I just received the ChessNut Air on 9/2/2022. First off, HW wise, quailty is good. I am not a fan of products made in China. Most Asian countries improves quality over time to Japan level but products from China is exception to that rule it seems. With that said, I tried my first game pairing it with iPhone 8+. It worked great, then second game, it got stuck, then 3rd, 4th, 5th.. yep stuck. Then I downloaded the PC app, it won't even un-RAR -- it says the file is corrupted. Last thing I want to mention is that the pairing is not your traditional BT pairing but the instructions fails to mention that it's pairing with the App. Very disappointed, I never liked anything made in China and it will likely remain that way -- and this product is no exception. Feels like I just wasted hard earned $200.
Chessnut Air Review
I just received the ChessNut Air on 9/2/2022. First off, HW wise, quailty is good. I am not a fan of products made in China. Most Asian countries improves quality over time to Japan level but products from China is exception to that rule it seems. With that said, I tried my first game pairing it with iPhone 8+. It worked great, then second game, it got stuck, then 3rd, 4th, 5th.. yep stuck. Then I downloaded the PC app, it won't even un-RAR -- it says the file is corrupted. Last thing I want to mention is that the pairing is not your traditional BT pairing but the instructions fails to mention that it's pairing with the App. Very disappointed, I never liked anything made in China and it will likely remain that way -- and this product is no exception. Feels like I just wasted hard earned $200.
That's too bad you're having that experience. China or not, I've never had any luck with brand new technology unless the idea has been out in the market for a while and has been generally well developed. You can pretty much count on 1 hand how many consumer eboards are out on the market. None of them are perfect because the technology isn't perfect yet. To make matters worse, each company has their own strengths and weaknesses with the thought they put into their products.
That said, I have had the best experience with my chessnut and I own 2 other square off models and have used a DGT board. Bluetooth with any of the wireless smart boards are pretty inconsistent to be honest. USB connecting has been the best for me. I don't know what it is about BT maybe there's a lot of interference or something but both squareoffs and chessnut matches in bluetooth are largely unreliable. On mobile, your battery will drain fast and I fear that ios might quietly do something with your BT in an effort to preserve battery life or perhaps ios thinks the device is off or idle since nothing is really happening with it inbetween long moves? Either way, hard wire is the best.
Unfortunately I can't connect my squareoff boards to a computer. you have to use their garbage app that is super limiting.
I took delivery of the Chessnut Air a day ago. Played the computer about dozen times and only about 4 games were good, rest, it glitches. After my move, the computer won't make a move -- on the app, everything appears normal. Then I quit, then try again, same thing. I bought this set for $199 after seeing rave reviews. Also, one annoyance is having just one LED on one corner is a bad design overall -- each time the opponent makes a move, I have to ascertain which piece it's trying to move. Another quality issue I noticed is that after a Mate, most of the Winner's LEDs are lit but some are flickering at a very dim level---urrghhh, make it right, why can't Made in China just make it right?? Either I have a Lemon or those that left rave reviews work for Chessnut? It is so disappointing.
I just received the ChessNut Air on 9/2/2022. First off, HW wise, quailty is good. I am not a fan of products made in China. Most Asian countries improves quality over time to Japan level but products from China is exception to that rule it seems. With that said, I tried my first game pairing it with iPhone 8+. It worked great, then second game, it got stuck, then 3rd, 4th, 5th.. yep stuck. Then I downloaded the PC app, it won't even un-RAR -- it says the file is corrupted. Last thing I want to mention is that the pairing is not your traditional BT pairing but the instructions fails to mention that it's pairing with the App. Very disappointed, I never liked anything made in China and it will likely remain that way -- and this product is no exception. Feels like I just wasted hard earned $200.
Hi sorry for your bad experience. We've just updated our PC app on our webstie. The file should can be extracted, please download and try again. For the ios apps, we did receive reports that the game would freeze on certain models of devices. We have fixed it and are in internal testing, we expect to release this update in the app store next week. For other issues, please feel free to contact me at mkt@chessnutech.com and send me some photos and videos of your trouble for our better investigataion, I will try my best to help you solve them. Thanks.
New video review of the Chessnut air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDm_Y1TUZN8
Chessnut Air vs Square Off Pro video Review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhaYrSXhn3U&t
Got my board and learning all it can do. So far very pleased. The reviews in this thread were very helpful. Will be very helpful for the purposes that I picked up the board. The support by Kyle has been exceptional and am glad they provide such good product support and are continuing to improve things.
