Welcome to PocketGrandmaster by Clevergames.

PocketGrandmaster is a fully featured chess playing program for Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile 5.0, Pocket PC 2002/2003 or Windows CE.

PocketGrandmaster offers a configurable board, comfortable functions to work with game databases and replay games, a chessclock, hints and an analysis mode. You can select between a variety of preconfigured or user-definable levels and different playing modes for tournament- and blitz-games.

PocketGrandmaster features a some strong chessengines and plays interesting and sometimes quite aggressive chess! The engine Anaconda is a successor of GromitChess, which finished 4th in the World Microcomputer Chess Championships 2001, winning the title of the 18th World Microcomputer Amateur Chess Champion.

Some chess set graphics are based on the chess fonts by Armando Hernandez Marroquin and used with kind permission from the author. A big "Thank You" goes to Fabrizio Fiandanese, Alan Bester and Steve Mooradian for their help with the graphics and to Ulrich Haug, who provided many training positions.

PocketGrandmaster is very easy to use. The main screen shows a full-size board where you usually play. Below the board are two lines with the chessclock and information about the current level or the search-process (searchdepth, moves searched, score, best line). Most of the commonly used commands can be accessed with the buttons on the toolbar or the menu. The buttons are (from left to right): take back move, show game moves, play next move, move now, hint, start analysis, switch layout and flip board. When you press a button for some time, a tooltip will appear and explain the button.

Switch layout switches the main screen to a smaller layout where the board has coordinates, and a second toolbar next to the board enables you to easily access the commands: new game, setup board, load game, save game, options, levels, replay moves, 10 moves back and 10 moves forward. This layout is handy for browsing databases and playing through games.

In both layouts, you can access a context menu by pressing any region of the screen except the board for a while. The menu lets you directly access the features: new game, load game, next game, previous game, levels, options, comment move, replay moves, back to start and forward to end.

When PocketGrandmaster is started, it loads the state of the game last played from a special database "pgautosave.pgn", where it automatically stores the last 20 games you played.

Frequently asked questions:

• How do I get the program to play white? Press "move now" ("!").
• Is there a two player mode? Yes, uncheck "Autoanswer" in Tools - Options.
• Can the Score be displayed from White's point of view? Yes, select "Score always for white" in Tools - Options.
• How to delete a game? See here.
• How to delete a variation? The best way is to open the game moves dialog and select the first move of the variation. Now open the comment move dialog and press "delete line".
• How to pause a game? Press "Take back" then "Next move".

In the main screen you can use the navigation key of your Pocket PC to quickly browse through a game.

• Left take back move
• Right move forward one move
• Down take back 10 moves
• Up move forward 10 moves
• Press move now (start/stop thinking)

When searching, pondering or in analyze mode, the chess-engine displays search-related information below the board. For example:
D=7/14 3... e4(1/38)
Score=+0.81, NPS=25873
PV(7)=3..e4 4.Nd4 Bc5 5. e3
This means:

• D=7/14 the engine searched to a minimum depth of 7 plys (half moves) and the deepest line it analyzed was 14 ply.
• 3... e4(1/38) it currently analyzes e4 (Pe5e4), the 3rd move of black. There are 38 legal moves and e4 is the first move in the engine's movelist.
• Score=+0.81 the engine thinks blacks position is better by about a pawn (a pawn is 1.00). If the score is displayed from the engines point of view, it's positive if the engine thinks it's position is better. In "Tools - Options", you can also chose to show the score always from Whites point of view.
• NPS=25873 the engine's speed: it analyzed "25873 Nodes Per Second".
• PV(7)=... the Principal Variation of the 7th iteration is 3...e4 4.Nd4 Bc5... The principal variation shows the moves the engine expects, the first move (3. ... e4) is the move the engine would currently play if it was stopped.

PocketGrandmaster is "shareware". You can test most features of a limited but free version and then purchase a registration key to unlock all features. A shareware registration service ( www.swreg.org) handles the secure payment (e.g. by credit card or cheque). For all details of how to register please visit www.pocketgrandmaster.com.

Benefits of registration

• Unlimited levels (after move 20 the unregistered version switches to a funlevel).
• Larger databases (only game 1..20 can be loaded in unregistered version).
• Access to the full opening book, with 200,000 moves (unregistered version switches book off after move 8).
  
