Before there was a message from Frank, but it's gone now. After reading many comments on the Centaur, I can understand that all good players (like Frank) would never buy the Centaur, but saying it's not worth the place it takes is rude and arrogant to players who have fun with it.
Being a professional photographer there are a lot of (amateur) camera's I would not have for free. But I can fully understand that a lot of people are very happy with the results they get with that camera.
I own the Centaur and played several games with it. Yesterday even outside (in Spain, three times hurray for the build in battery!). A bit windy, but all the pieces kept their place. I won in friendly mode.
I read comments explaining why the Centaur isn't good enough and even makes dumb mistakes. So far it didn't make dumb mistakes in my games (for as far as I can judge).
I wrote before that I'm a fairly low level player. I think that there are far more players with my level of play than there are players with Franks level. I think that's why the Centaur is so popular with the home players.
And because Sacha asked for experience opinions:
My experience so far? I love the Centaur because of it's simpleness. Get it out the box, set up and play. No need to press the pieces, just move them. And in deed, at "friendly", it plays friendly. I mostly play in the "no time" setting. For the level of play there is no difference, and if during a game the dog (or my wife) insists off getting some attention it has no influence on extra used time. Besides that, in the "no time" mode the Centaur's playing speed is very pleasant.
If I make a move I regret, just take it back. If I want the Centaur to play another move then indicated, just make that move and the Centaur accepts it.
During the whole game I never need to use any kind of menu. It is just like that amateur camera, set it at iA, press the button and you get a nice picture.
For many of you this will be below level, but for uncountable players like me it really is a chess friend.
In the box I made some squares with felt. Better and easier than the bag for the pieces it came with. And to prevent comments on the picture, professional photographers also have iPhones
