Just to let you know where I am now regarding chess on the N900.

I installed the new Nitdroid Vostok mostly to get the chess.com app and also the freechess app to play my online games. Both are excellent, as is the shredder chess app. Obviously there was the chance of missing calls whilst playing so to get round this I divert calls in maemo to my other mobile (SE T68i) and then boot nitdroid, when a call comes in, just reject it and the other mobile rings.
Still use GarnetVM though for games against comp when I fancy just a quick game.

@Geneven, I completely agree, I had such high hopes for minature but I think it's abandoned now and whilst Eboard works it's a bit too fiddly...

Dan