• The "unregistered" dialog box is not displayed on start up.
• Your registration key is valid for all updates in the next 12 months.
• You are supporting further development of the software.

Starts a new game from the initial position and with the currently selected level. The previous game is saved in "pgautosave.pgn".
If you want to play black just press the move now button ("!") in the toolbar and PocketGrandmaster will make the first move.
For a 2-player-game, uncheck "Autoanswer" in Tools - Options.

Opens the game details dialog which lets you edit information about the players, event, site, date, result and other tags of the currently played game. If the database offers more information (PGN-"Tags") you can select the tag-name in the other tags-dropdownbox on the left and the respective value can be edited in the field right to the selected tag.
Undo restores all fields to their original values.

Shows header-information and the complete move history of the current game. The current move is highlighted. When you tap a different move it will be highlighted and the position after the selected move becomes the current position. There are three checkboxes Info, Comments and Lines which let you select whether you want to see the header, comments or lines (variations). You can e.g. disable comments and lines if you have a heavily commented and analyzed game with many variations and only want to see the moves. By pressing the small button on the left ("...") you can open the comment move dialog for the selected move.

lets you add a comment to the last move played in the current game or to the move selected in game moves. You can choose from 6 standard annotations (!, ?, !!, ??, !?, ?!) and enter any text.
To make the current move the principal variation, press "Promote line" and to delete the variation starting with the current move, press "Delete line".

When you replay a game with variations and press "next move", it is possible there is more than one possible continuation. In this case PocketGrandmaster opens this dialog, which lets you select which move to play.

PocketGrandmaster allows you to handle games with different lines (variations). When you make a move and there is already another move in that position of the current game it asks you how to insert the new move in the current game. You can choose between

• Replace main line: old main line is deleted.
• Add main line: old main line becomes a variation.
• Add line: move becomes a new variation.
• Don't add move: move will not be made.
• Delete selected: lets you delete the selected variation

When you move a pawn to the first/eights rank you can select which piece (queen, rook, bishop, knight) to promote to.

PocketGrandmaster loads and saves games in standard PGN format (Portable Game Notation), which can be im/exported by most chessprograms. Using Microsoft ActiveSync you can easily move databases between your desktop PC and your Pocket PC.

PocketGrandmaster allows you to select a game from the list of games in a database, view the game header (players, event, site,...) and the moves of a selected game, append, delete and replace games in a database and filter games for player, event, year, opening (ECO) and result.

The database-functions are organized in four pages with tabs at the bottom of each page which let you to quickly change between the four pages. Each page (games list, game information, game moves, filter) is described below:

Games list
This page gives you a list of all games in a selected database, the filename of the database, a button ("...") to load a different databasefile and a checkbox ("Filter") to only show games which match the filter specified in the filter page. The list has columns for the number of the game, the white and black players, the event and the result. Resizing the width of the colums is possible by dragging the headers. You can scroll through the games, select a row and the selected game can be inspected on the next two pages.

Game information
If available in the database this page shows the information of the currently selected game:

• White player
• Black player
• Event
• Site
• Date
• other tags ("WhiteElo", "Opening", "Round"...)
  If the database offers more information (PGN-"Tags") you can select the tag-name in the dropdownbox on the left and the respective value will be shown in the field right to the selected tag.
• Result

• names of the white and black player
• an event
• a range of dates
• the opening (ECO-tag)
• results

Example: if you are interested in all games in your database which Kasparov as white won between 1992 and 1994, you select "Kasparov" as White, leave Black, Event and ECO empty, select 1992-1994 as the range of dates, check the 1-0 checkbox and remove the check from the ignore colors checkbox. Then you change to the games list page and check the filter-checkbox. The list will now only show games which match the given criterion.

Opens the database-dialog and shows the list of games of the current database. See Database functions.

Loads the next game from the currently selected database. If a filter was specified in load game, the next game which matches the filter will be loaded. The current game is saved in "pgautosave.pgn".

Loads the previous game from the currently selected database. If a filter was specified in load game, the previous game which matches the filter will be loaded. The current game is saved in "pgautosave.pgn".

Lets you first edit the game details and then asks you whether to replace the current game in the current database by the game you are playing.

Lets you select how to save the current game:

• in the currently opened database
• in a new database
• in an existing database
• replacing the current game

The current game will be appended to the currently opened database and it will be reloaded to reflect the changes.

