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As a user of this hand held for some years, I believe its yet to be surpassed. Although there are two main models on the market that compete hand held chess computers, they don't quite cut the mustard in terms of the facilities of the Maestro. It has backlight settings for poor light conditions and contrast settings for better visibility. Besides that it looks like a great piece of kit, feels good in the hand or pocket and performs well for even senior players. The contenders are: the Novag Ruby hand held chess computer and the Excalibur Talking Touch hand held chess computer. The formidable Novag Ruby looks like a minature tank in maroon colour (whoever designed that needs a slap), and the Exalibur, whilst excellent for graphics, has a major downfall of not having a backlight and contrast settings. Saitek'#s example could be improved for the strength of the chess engine with an improved processor, but for the majority of players it's going to thrash them every time. If you're looking for one of these chess computers, look for engine strength, generally measured by ELO rating (1400 is low, 1600 is good, 2000 is almost unbeatable), price, graphics, and light/contrast settings. On most counts, the Maestro beats competing chess computers beats the competition into a 64 square hat box.

Chess stratey aside - niche blogs are turning up in everywhere - even in chess. With a genre such as chess, how many niche's could there be? Chess players, chess strategy, chess champions, chess clubs, etc. How about chess retail? This chess sales, chess retail blog has an wide ranging view on the difficulties of chess as a business. There's a posting on some chess retailers adwords struggle and another on the pros and cons of drop shipping lines not stocked. Still another deals with the best type of woods to use in chess set manufacture. This guy knows his stuff!
Here at BrainRook - we want to bring the best of chess media to you - and this chess retail site is right up there. Chess - the game of kings - may already have produced a person that may change the world in a micro sense - in the name of Garry Kasparov who is now (April 2007) challenging Putin's presidency. Chess is therefore a game that may change not just the micro world focused on the board before your eyes, but also the wider world as it resembles the struggles of life and politics. Use your rook - use your brain - the system of things we have is fluid. The great Grandmaster is in control of our world and it's future.

I guess you know you're no good at chess when the lowest settings on the chess machine still fox ya. This Excalibur Grandmaster chess computer I bought from Chess Baron - it's lowest setting keep trouncing me. One minute - in my mind - I'm on my way to making a living on the chess circuit, then I'm back to earth with a thumpity thump. It's just as well I didn't buy one of their talking chess computers - it'd be embarrassing me for my obviously continually inept play.

It's a huge machine with an elo of 2000, but the default setting is 6 which is set rather low for my initial preference - but turns out it's pretty clever even at that level. I love the look and feel of the Grand Master, Excalibur have done a great job with it - the size is superb too. I just wish It didn't make me feel so stupid.

One thing I comfort myself with is the fact that my 3 yr old is always interfering in the chess game, and that Kasparov never had to put up with that. Yeah - that's it. I could still have a starry future on the chess circuit - just need to let my kids know that there's nothing more important than chess. After all - "chess is difficult - you have to be prepared to kill people".

Right - back to that dumb chess computer...