Are eletronic chess boards worth it ?

Hello everyone,

The general question I have is :

Have any of you purchased an electronic chessboard ? Is it worth the price ? And if yes, which one should I buy ?

I have

(1) Chessup 1 (and have backed Chessup 2); (2) Chessnut Air; (3) Chessnut Pro; (4) Chessnut Evo; (5) Millenium eOne; (6) DGT Pegasus; (7) SquareOff Pro (2 of them)

Are they worth it?

Absolutely. I played a game last night with my Pro board and in a 60 move game I looked at the screen twice. I got to focus on a real board with real pieces and not a 2D screen.

Which one you should buy depends on your budget, your needs, and what size you are comfortable with.

I will rank them below on how I think they rate (for me, in my opinion only). They are different sizes and they work differently (apps/ways to connect/what you can do with them. So I will give a brief summary on each as well.

Ranking

1 - The Evo. This has to be the gold standard right now. It includes a large built in tablet so you can play anywhere you have an internet connection. You don't need your phone, everything is built in the board Plays very smoothly, there were some bugs at first (I have one of the first run production boards) but it is a very nice piece of kit. It is a little pricey but you can do a lot with it including make your own "engine" based on PGNs.

2 - A tossup, since they run on the same technology - the Air (or Air+) and the Pro. These are incredible pieces of chess playing equipment, especially the Pro with the premium pieces. The pro is just a joy to play with. When using the app you can play online and other things (like the Evo) or you can use the Chessconnect extension written by a chess[]com user. This is what i used last night with the Pro board and it is a great playing experience. Chessnut sells the sensors so you can make your own custom pieces to replace the stock ones. I have a nice Zagreb set I made, can be used on the Air or the Evo.

3 - The Chessup 1, a great board for those learning but can be used by experienced players as well. It has special features to help inexperienced players learn how to use the pieces and also to show them (only against bots) good squares and bad squares. Using the app you can play online. The Chessup 2 will have a small (credit card sized) screen built in to play online with. Not as smooth (to me) a playing experience as the Chessnut products.

4 - DGT Pegasus, also a decent piece of equipment but can be a bit quirky at times. You have to calibrate it every so often, while the others so far I have not had to do that. Easy to make custom pieces for this board, I have made 2 sets to use on it. Overall a good choice.

5 - SquareOff Pro, not sure if this should go here or at the end. Not a good experience, they make playing online more difficult than it needs to be; the app tries to be a game where you collect "jewels" or other things; the board loses connection frequently (at least for me).

6 - Milenium eOne, more of a novelty/study board. Small, the pieces are "toyish", and it is not a great playing experience. Best use for this is using Grahams Driver for connecting the board to a computer for study using Lucas Chess or similar.

Hope this answers some of your questions, asked and unasked.

If you need more info, just ask.

Thank you for passing on your thoughts @Rsava. 👍

With regards to the pieces for the e-boards, changing them up is possible. Numerous threads here discuss the processes for the different makes and models. Sure it is an extra expense; nevertheless, it is an option.

Yes, the different boards require different techniques/processes.

The Pegasus was Probably the easiest, just some aluminum tape/stickers cut to the proper diameter. I made 2 plastic sets and 3 wooden sets compatible. I ordered a maroon and cream colored weighted plastic set specifically for that purpose and it looks great on that board.

I read your journey with the Chessnut Evo pieces. So much work went into that.

A little frustrating but so worth it now with the wooden pieces. I am not a handy/crafty type guy, so it took me a bit and it is not perfect. But they feel so good playing with them.

I have a Collectors series and another set of sensors, but not sure if I want to make those for Chessnut or make them work on the DGT instead.

i can't afford it so i use 3d pieces

Thank you so much for taking your time to write all of this down @Rsava.

I am looking at the Chessnuts right now and I really like them. Could you please tell me what are the differences between the Evo and the Pro ? More specifically is there a big difference between the Evo peices and the Pro pieces ?

They are not worth it. Not durable. Use a plastic and wooden pieces for OTB chess. pC or phone for Online chess. Hybrids are not good yet

Which one(s) do you own and have used? How long have you used them?

Please explain why you think they are not durable.

That's what my chess friends told me.

A local rat nibbling some rotten cheese in my garden told me it was delicious. Not sure I'd trust him though.

My chessfriend has been buying many chess stuff for 30 years. I trust his words.

What electronic chess set did he buy ? For how much time did he use it ?

