Excalibur Electronic Electronic Executive Touch Chess

After putting new batteries in this device, i turned it on. I could barely make out the pieces lined up on both sides of the board. I tried to shine a dim light on to the display screen. This made matters even worse! I don't think i can use it at all! Very frustrating!

This is actually a nicely made chess game with a handy touch screen for piece movement. The menu system is a bit convoluted, but after figuring out where things are and reading the instructions a couple of times, you can find things okay. My main complaint about the game is its level settings. At the very lowest level (Beginner 1), the game is still quite difficult for an intermediate player to beat. I would say that the lowest setting equals about a 1500-1600 rated player. This immediately puts this out of the reach of true beginners and children. They will get soundly beaten every time and likely become frustrated. This game would receive a 5 star rating from me if the lowest setting was more like a 400 rated player. Maybe they just couldn't pack that flexibility into the AI?

Great for chess on the go, and strong enough to challenge you. I purchased years ago at Sears I think, for less than ten dollars!

Purchased for my husband as a Christmas present. When I got it I could see that this product would not work for him. I found it to be too small and the screen was even smaller. He would have abandoned it immediately.

This would be a fun game for someone who is already a pretty good player. Both my husband and my 8yo son know the rules of chess but not much else (no complicated strategies, etc.), but they can't win on even the very lowest levels. There is a "hint" option, where the game tells you how it thinks you should move, which makes it a little more fun.Otherwise, it's a fun game and seems to work well. The display is somewhat difficult to see unless you're in bright light.

This item is a worthless piece of junk. The screws to the battery compartment are tiny and difficult to remove, making the item hard to operate.

Excalibur is a solid opponent. If you’re a beginner at chess I suggest you go with something less expensive. This little handheld has a fairly powerful program to use against you.For all its power the Excalibur wasn’t very well thought out for design and practical usage. No backlight forces you to have some kind of light source to see the pieces, which are lcd’s and require light. Why they didn’t put in a backlight I don’t know. The body of the game is round, again a stupid design. It just doesn’t feel comfortable holding it and if you have small hands you’re apt to drop it.Too bad really, it is a solid player but on a poor foundation. This is not ergonomically practical. In other words it’s a piece of junk. Don’t buy it. It’s waaayyy overpriced too. If it was 10 bucks it would be worth it but for ninty bucks it’s a flat out rip off

This is the smallest chess game I've ever played, but its very sophisticated, even programmable levels. I'm very impressed for $20. I must admit it is difficult to see the extraordinary detail in the screen chess "pieces" in low light, because.. well it is in fact a very small chess game. Nevertheless I highly recommend it because it will fit in your pocket and you can take it wherever you go and can play it anywhere, except in the dark. I like to turn off the sound when I'm in a quiet place, so I won't disturb other folks. Five stars for this one !!!!!