chess computers

First off, I am pathetic at chess. I know all the rules, but I am bad at analysing moves and so I play like a nob.

Now that I have that out of the way, I would like to improve - but without having to embarrass myself by playing a human, who would only laugh at my feeble efforts anyway.

So I thought of a chess computer. Now comes the crunch; I don't know what to look for in such a beast. I don't want to pay much either. Does anybody have a suggestion? Anything I should definitely avoid?

I like the ones that are simply normal chess sets, with pressure sensors or something under the squares so that the computer knows where the pieces are. That seems better to me than a touchscreen or whatever, since I could play against a human if I ever feel like it.

Is there any great difference between the different brands and models, or should I just choose one that is a good price and looks the best? I tried searching through some chess forums, but found nothing that helped much.

TIA

I have a free chess prgram for the palm handheld if you want it. There are plenty of chess programs on the net. Just go look around.

I am also pathetic at chess. Some 25 years ago, I bought a Fidelity Chess Challenger for maybe US$100. It had real pieces and touch sensors. Even on the Easiest setting, it always crushed me. I would guess if they could do that a quarter century ago, any electronic chess game would probably do respectably today for an average player. Even the cheap software programs for PC seem to be pretty good.

Chess computers were popular in the 80's but have mostly been displaced by software. I wouldn't get one just to play humans on it. Get a regular chess set for that.

There's tons of PC chessplaying programs, some of which you can download for free. Most have a mode where they'll show you what they're "thinking", which can be instructive to watch. Dedicated chess computers usually don't have a way to display that.

Radio Shack Canada has a number: Chess stuff at Radio Shack Canada
Most of them are quite inexpensive; too bad Australia is so far away from Canada... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/awman.gif

I don't actually have a palm pilot, and I don't get much use of the pc outside of work, and inside of work I don't think I would get enough time to make much use out of learning better chess.

Besides, at work I spend so much time on CPF anyway. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif

knoppix has several chess proggies built in.
download the .iso from
www.linuxiso.org
and stuff the cd into an old box you may have gathering dust.
dont even need a hdd.