Lets you select a filename of a new pgn-database which will be created, containing only the current game.

Asks for a filename of an existing pgn-database and appends the current game to that database.

The game you save replaces the current game of the currently opened database.

Lets you first edit the game details and then asks you whether to replace the current game in the current database by the game you are playing.

Lets you select a filename of a pgn-database and then opens the games page of the database dialog where you can view and select the games.
Note: opening a database takes about 1 sec. per 150 games on an iPAQ3660 (StrongARM CPU, 200MHz).

The Select book-dialogue allows you to select which book is used by the chessengine (e.g. Fruit, Toga) and by the userinterface/GUI. The enginebook will of course only be used, if the engine supports it. Then you can select in the Options - Engine-window, whether the engine or the GUI should access the openingbook.
Note: the chessengine SOS always uses it's own openingbook.

Exit PocketGrandmaster.

PocketGrandmaster provides various levels which can be divided into

• Tournament fixed time for a given number of moves, up to three timecontrols
• Blitz: fixed time for all moves plus optional time increment per move
• Fixed fixed searchdepth and/or time

Allows you to set the number of moves and the time to three subsequent timecontrols. You can also choose one of the predefined tournament levels. If you set the number of moves of the second or third timecontrol to "0", PocketGrandmaster will play the rest of the game in the number of minutes you set in the time field. For example, if you want to play the first 40 moves in 40 minutes and the rest of the game in 10 minutes, set the values of the first time control to 40 moves and 40 minutes and the values of the second timecontrol to 0 moves and 10 minutes.

In this mode the clocks count down from the given time and the game must be finished before time runs out. An optional increment per move made can be given (Fischer-clock). There are also some predefined levels for blitz.

In the fixed levels you can limit PocketGrandmaster's average searchdepth and time. It will not search deeper or longer than specified.
To reduce PocketGrandmasters strength you should set the depth to 1, 2 or 3.

The options-dialog lets you configure the Board and Playing options and the chess engine. It is organized in three pages with tabs at the bottom of each page.

Options board

• Show mainline
  Uncheck if you don't want to see search related information when the engine is running.
• Sound effects
  Uncheck to switch off sound effects.
• DGT-Board
  PocketGrandmaster is compatible to the electronic chessboard by DGT-projects. When this option is checked, PocketGrandmaster will try to read the current position from an electronic chessboard connected to the selected COM-port. See DGT-board for more details.
• Announce move
  You can select, how PocketGrandmaster announces it's moves.
  • Off: no announcements (default)
  • Brief: brief announcements, similar to short notation (e.g. "Nf3")
  • Verbose: verbose announcements, like "Ng1-f3"
  • All: all moves are announced
  Note: the sound-files (.wav-files) for announcements are not part of the standard package of PocketGrandmaster. Installationfiles for English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch announcements are available for download from our web site or DGT Projects. They can be installed separately and need about 1MB of memory on the Pocket PC. Only one language can be installed at a time.
  
• Pieceset
  Select between six different styles of chessmen for the board:
  • Cases: normal, similar to chessbooks.
  • Leipzig: more detailed, slightly old-fashioned.
  • Mark: modern and plain.
  • Spanish: more detailed and modern.
  • Toonish: 3Dish, friendly pieces.
  • Blocks: 3Dish, modern design.
• Squares
  Select the design of the squares of the chessboard.
• Animation
  Select speed of animation when pieces move on the board
  • off:
  pieces don't slide but jump.
  • slow:
  slow sliding, same speed as in hint.
  • medium:
  normal speed.
  • fast:
  fast sliding.

Options playing

• Autoanswer
  If checked PocketGrandmaster will start thinking after each move you make, otherwise you can make moves for both sides (2-player-mode).
• Highlight last move
  Tells PocketGrandmaster to highlight the last move made by the engine.
• Highlight legal moves
  The squares the currently selected piece can move to are highlighted. Helpful for beginners who want to learn how pieces move.
• Coach watches
  If this is checked and PocketGrandmaster thinks your last move was weak, it will warn you and offer to take back the last move.
• Enter moves
  There are two choices
  • Normal:
  enter moves by tapping the from- and to-square in either order.
  • One tap:
  only one square needs to be tapped if there is only one legal move to or from that square.
• New variation
  When you take back a move to play a different move, PocketGrandmaster will usually ask whether the new move should be added to the game as the new main line (principal variation) or as a new line (variation). If you don't want to be asked you can select a default behaviour
  • Replace main line: new move replaces previous move and becomes principal variation.
  • Add main line: make new move new principal variation, the previous move becomes a line (variation).
  • Add line: new move becomes a line (variation).
• Replay speed
  Set speed for automatic replaying of games. 1 is fastest with about 2 moves/sec.

