Hello:

I am looking for buy a kind of chess computer board to allow me to
connect to a PC, and have seen, reading in different forums, that the
Novag Citrine is a good alternative. DGT is too expensive and have a
size a little big.

Mainly, the Citrine is liking me because:
* Don't have a very big size, but "appropriate" to play and analyze.
* Has a nice design.
* It use LEDs
* Quality/price ratio reasonable. (not as DGT which is double price)
* It can be connected to Arena, SCID, PocketPC, Pocket CEBoard, ...)

What I don't like:
* Not a good strong computer (only aprox. 2000 FIDE, and I am around
that, I would prefer a engine stronger than me)
* A bad opening book, even with bugs.
* Don't have memory to save configs.

Those "weak points" don't matter me if it has a good interaction with
the PC. I like the board not to play versus it, but for play with PC
engines and to analyze and save/load games with PC.

After reading a lot around Internet, I have some doubts:

1) Is it possible to play against Fritz or Chessbase products? I have
seen that a UCI interface has been release, has anybody try it?
( http://rapidshare.com/files/81978322/Ucitrine.zip.html )
2) Is the same "Novag Universal Chess Board" than "Novag Citrine"? I
have read at http://www.tim-mann.org/extensions.html that WinBoard
has an UCB driver, does it run in Novag Citrine?
3) Is it possible to setup a position and start playing from it? I
have seen it is possible to setup a position but it looks like only is
possible to play at "solve problem" level. Is it possible to setup a
position and play in other level? Or is it possible to setup a
position and play it in a PC engine? (this last one is important for
me as I wanted to analyze and save games at PC)
4) I have two PDA (and iPaq 4150 & HTC Touch Cruise). Can I connect it
to the Citrine with CEBoard? How did you do it?.
5) I have seen SCID has Novag Board support. What about your
experience? I don't use SCID, but don't mind if I switch to it if the
experience and interaction with Cetrine are good.
6) Is it possible to use Citrine to play online? (FICS)
7) If we remove the power supply, does configs stay in memory?
8) Is it there any good alternative to DGT and Citrine to connect with
a PC?
9) .... And in general.... What about yours experiences?

I know is a long post: sorry. Maybe if you answer the reply would be
useful as a kind of FAQ jejejejje.
Thanks all for your answer and contributions.
Best regards,
FSP