The Sinclair QL Forum

Psion Chess for me is one of the great killer apps of the QL, something to show off the power of the system. There's just something about seeing those hi-res green & red and knowing your home.

Does anyone know a bit of the version history? My chess skills are pretty poor although I did beat a random person on PSN Home, a high point in my career. I have a version that's 2.02 or similar with a modded for thor title screen but no matter what level I put it on, level 0 novice with easy on, I just can't win, I've maybe drawn a few times but nothing more. Has this version been tinkered with somewhat compared to the original? I do have an original version but couldn't get it to run off floppy disc.

The history of the game has also interested me, I've seen often mentioned that the game is a world champion but couldn't find much history of that until by sheer luck while searching for something else I found a website covering old computer chess competitions. It has the results listed and you can even click on the games to watch them back. (click on the scores in the cross table)

http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/icga/t ... .php?id=64

1 Psion GBR 68000 8MHz 5.0 7 30.0 20.25

Ha Ha, it beat the Apple II, the Mac and the Commodore 64

I had QL Chess and bourbon session last night and got battered again. Although I think I did better on standard level 3 rather than setting it to novice? I'm still not convinced by the modded version.

On one game the QLs castle got behind my ranks and went on a rampage then when set to novice on the next game I got beat in about 8 moves.

This reminds me of the Beach boys TV movie when the Dad (played briliantly) used to get riled up by the brothers music being too loud, so the studio rigged up a volume control for him to adjust to his required level. After one too many arguments with his son in the studio, Brian Wilson let rip that the only reason the volume control (for his dad) was there was to shut him up, it didn't actually do anything. Now VP you know that setting control in PSION Chess...

Hmph, I hope not! I do have the original version but it's copy protected for microdrives, it would be nice to see if it plays differently. When I set it to easy it just kicks my backside even more.