Options engine

• Pondering or "permanent brain"
  When checked PocketGrandmaster thinks during your turn. After making its move it guesses your next move and starts thinking about an answer. If you play the predicted move PocketGrandmaster will have saved some time, and sometimes moves immediately.
  This option makes the program stronger but also uses more batterypower.
• Hashtablesize
  Hashtables are tables in the memory of your Pocket PC where the engine stores searchresults. Larger hashtables usually speed up the search.
• Chess engine
  PocketGrandmaster allows you to select the chessengine used to compute moves. The dropdownbox lists all engines currently installed in the folder PocketGrandmaster\ on your Pocket PC. Additional chessengines are available for download from www.pocketgrandmaster.com, e.g.:
  • Anaconda: the default engine. Strong, solid, sometimes aggressive play. Successor of the Amateur World Champion 2001.
  • Fruit by Fabien Letouzey. PocketGrandmaster comes with the latest noncommercial version of this super-strong chessengine.
  • Toga is a chessengine based on Fruit with some enhancements by Thomas Gagsch. It's a very strong, especially at short timecontrols.
  • SOS: very good positional play, Amateur World Champion 2000. SOS uses its own book.
  • Ruffian: very strong allrounder with good endgame.
• Openingbook
  Lets you switch off the openingbook or influence the way moves are selected, when GUI plays bookmoves is checked, or how the engine accesses the book, when an engine-book is selected. The openingbook selected for the GUI always has precedence. Moves from the enginebook are played, when GUI plays bookmoves is unchecked or when no move was found in the GUI-book.
  • Best move: PocketGrandmaster will always play the best move found in book.
  • Good move: select good moves from book.
  • Random move: any move can be selected - even moves which are known to be bad. Leads to the most variable play.
• GUI plays bookmoves
  Tells the userinterface to play the bookmoves for the engine. Can be switched on when using an engine which does not use an own book.
• Score always for white
  Selects whether the Score is displayed from White's point of view (positive if White is ahead) or from the engine's point of view (positive, when the engine is ahead, even if the engine plays black).
• Keep alive
  When running long-term analyses, this can be used to prevent the Pocket PC from automatically powering down. Note: may lead to low battery if the Pocket PC is used without a power adaptor.

To add a piece select it from the white/black pieces on the bottom, and tap the desired square. To clear a square tap it. There are buttons to clear the board, set up the initial position and undo all changes made so far.

After setting up the pieces and selecting OK you can set the player on move, the castling rights, the enpassant status and the number of the first move in the next window. You can't close the window until the position is legal. For example it is not legal if: there are more than 8 pawns, 9 queens or 10 other pieces of a given color castling and enpassant status do not match the given position a king can be captured

Starts/stops automatic replaying of moves of the current game, starting from the current position. The replay-speed can be selected in the Options dialog. Allows you to watch games without pressing next move again and again. Replay moves can be combined with the analysis mode.

Clears the engines hashtable, e.g. if you want to start a fresh search in a testsuite-position.

Shows this help-page.

Pops up a window with version and copyright information. The window also shows the hashtablesize, chess engine and openingbook currently used.

Lets PocketGrandmaster suggest a good move for you. The engine performs a brief search (of about 5 seconds) and suggests a move by slowly doing/undoing the hint-move on the board.

Shows which move PocketGrandmaster plans to make if you don't prevent it. The engine performs a brief search (of about 5 seconds), and shows the move by slowly doing and undoing it on the board.

The training mode allows you to practice your chess-skills - your task is to find the best moves for one side in a given testposition. PocketGrandmaster will automatically play the moves of the other side and load the next position from a database after all moves were entered correctly.
Before you start you should open a database of testpositions with select database. You can, for example, load pgtactics.pgn, which is part of the standard package.
Now you can activate the "Training"-mode and start to solve the first position (or any position selected by load game) from the database. The board automatically flips, so that the side to move plays from bottom to top. The information below the board shows that you are in "Training"-mode and which side is to move. Think about the best move in the position and then play your move. When you enter a wrong move, you can select if you want to try again or need help. Help is also available by pressing hint ("?"). After a position is solved, PocketGrandmaster will ask if you want to stop or continue with the next position. To stop the training mode you can press Move Now! ("!") at any time.

