Best Portable Handheld Chess Computer for Travel: History and What to Look For

What a handheld chess computer is

A handheld chess computer is a dedicated device built around a small processor that does nothing except play chess. It has no screen for anything else, no operating system and no connection to other software. The board and the playing program are in the same case, and the whole unit runs on batteries, which is what separates it from the tabletop machines of the same years. The smaller units listed below measure a few inches across, which is what makes them a portable chess game. Every handheld chess computer in this article follows the same plan: the board, the program and the power source travel together in one case.

The specifications of the classic units are modest by any later standard. Several used 4-bit processors running at around one megahertz and a few kilobytes of read-only memory. The interest of these machines is partly historical, since they fit a complete chess program into very little hardware.

Portable chess computers through the years

The units below are listed by year, and each handheld chess computer is described only as far as a collector page records it. A portable chess game of this kind is better documented on those pages than in most manuals.

The spacious-mind.com collection gives Mattel’s Computer Chess of 1980 as the first handheld chess game with an LCD screen. The SciSys Chess Champion Pocket Chess has an LED display, a small chessboard of 9.6 cm and a Fairchild 3870 8-bit processor at 4 MHz with 2 KB of ROM and 64 bytes of RAM. It ran on six AA cells or a 7.5 V adapter, and the same machine was sold under other names, among them Novag, Acetronic, Tandy and Prinztronic.

In 1986 SciSys followed with a wallet-sized Pocket Chess, model 114. It had a 4-bit HD44868 processor at 0.6 MHz, 5 KB of ROM and 80 bytes of RAM, a sensory peg board of about 2.75 inches square, and 16 coordinate LEDs. Three AAA batteries powered it, it offered eight playing levels, and it allowed takebacks and move suggestions. The page lists a launch price of $59.95.

Fidelity’s Mini Chess Challenger, model 6107 of 1989, was the same machine as the CXG Portachess II, with David Levy and Mark Taylor as programmers. It also used a sensory peg board, three inches across, a 4-bit HMCS46C processor at 1.04 MHz, and offered 16 levels on a 9 V battery, with a listed price of $79.95. Levy and Taylor were credited again with the Chess Challenger Micro of 1991, a 4-bit HMCS40 design at 0.6 MHz, according to the chessprogramming.org list of Fidelity machines. The Mini Challenger and the Micro belong to the late years of the Fidelity Chess Challenger line.

In 1993 RadioShack sold the Pocket Chess 1100L, model 60-2256, with an LCD dot-matrix display, a 4-bit processor at 1 MHz, 4 KB of ROM and two CR 2032 coin cells. Its Suggest button could be used five times per game, and a sixth use forfeited the game. The listed price was $99.

What best means for a handheld chess computer

No ranking appears here, because no units were tested for this article, and a list of the best handheld chess games would need measured results that are not available. A search for the best handheld chess computer therefore comes down to what a reader needs, whether that is travel, learning or strength. The useful question is what makes one unit better than another for a given reader.

• Board type. The 1986 SciSys and the 1989 Fidelity use a sensory peg board of roughly three inches, while the SciSys Chess Champion has a 9.6 cm board with an LED display.
• Display. Several units use LEDs, as the SciSys models do. Others use an LCD, as the Mattel of 1980 and the 1993 RadioShack unit do.
• Levels. The units above offer from eight skill levels (SciSys, 1986) to sixteen (Fidelity, 1989). A beginner benefits from a gentle first level and a learner from a hint button.
• Takeback and hints. Not every unit allows them. Among the models above, the 1986 SciSys offers both, and the 1993 RadioShack unit limits its hints to five.
• Strength claims. Ratings printed on boxes are manufacturer figures. The SciSys unit is listed with a claimed 1400 USCF rating, and the same page records an Elo of 794 from 19 games, a different scale and a small sample, so the two figures cannot be compared directly.

Travel: size, power and board

Anyone choosing a portable chess game for travel is mostly choosing size and power source, so for travel the physical points matter most. The 1986 SciSys measures 4.25 by 6.5 inches and is five eighths of an inch thick, which fits a jacket pocket. The Fidelity unit is listed at 4 by 7 5/8 inches and 1 1/8 inches thick. Battery type is the second concern: AA cells are easy to replace anywhere, while coin cells and 9 V batteries are less common. The Fidelity page advertises over 200 hours of battery life, and the SciSys page claims 350 hours with alkaline cells, though both are maker claims.

A unit that keeps an interrupted game in memory is useful on a journey, and the 1986 SciSys page describes it as holding an interrupted game for up to a year, though a feature list on the same page says two years.

Where handheld units fit in computer chess

Dedicated handheld units sit beside tabletop machines and home-computer programs in the story told on the computer chess page. For the period they belong to, see chess history.

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