a desktop computer you can use a Pocket PC really anywhere you are. You whip
it out of your shirt pocket and just seconds later you are playing a game, analysing
or looking for a new opening move.
Stefan Meyer-Kahlen's Pocket Fritz program fits this slot perfectly. Now it
is available in a new form, version 2.0, which has a number of substantial improvements.
File handling
A weakness of the first version was that you could not delete or replace games
from within the program. Now this is very simple to do. At the same time the
dialog screens for loading and saving games has become much more intuitive to
handle. You can enter the Elo rating of players and also use that in the search.
The search function has been improved and is now much easier to use. It automatically
presents you with an alphabetically sorted list of all the players in the current
database, so you simply tap on the one you want, without having to type in a
search string as was the case in the previous version.
Commentary
There are a surprising number of people out there who like to annotate games
on their Pocket PCs. For this reason Pocket Fritz 2 has received full commentary
functions. Simply hold the stylus for a second or two on a move and the annotation
box appears. In the dropdown menus you can select any chess commentary symbol
or enter text remarks.
The handling of variations has also been revamped. In the move list you can
delete lines, trim or promote them. When you arrive at a branching point in
a game the variations are shown with more than a single ply.
The screen of a Pocket PC is relatively small, and displaying extensively annotated
games is not easy. Pocket Fritz 2 solves the problem by assigning different
colours to variations and commentary.
There are many other ergonomic improvements. For instance if you tap on the
game header in the notation of a loaded game the dialog to edit the data appears
on the screen.
Options
You can configure the program in many different ways to suit your needs. Here
are some examples
-
Sound: You can switch the sound effects on or off here.
-
Mark last move: This will mark the last move executed by the program
with a coloured arrow, making it easier for you to see when and what Pocket
Fritz has played.
-
Animation: Changes the speed at which a piece glides over the chessboard.
-
Pieces: You can select different styles of chess pieces.
-
Board: You can select different chessboard styles.
-
Dark/light squares: You can manually set the colours of the dark
and light squares.
-
One tap entry: This is an option to speed up move entry. When it
is on, a single tap on a square or piece will execute the move, if it is
unambiguous. For instance tapping on the e4 square in the initial position
will cause the e2-pawn to jump there. Naturally you can also enter moves
in the traditional fashion.
-
Show legal moves: All legal moves are shown with dots on the chessboard.
The colours of the dots have different meanings: Green: the square is not
under attack by an enemy piece; Yellow: the square is attacked but there
is a balance of power - both sides have brought an equal amount of material
to bear on the square; Red: the square is under attack and not sufficiently
defended. Move a piece to it will generally result in a loss of material.
- New move: This determines what should happen when you enter a new
(alternate) move in an existing game:
- Ask: this will always produce a dialog box in which Pocket Fritz will
ask you whether it should overwrite the existing moves, add the new move
as a variation, or make it the main line and the original moves a variation;
- Overwrite: simply overwrite the moves without asking;
- Add line: The new move will be inserted as a line or variation, i.e.
an alternative continuation to the game.
- Add main line: The move replaces the game move, which becomes the alternative
continuation (together will all the moves behind it).
Engine options
-
Permanent Brain: You can switch off thinking on the opponent's time
if the program is too strong for you, or if you find it irritating that
it plays so fast, or if you want to save battery power.
-
Learn: Pocket Fritz learns from its mistakes and will try to avoid
losing lines. You can switch this feature off for experimental purposes.
Of course that weakens the program.
-
Prefer Open Positions: With this option switched on Pocket Fritz
will try to keep its games open and tactical, going for the kind of positions
in which computers excel.
-
Save Energy: You can switch Pocket Fritz into a mode in which it
plays with reduced strength and saves battery power. This is only meaningful
in longer games, especially if you find the program too strong for you anyway.
In blitz games Pocket Fritz will always play at full speed and strength.
- Openings Book: This determines how Pocket Fritz will use its openings
book:
-
Max. Hashtables: You can set the maximum hash table size. The minimum
is 1 MB and the maximum is 16 MB.
Online database
If you own a Pocket PC, a mobile phone and Pocket Fritz you have mobile access
to a giant online database that is maintained by ChessBase in Hamburg. It contains
over two million games.
The perfect pair: Pocket Fritz communicating with a mobile by infrared.
When you search in the online database you have many criteria at your disposal:
for instance the white and black players, the event, date, result, Elo ratings,
etc. You can also simply search for games in which the current board position
occurred.
In the opening Pocket Fritz has online access to a truly gigantic online openings
tree. The program will give you full statistics on each move: the success rate,
Elo performance, etc. The moves can be sorted according to different criteria,
and clicking on one will execute it in the game.
System requirements
Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003, Pocket PC 2002 or Windows CE 3.0. Compatible with the most Windows Pocket PCs.
Support for Pocket PCs with StrongARM or XScale processors and it runs on many MIPS and SH3 devices.
Note that the program comes on a CD and does not include the Pocket PC computer.
As with all Pocket PC programs the installation requires a PC (notebook or desktop
computer).
Links