Flash Chess

Ok this is slightly stronger than RoboChess. See how many moves it takes for you to beat FlashChess.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Asus EEE PC vs Dell 640m picture comparison

I am still fixated at the Asus EEE PC as it’s the coolest sub notebook that I’ve seen. Picture taken from Kansir’s Flickr album.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Reminder

 
Playing at the Selangor Open I’m surprised many people don’t know that the old chess blog that used to be here has moved to http://blog.gilachess.com

So here’s a reminder. If you want to find chess content and news it’s at gilachess.com. Just add the word “blog” in front of it.

Popularity: 6% [?]

RM 123 Digi Edge package live running

Mr KZ at the Selangor Open chess tournament is actually using the DiGi package that I talked about.

He didn’t bring his ASUS EEE Pc and connected his modem to his notebook instead.

From the initial browsing, it looks like the speed is pretty good. The modem is very portable too.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Patzer’s traffic

Finally this blog managed to break the 4000 visitor mark after 6 months.

It’s good that after changing the theme topics to chess gadgets, chess money and chess tech, the traffic has not dropped drastically. In fact, it’s going back to it’s normal trafic levels. There is an average of more than 100 visits daily.

Thanks to all readers for their support.

Even GilaChess website has a big increase in traffic for April. If you are a chess blogger, I am sure you would have seen a spike too. There is definitely a growing interest in Malaysian chess over the last few months. No wonder chess money is flowing in!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Asus EEE PC + Digi Edge promo + Fritz = Patzer Dream Gadget

This ultraportable notebook from Asus has certainly been making headlines last year and I read about it on top review sites like CNet.com. It hit Malaysian shores early this year and looks like it has a warm reception especially by the geek community.

As a chess patzer I’m attracted to it for it’s size.

Now I’m more attracted to it as I’ve been looking for a good mobile solution to blog live from chess tournaments.

DiGi came out with a nice and attractive package including the Asus EEE PC and Edge internet connection. I know Edge is not as fast as 3G but from the feedback I’ve heard, Edge is stable. I don’t need a fast connection while on the move anyway. As long as I can post text and the odd picture in my blog post, I’m happy.

Back to the Digi package. This is what you’ll get:

Simple Plan (Data Only)

• Asus Eee PC (Intel Processor, Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, Lightweight 0.92kg and 7-inch display)
• Data Modem
• Data Unlimited Plan (24 months subscription)
• RM123 per month

Smart Plan (Data + Voice)

• Asus Eee PC (Intel Processor, Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, Lightweight 0.92kg and 7-inch display)
• Asus P527 PDA Phone
• Data Unlimited Plan (24 months subscription)
• 1 Plan (24 months subscription)
• RM193 per month

Check it out at Digi’s promo page.

The offer is only from 21 April 2008 to 21 July 2008. I’m seriously thinking about this offer as I just found out that you can install Fritz interface in Asus EEE Pc even if you install the Linux OS (The DiGi offer comes with Windows Home). Coupled with Rybka, Scid and ChessDB this makes the EEE Pc very appealing and handy for patzers as well as the chess bloggers like me

I could get used to the small keyboard and 7 inch screen and even the 800×600 display. Small price to pay for ultra portability. Anyway I’m so used to blogging from tiny screens on mobile phones and PDA, the 7″ screen is HUGE in relative comparison

Popularity: 8% [?]

Dell continues bundling XP via loophole

Officially Microsoft is supposed to retire the XP operating system come June 2008. That means computer manufacturers like Dell, Acer, Compaq etc cannot bundle XP into the computers and notebooks that they sell.

However as you know, Vista is far from perfect and many people are having problems with running older software and missing software drivers for some devices. Dell will still be bundling XP as an option to customers via a loophole by selling XP “downgrade license”. Effectively this means you are buying Vista with a “downgrade” option that includes XP.

For example if you were to buy the Vostro 1200, one of my favourite 12.1″ patzer notebook to get in the future (fingers crossed). That’s because it’s really compact and light. Not as elegant as the Mac Book Air but certainly close and beats the Mac Air in terms of features. The Vostro 1200 base price currently is RM 2,449 which includes Vista Home Basic. Personally, I think Vista Home Basic is not worth it as so many of the features of Vista is not there.

