Dedicated Electronic Chess Computer Sets

Electronic chess computers like the models pictured on the right are pretty much obsolete. Many chess players don't want to shed a hundred bucks for a decent chess game that'll be enough of a challenge for them to want to continue playing, especially if there are free programs that anyone can simply install on their PC.

Stockfish 7, for example, is a chess engine that is much stronger then any human being, yet it's a free engine. Not to mention all the multiplayer chess sites like Chess.com. Sites like these offer thousands of people to play against. So, why buy an electronic computer chess set?

Obviously, there is still a considerable demand out there for these now vintaged computer chess sets. The first and probably foremost reason is because they have now become a collector's item. It sort of similar to when they stopped making Twinkies, suddenly everyone wanted a box! Now, electronic computer chess games are non-perishable items, and if taken care of properly, these things will last and last.

Update - There is now a brand new dedicated chess computer, called the Millennium Chess Computer. See below for more details.

Even if these electronic chess sets weren't a collector's item, I believe there would still be people buying one or two off of Ebay. You see, there is something about playing chess on a computer that just isn't real. What I mean is that it lacks the physical element.

I for one, can't seem to play my strongest if I don't have a physical board with real chess pieces. It doesn't matter if the screen displays the pieces three-dimensionally, it can't truly replace the real thing. If you're like me, join the club. You're one of the many people who'd see the benefit in a dedicated electronic chess computer (i.e. a computer that is designed for one purpose, play chess).

The Millennium Chess Genius PRO is a chess computer that plays top level chess (approximately 2200 ELO). It has 2 opening books, with a combined total of 150,000 positions.

The internal software used is Richard Lang's Chess Genius, an engine that beat world grandmaster Gary Kasparov and achieved an elo rating of 2795 on a "slow" 100 MHz PC. This 10 time computer chess champion engine will exercise anyone's skills, regardless of their rating!

I’ve strived to organize this to be easy to make sense of. However, I have a lot of this to cover and inevitably, it might become a little confusing at times. There are four main sections on this page, each covering a major brand in the electronic computer chess industry. You can either scroll through each section of brands one by one, or you can click one of the links below and you’ll be taken to the beginning of that section.

Each section has a short description about the brand, and then the following subsection after that will be a list of the chess models that are worth buying from that particular brand. Until recently, I've had links to various chess computers available on Ebay. Unfortunately, these Ebay links have been discontinued sitewide, to avoid looking overly promotional. I'm sorry about this inconvenience, but it's out of my control. There are still models available on Ebay, and you can still use this page as a guide.

Please note that I will not be talking about the rare models that pop up now and then that collectors buy for a grand or more, because that isn’t the goal of this webpage. This page is for those of you who want to buy an electronic chess computer set to actually play on and learn from. Enjoy!

Novag was a great electronic chess computer manufacturer which closed their doors as recently as 2014. Novag first began in 1978, under the helm of Peter Auge and Erich Winkler. Due to difficulties in coming along with one another, Winkler left to form his own company, SciSys, which would turn out to be a major competitor for Novag.

Novag’s first computer was the Chess Champion MK 1, which I encourage you to find more details at the link I’ve provided. It is quite intriguing how far computers have come 36 years! The MK 1 is a collector’s item which will very likely never be on ebay!

Saitek really began it’s roots all the way back in 1979, when SciSys was created. For 7 years afterwards, all of electronic chess games had their main name, SciSys, as the brand. Than in 1986, they created a subsidiary company, Saitek, to focus solely on the chess computer, and ever since, they used the Saitek brand to market their products.

Both SciSys and Novag sold some of their first computers under their respective names. It wasn’t until 1980 that SciSys sold their own entirely separate model, and the was the Chess Partner 2000. You can see that by now chess computers had their own board to play on, and moves were enter by a sensory board, which is found in almost all the most recent table top chess computers.

Saitek is technically still running, but they don't make chess computer anymore. They actually make flight simulators now. However, the last chess computer they've created was the Mephisto Explorer Pro, which was a 2007 model, and probably the most stylish of any Electronic Chess Computer ever made!

For those of you who are wondering what Mephisto is, it's also a chess computer company, one that Saitek bought back in 1994. So, if you see a chess computer model that says "mephisto by saitek" it very likely is a model that came out on or after this year.

To understand the beginning and history of Excalibur, I must first tell you about Fidelity. Fidelity, which was founded in 1959, is credited for building the first dedicate chess computer, the Fidelity Chess Challenger 1, in the year 1977. It had many successes since then, however, in the year 1992, Fidelity closed their doors.

That same year Shane Samole, the son of Fidelity's President and owner Sidney Samole, began Excalibur, which went on to become the largest chess computer manufacturer in the world. I am merely speculating, but I do believe the reason they were the largest is because they didn't really focus on creating the smartest chess computers, but merely the most affordable. The reason I believe this is because they've never created a computer with ELO rating above 2000, according to this site.

The last chess computer they came out with was the Excalibur LCD Chess Wizard Keychain which is a 2010 model.

Radio Shack is probably the oldest business to ever sell chess computers. They started way back in 1921, and although I won't bore you with the history of the company, I want you to know that Tandy and Radio Shack are essentially the same company.Long story short, the two companies were run by the same family, (Tandy) and they were merged into one when Charles Tandy saw the potential growth in consumer electronics more favorable then a leather company and decided to move all other operations to Tandy Brands & Tandycrafts, and the Tandy Corporation became an electronics company. If you really want to know more, I point you to this page, where you can find much more details about the history of Radio Shack.

Most collectors don't consider them one of the main brands of chess computer manufacturers. Truly, there are only a few created by radio shack that are strong enough to compare with some of the others I've mentioned specifically, but I've decided to mention at least a few models from this brand, the main one is the 2250XL. See below for more details.