BrainRook.com

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...