With the “downgrade” license, you’ll have to pay only RM 200 extra to get 2 operating systems:

• Vista Business and
• Windows XP Pro

Total price for this notebook option is RM 2,754.

That would be my option if I were to buy the Vostro 1200. However, the current base system comes with only 1GB which is terribly insufficient if you turn on Vista Aero graphics interface. Adding 3Gb is just nice but that would push the total price to RM 3,093.00 (80 Gb harddisk).

I just met a friend who just bought a Compaq V3759TU which cost RM 2559 with 4 Gb RAM!! However that came without OS - meaning you get Free DOS only.

Popularity: 7% [?]

New look for Malaysian Chess and Blogs

I’m using this new blog theme called SEOadMax from Gary Conn on the chess malaysia aggregated website. SInce this is just a summary site, I guess it’s ok to plaster it full of Adsense ads

Popularity: 8% [?]

Ads for chess blogs

gila, do i have a choice not to put adsense ad in my blog?i put the banner of ICC and chess monroi instead, i dont want to much add in my blog, please advice me

Just pulled this recent shoutbox comment.

I’ll answer it directly here as a blog post as things are quickly lost in a shoutbox.

I think it’s good to experiment to see which ads work for you. ICC and Monroi ads are good because they are chess related but the returns may be small. From my own experience, I like to have Adsense and local Nuffnang ads. For a new blog it may bring in only pennies but as you blog more often and gain more readers, so does the revenue. Traffic = $$$.

Still, you may have success using more chess-targeted ads like ICC. Try it out for 30 days and see what sort of results you get. I have not tried it yet so can’t comment on  how good it is.

Popularity: 8% [?]

More Che$$

Despite what many people have said about the state and standards of Malaysian Chess, things have been growing by leaps and bounds in terms of money and sponsorship compared to past years.

What I see clearly now is parents are willing to send children for chess tuition/coaching - something that’s pretty much unheard in the past. Coaches can actually make a decent living off teaching chess.

With more interest, there is more money flowing into chess today now more than ever. Schools are employing chess coaches. There are more holiday chess camps. Weekend tournaments are plentiful (yeah I hear lots of groans from long time control advocates) Of course chess professionals still have a hard time surviving just by playing chess. But even new players who make a name for themselves in local tournaments are highly sought after for private coaching and can make some serious money today.

I’m sure those in the chess business are already thinking of new ways to make $$$ from the change of climate. 

Popularity: 8% [?]

Motorolla Q

• Full QWERTY keyboard

First looks, is great. Reviews from other websites say that it’s “amazingly easy to press”

• Long battery life.
• More than a day’s battery even with full use.
•  
• Multimedia functions
• including music, photos, video, and games.
• Download, shoot your own with the built-in camera, or import by SD card.
• Productivity tools
• e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.
• You can view, edit, or create your own (Microsoft) documents eg: Word/Excel.

• Big memory 128 GB internal, and up to 32 GB SD card (I didn’t know they have such big capacity).

Potentially a good moblog device for my chess reporting. Can’t wait to see a real model reach Malaysia.

Popularity: 9% [?]

ChessDB first looks: Ugly but packed with features

I was just trying freeware alternatives to ChessBase and Chess Assistant - ChessDB.

ChessDB is open source and it is FREE to use.

I downloaded ChessDB from Sourceforge with the 4 piece endgame tablebase option. Installed it.

First impression is that the interface is a little ugly looking like the old WinBoard. But after using it to play thru some games, I find it more than adequate. Perhaps we are spoilt by how good Fritz and  ChessBase good looking boards.

Still, functionality is important and ChessDB is quite impressive in this area.

You can even download games directly from TWIC into ChessDB directly.

With free chess engines like Crafty and Toga, analysing games is not a problem. However you can’t analyse ala Fritz where you leave for hours and come back to see a nicely formatted analysed game.

This is the analysis windows you’ll see in ChessDB:

It can even generate a crosstable of results based on the PGN files (similiar to ChessBase)

It’s unfair to judge this piece of software after only an hour use. So I’ll post a more in depth review later when I get used to this chess database.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Picture of the day

Head crunching chess (Flickr)

Popularity: 10% [?]

Mate in 4!

