EBAY AGONY (31 may 2008)
The month of May is almost over. But if you would have seen this weblogger in the beginning of this month you would find him to look like a nervous wreck.
What was the matter?
To tell the story from the beginning: one of the best chess computers ever made is a Dutch one by the name of Tasc.
TASC Chess System
The computer itself looks completely different from any other chess computer:
The board is also quite special: it senses the chessmen that are put on it. So if you accidentally mix up a knight and a bishop, lights on the board will signal this. This makes the Tasc board a very pleasant board to play with. Ismenio Sousa has made a short film about it, which can be seen on this page .
Well, on eBay such a computer was offered ... for more than a thousand Euros.
The Overtom Museum is a Dutch museum. Since the Tasc is a Dutch computer, I had one more reason to make a bid ... and I won. But after I had asked my bank to send the money to Italy, I had to wait for a week for this beauty to come all the way to Holland. If you look at this page, you can read that there have been quite a few swindles with non-existing Tasc computers that were offered at eBay.
But how long a week can be!!
I became more and more doubtful if the computer would really arrive. Even at nights I was beleaguered by thoughts like: "this can only be a swindle ... Italy, land of the mafia ... how shall I get my money back after the computer has failed to show up ... should I call the bank and ask them if the transfer can be stopped?"
But on the 9th of May, the postman rang the bell and brought a big box ... from Italy!
In my next weblog I'll show you what great kind of chess this computer plays.