The Evo

This is an all in one unit. It has a full sized Android tablet built in (WiFi only), You use this to log into the sites with Firefox on the tablet. You can do most of what you can do on a tablet - challenge people, read the forums, check you mail, etc. The board is a plastic overlay, grey and white squares. My unit is one of the first productions runs, it does not have the removeable battery. Later units do. I do not see the need to swap out batteries, by the time it reaches it's end of life (I think Chessnut claims 3000 cycles, so at 1 cycle every 2 days that is many years) the unit itself will be EOL'd and I will likely be replacing it anyway. The battery life last about 2 or 3 long games before it needs recharging. I only play longer time control games so I cannot comment on how many quick games it would last.

When you play, it uses something called "Chessvision" (but Chessnut's own version of it) to read the screen and transmit the move, then when you move it transmits the move back to the screen to move your pieces in the online game. The squares light up with a the outline of the square lighting up. You can change the color of the light for the pieces so all the pawns can have a white ring, the white Knights can have a green ring, etc.

It is a "library size" board/set, the wooden Zagreb pieces I modified have a 2.6" King. The original pieces are plastic, "piano white and black" in color. The unit is solid and is easily moveable but not really a "portable" board (despite the carry bag). I have taken it on trips in the car (in the bag) but I could not see myself taking it to the club every week or on a plane.

The Pro

The Pro is a full, tournament sized board with wooden pieces. There are two options for the pieces - regular and premium. The premium pieces take a while to get, they are much nicer and look great (I have the premium pieces).

The board itself uses the same underlying technology as the Air but on a full sized, wooden board. If the squares are not wood, they did a great job in making it look like wood. The squares have a red light in one corner to indicate piece movement.

I have not tried it outdoors yet but is it quite bright and easily seen. The board is heavy, I do not see myself bringing this anywhere so I did not buy the bag.

Since there is no built in device, you need to be connected to a phone or computer to play. I use the Chesscnnect extension (built by chess[]com user @joernupbde) and it works great. I played several games the past week or so and it was fantastic. One game was a 60 move marathon and I looked at the screen a total of 2 times. Chessnut is in the process of updating their app (to look like the Evo interface) but it has some "challenges" at the moment. The Chessconnect extension just works (it does have some issues but none that are show stoppers).

I charged the board to 100% on Tuesday this week and played a few games (2 marathon games and a few short games to test things), a total of about 5 1/2 hours use. Battery last night after the game was still at 81%. WOW!! This thing is going to last a long time.

If you have the space, this set is fantastic, especially with the premium pieces. I was a bit disappointed at first (it took a LONG time for the set to come in because the premium pieces take a while to make) but as I have played with them I have come to like them a lot. They are not overly weighted (I like heavy pieces) but they are well balanced and feel good in the hand. They look incredible. The detail on the Knight is very good. Even my wife (who knows nothing about chess (except that I spend WAAAAYYYYY too much $$$ and time on it) remarked how detailed it is, she could count the teeth and see through the mouth.

This set currently sits prominently on my desk in a little slot under some of my chess books:

And fits perfectly on the desk when playing:

Overall, you cannot go wrong with either setup, it all depends on how you want to use the board. Both are great pieces of technology and work very well. Chessnut is a small company, they can sometimes take a while to get back to you but support is pretty good. I have reached out on early issues with the Evo and they responded quickly and fixed the issue.

I had an issue with my Premium pieces, a cracked pawn and I have the replacement pawn in less than 3 weeks of my initial contact with them.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

I don't remember. I visited his home 2 years ago. He have a collection of many books, 2 dedicated chess computer, (last century) chess clocks, chess sets. His last purchase was an electronic chess board, he wasn't happy with it.

Got it, so you have no personal experience to base your comments on. What eboards does your "friend" personally have? Why does your friend say they are no good?

I have the technology, I have been buying many chess products over the past 42 years (I am 61), and I personally have 7 different e-boards as well as numerous regular boards, wooden sets (23 at last count), plastic sets, clocks, etc.

I have honestly said which ones are good and which ones are not so good. All you do is make a generic statement that all are bad with no personal experience with them.

The technology has changed drastically over the last 2 years so a two year old opinion (that you are relaying second hand) is useless in this conversation.

Well if you have plenty of experience in eBoard, , OP just trust you. Electronic equipment and gadget involved a little luck. If you got the not durable, you hope it breakdown within warranty period..