The Novag Star Diamond is the first machine I bought in 2003 (I do not count my mephisto I since it is in the trash).
For sure it is very strong (short time games : 2183, SSDF : 2123) according to schachcomputer. There is a H8S as 25MHz inside the beast. The programmer is Dave Kittinger. The style of play is very pleasant, you can have the feeling to play against an human. Against Milady 3.25, the Star Diamond seems to be better: the score was 6.5-3.5 in favor of the Diamond, still 10 games were remaining. Now the 20 games are finished, the final score is then 8.5-11.5 (Star Diamond won the tournament. All the games can be downloaded here). Some great games have been played with Milady 3.25. In most of them, I noticed the evaluation of one engine was up to +5 (thinking it was a rook ahead) and then came back to reality, sometimes several times during a game. The tactical strength of Milady was often her salvation. If the playing style of the Diamond is very nice, I do not like the machines with plastic,but the look of this one is not that bad. The keys on the right are of soft plastic and give a strange feeling.
The chess board is made by a glued plastic foil; nine years after the purchase, it tends to unstick a little.
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