Many thanks to Ulrich Haug, who helped with the testpositions!

PocketGrandmaster is compatible to the electronic chessboard and chessclock by DGT-projects. It is a very nice tournament-size wooden board with automatic detection of pieces. Together with your Pocket PC and PocketGrandmaster it makes a perfect stand alone chess computer! Important note: you need additional hardware to connect the USB-version of the DGT-board, see here.

To connect your Pocket PC to the board you need

• the board, its serial cable (9-pin) and its power adapter
• a nullmodem with two male 9-pin plugs (a normal "female" nullmodem can be made male with two gender changers)
• a serial AutoSync desktop cradle or a serial hot sync cable for your Pocket PC

• to play without looking at the Pocket PC, you can set the following options in PocketGrandmaster:
  • switch on "Sound effects"
  • set "Announce move" to "Brief" or "Verbose"
  • set "New variation" to "Add main line"
  • switch off "Coach watches"
• setting up the initial position on the board automatically starts a new game.
• moves can be taken back one by one.
• when a player move is refuted by the next computer move, you just have to take back the player move and internally the refutation and the player move are taken back.
• lifting a king for a short time starts the search for the given side. Exception: lifting the black king in initial position starts a new game.
• removing both kings enters setup mode.
• setting both kings leaves setup mode and the last king decides which side is to move.
• in setup mode it is possible to turn the board by setting a pawn on the first row.
• when a DGT-chessclock is connected, it is displayed and used to update the internal clock.
• If you use an external keyboard you may have to disable it's driver, otherwise PocketGrandmaster may not be able to detect a DGT-board on COM1.

How to connect an USB-DGT Board to PocketGrandmaster.
We thank Gary Morton, who provided the following description of his setup. Please note that we can't guarantee that this setup also works on your Pocket PC, so use this description at your own risk.
Before starting, make sure you have PocketGrandmaster 3.0.1 installed.

"The setup I have is:

• Ipaq hx4705; although any device with a Compact Flash slot should work.
• RATOC systems USB Host controller (fits into CF slot)
• No special cables other than the DGT cable and the RATOC systems cable for the host controller
• Drivers for the FT232BM from http://www.ftdichip.com

• Install the RATOC systems drivers for the USB Host card. These are on the CD that comes with the card.
• Install the USB host card in the CF slot on the Pocket PC
• Download the VCP drivers for the FT232BM from the ftdi website Using activesync, move the folder containing the VCP drivers to the windows directory on the PocketPC
• Soft reset the PocketPC
• Ensure the PocketPC is turned on
• Connect the small cable from the RATOC card to the card and then to the DGT board
• A window will come up asking for the driver for the new device, type in ftdi_ser.dll. The window should disappear.

Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it so the user knows exactly what he buys and takes no risk. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are required to register it. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and retail software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like retail authors, and the programs are of comparable quality.

If you wish to include the Software as part of a "shareware compilation", please contact us for written consent.

LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN MATERIALS (INCLUDING INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE) ARE PROVIDES "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. FURTHER, Frank Schneider & Kai Skibbe, Softwaredevelopment DOES NOT WARRANT, GUARANTEE, OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE, OR THE RESULTS OF USE, OF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS IN TERMS OF CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, CURRENTNESS, OR OTHERWISE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU. IF THE SOFTWARE OR WRITTEN MATERIALS ARE DEFECTIVE YOU, AND NOT Frank Schneider & Kai Skibbe, Softwaredevelopment OR ITS DEALERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AGENTS, OR EMPLOYEES, ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.
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BY DOWNLOADING OR USING OF ANY OF MY PRODUCTS YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS LIMITED WARRANTY, UNDERSTAND IT, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS' TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU ALSO AGREE THAT THE LIMITED WARRANTY IS THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PARTIES AND SUPERSEDE ALL PROPOSALS OR PRIOR AGREEMENTS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE PARTIES RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE LIMITED WARRANTY.

Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, Frank Schneider and Kai Skibbe, www.clevergames.com