An elderly neighbor has agreed to help me analyze my games. He's not very tech-savvy and my algebraic notation is still slow as molasses, so this board seems like a great tool for us to use. Is there a way to control the chesscom analysis tool (or something equivalent) with this board? I'd like to set up a position partway through the game, then explore and append notes to the variations we discuss. I'd prefer to do this on my Android phone, but I can bring my laptop if using a computer is the only option.
edit: I guess it can interface to some extent with the chesscom analysis tool, but it's unclear if it saves variations played on the physical board.
An elderly neighbor has agreed to help me analyze my games. He's not very tech-savvy and my algebraic notation is still slow as molasses, so this board seems like a great tool for us to use. Is there a way to control the chesscom analysis tool (or something equivalent) with this board? I'd like to set up a position partway through the game, then explore and append notes to the variations we discuss. I'd prefer to do this on my Android phone, but I can bring my laptop if using a computer is the only option.
edit: I guess it can interface to some extent with the chesscom analysis tool, but it's unclear if it saves variations played on the physical board.
Why don't you use Chess PGN Master ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRz3XORIgVU&t=349s
@Kromok2
Thank you. Have you used that app personally? I'm not sure if that app saves variations played on the board; he doesn't move the pieces in that video after he downloads the PGN file. After doing some more reading though I know I can use LucasChess on my laptop if Chess PGN Master doesn't have the specific functionality I'm looking for. I'm going to buy the Chessnut.
@buzhisuocuo
Yep, unfortunately you cannot add variations in the limited version (also the engine analysis is restricted to 1 ply), you have to buy the PRO key. Sad but still a great app. Otherwise, you can use LucasChess for your PC.
Is there an option to enable Speech announcements in the app ?
Not with the Chessnut app at the moment but you can with using the White Pawn app with the chessnut air.
Is there an option to enable Speech announcements in the app ?
Not with the Chessnut app at the moment but you can with using the White Pawn app with the chessnut air.
However WhitePawn does not connect to chess.com.
Is there an option to enable Speech announcements in the app ?
Not with the Chessnut app at the moment but you can with using the White Pawn app with the chessnut air.
However WhitePawn does not connect to chess.com.
Thanks for the info... :-)
@beebop777
Not in the Chessnut app but both WhitePawn and Chess for Android have speech announcements.
@buzhisuocuo
Just found out that highlighting a move of the game and keep playing from there, the new move is added as a variation (between brackets). Say I play 1.e4-e5, then I change my mind, I like the Sicilian. So I highlight (on the Chess PGN Master app with my finger) the move 1...e5 and make 1...c5 on the Chessnut board, the move 1...c5 is added (inside the brackets) as a variation. Then I guess that what you wish for is somewhat possible.
Also why lichess does not work? A message show lichess does not allow game on eboard when I tried to create a game using Chessnut air app. I tried whitepawn as someone suggested and it worked. But I wish lichess works on Chessnut air app as well.
Thanks any suggestion is appreciated.
Tried a couple online Rapid games earlier today. During my first match, my chessnut was disconnecting (connected to PC) from chess.com. Though the match was still going on via the computer screen, my opponent's moves weren't registering onto the board.
Second match was doing the same thing when I would have another window open instead of the Chessnut program window, but the board would reconnect after lifting one of my pieces. Decided to just stay on the Chessnut window and that seemed to do the trick. I guess I can't be watching youtube while playing.
Acid Ape Chess (standard or GM Edition) support ?
That would be nice. Just wondering ... 
I just received my Chessnut air today. I like the feel of the board and pieces. I have Windows 10 and an iPad.
I first used it connected to the iPad with the White Pawn app which allows you to play on lichess.org. Unfortunately the online options are limited. You can only play individual games with random people. You can not join a tournament and use it to play those games. The Chessnut app will connect you to lichess.org and chess.com but it also limited it what you can do.
Second I connected to my Windows 10 PC using drivers provided by Graham O'Neill @ https://goneill.co.nz/chess. With the driver installed I connected to Arena 3.5.1 and played some chess engines. I have not found a way to use the Chessnut Air on Windows 10 to connect to chess.com.
I wish the eBoard makes would get together and agree on a standard API that all of the online chess services and chess programs could easily implement. Take USB keyboards for example, you plug them in and they just work. Making their eBoards compatible with more for chess software and services would be a big selling point. I'm hoping this technology takes off.