I used to own a DGT board and set. There was a fellow that had one and passed away. I had my brother in law go to the auction and he came back with a DGT board, alone. I contacted The House of Staunton which was the US DGT distributor and they sold me the pieces, wires, clock and bag. Anyway, I used this set to play on the internet.
At first I was playing slow time control games and it worked alright. I tried to play faster time controls but it didn't work as well.
You do have to keep watching the computer monitor with this setup. When your opponent makes a move, you have to move his piece on your board before you can make your move. You have to get his move from the screen of either the monitor or the clock display and neither is fast and easy.
If you are playing fast time controls, this takes extra time away from analyzing the position and I found I was getting into time trouble a lot.
Yes, you can analyse the position and make your move on a real set and board with it going right over the internet and you do not need to press the clock button as the clock changes automatically when you move.
I found that using a regular set and board, next to my computer worked just as well. The only thing I need do with a regular board instead of the DGT one is put my move in the computer, and that really is not a big deal.
I ended up selling my set to a friend that runs a Chess club in the Chicago area where he has a number of them and networks them for tournaments. I sold it to him for what I had invested.
It simply wasn't worth the trouble and hassle to use it on the internet.
Now, I have been told that there is a new electronic, sensory board about to come out on the market that is inexpensive, here in the United States.
Honestly the only thing I can imagine using it for is to have it record and save the game score. And since you must write down the moves for rated play in FIDE or most national federations, that is not worth the cost of even an inexpensive one.
Excluding the extreamly overpriced and out of my budget DGT electronic boards, are there any electronic boards someone can buy over the internet?
There was this one ( http://usbchessboard.yolasite.com/ ) but it's not in the market anymore. I would totally love a way to play with my computer using a real board and not having to continously watch at the screen.