Congratulations to anonymous visitor 1337 who checkmated ROBO CHESS in 4 moves !!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Chess Money!

Me receiving the cash prize and certificate from Fadli the Stonemaster. Picture courtesy of Stonemaster.biz 

Since this blog is about Chess and Money, I thought this post is appropriate.

I just won 4th place in the Stonemaster Amateur tournament held at Bukit Jalil cafeteria today. It’s limited to players that are rated 1600 and below, so winning 4th place is not a big deal you may say.

But to me it IS a big deal. I have only won prize money 2 times in my life before. RM 20 from Kepong and RM 60 from another Stonemaster Amateur tournament.

This is the highest monetary amount I have ever won, so I’m going to document it here in my blog

Nobody’s at home so I have to ‘cari makan’ myself. Picked my usual place at the mamak shop in Old Klang Road (ABC Big Town Cafe).

Since this is a ‘celebratory dinner’, I ordered the Ayam Tandoori with Tosai. After the oily nasi lemak I have this morning, I’m sure I’m going to get a major coronary soon.

RM 80 is the highest money I’ve EVER received from a chess tournament!! I wish to thank Stonemaster Fadli too for having tournaments like these. Without it, patzers like me can never have the taste of winning something in our lifetimes (wah sound so pathethic) :) 

I wish I didn’t lose one of my games. Otherwise I would have a shot of the first prize which is HALF A MILLION RUPIAH!!!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Twitter is cool

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a trial to see if I can update the ongoing chess results via SMS/twitter.

I would have to SMS a UK number but I found out it’s only RM 0.20 for each SMS on my DiGi prepaid, so that’s ok. Check it out on GilaChess Blog tomorrow to see if it works!

Popularity: 11% [?]

Play Robochess

Oops.. since the flash automatically starts and the Robot is a motor mouth I’ve put it in the Read More link

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11% [?]

Fritz 11

Fritz 11 has come out sometime back and I didn’t even noticed. It’s on sale at Amazon for USD 49.95. From the reviews I read, many come to the same conclusion that it’s overkill and if you already have at least the old Fritz 8 then that would be enough.

However there’s is this new feature called Calculation Training which sounds interesting because it’s supposed to be an exercise tool to improve your game. Chessbase explains it as:

This function is fun to use and helps you to learn visualization of moves on the board without moving the pieces. This is what over the board chess is all about!

~ http://www.chessbase.com/products/fritz11/Calculationtraining.htm

However that’s still doesn’t tell me anything. I tried their video demo but it didn’t work.

Anyone out there tried this feature yet?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Asus Eee PC alternative

For some time I really liked the portability of the Asus Eee PC. For those who don’t know, this Asus notebook model is around RM 1500 and very small and portable. The screen is only 7 inch!

It’s been somewhat successful internationally and I’ve seen some Malaysians buying the Eee PC.

So it’s not surprising other companies are coming out with their “ultra portables”.

One model that looks really enticing is the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC

It weighs about 1.27 kg,

LCD screen is larger than the Asus at 8.9-inch WXGA display,

Of course it comes with wireless capabilities too.

Here’s it’s full spec.

The only problem I can see for chess players is that it runs on Linux. But that can be remedied too.

ChessBase alternatives is ChessDB and Frtiz alternatives is Crafty and Rybka. Also bumping the 1 Gb RAM to 2 Gb would be good too.

It’s certainly a great portable tool to go into a chess tournament.

Full details at official site.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Said sorry to Google

I’ve stopped writing paid post on this blog. For those who don’t know, I was writing many sponsored or paid post on this blog last year. I have since stopped as Google penalised my blog by removing my Page Rank 4. I now only have PR 0. Page Rank seems to be unimportant now that I’ve stopped writing paid posts but I’m afraid Google will delist me totally from their site indexing and that is disastrous for me. The reason is that I’m still making money from Adsense from search engine traffic. Eg: people still search or my old post such as Maxis vs Celcom and I get clicks for Google Adsense.

Many bloggers have applied for Google reconsideration (said ’sorry’ to Google) and have received their PR back. I’m not so concerned about the PR but just don’t want Google to punish me further.

Anyway, I hope that by May this blog will be back on Google’s good side.

Popularity: 12% [?]