Online chess boards

I am thinking about purchasing a e-chess board for online play , study, and analyzing my games. The more I compare all the boards out there the more I am confused. Anybody who has one I would love to hear your feedback about your experience with yours. Thanks in advance for any advice.

How much do you want to spend?

I would like keep around $200 to $300. Maybe just a little more. I been on u tube for feed back on all the models out there. That seems to go back and forth . I was hoping people like me a regular club player to give views on their experience. I am getting ready to retire the first of next year and I plan on getting back into the game better. Thanks

Chessnut Air (full piece recognition and board editor for analysis supported)

Millennium eOne (a bit small but very transportable)

DGT Pegasus

Square Off Pro (rollable tournament size)

Square Off NEO Z (automated/robotic board) - coming out next year (in pre-order)

 

Kromok2

Kromok2 I have looking at all of these products and it is getting confusing. I have seen reviews where all them are great and where they are are trash. I just hoping to to get some feedback from people like me who have experience with what they bought and why they are happy or unhappy with what they have. I plan on buying one for Christmas or my retirement. Feedback from real users can probably give me the best insight. Thanks

I wanted an e-board for online playing. I have tried the DGT Pegasus for few days and found that it is not a finished product. I had some problems and returned it. Five days ago I received a Chessnut Air board. Mi first impressions are very positive. Good hardware that allows the board to recognize individual pieces. This makes board editing simple. You put the pieces on the board and they appear on the app and you can continue a game from there playing against the computer. The app has some issues that I think are fixable in future revisions. In my case I can report the following: the Chessnut App works well with Chess.com but has many bugs playing on Lichess. Fortunately, there is a free app named White Pawn that is great. You can play on Lichess using it. Hope this helps. I can tell you more if you need me to.

FVB7 Thanks for the input. I have notice Chessnut Air has been getting a lot of positive reveiws. How was the company to deal with as far as ordering and any potential problems ? I was interested in the DGT Pegasus , but it seems a lot of people have soured on it as of late . Thanks again.

Hi. No problems ordering. I live in Spain and shipping is free -as it is to the USA. It took 6 business days for delivery. I have not yet informed the company about my problems with their app when playing on Lichess, so I don’t know about their response to customers. I have contacted the creator of the other app I mentioned (white pawn) and he is very responsive.

Thank you for your input.  So far the chessnut air might be the one I get. It will be my Christmas gift from my wife this year.  If you have any more input it will be appreciated.  

 

You may be interested in this: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chessnut-air-review

Chessnut air is kiddie-sized with 35mm squares afaik. Do you really want a 35mm-square board for playing? Does it come with tweezers to move the teeny-weeny pieces around the board?

 

FWIW I'm extremely happy with my 55x55mm square certabo, following jupiter's recommendation, but only had it for a month so far. A bit over your budget but you get a full-sized board usable with any tournament chess piece set. Well worth it once you consider how many hours you'll spend looking at it. Customer service has been excellent so far.

Works for online play and playing against the engine (from any starting position that you set up  by placing pieces on the board), so can be used to play out middlegames and endgames, but not sure how else it can be used for analysis, e.g. I don't think you can get it to follow a pgn and tell you the next move, etc.

Actual board quality seems OK - I am a woodworker, so a very picky bugger and expected a little bit more refinement for the price, but I haven't seen any other e-boards and I bet they are the same quality of worse... And for me, as long as the electronics work flawlessly, I don't care if the woodworking has a bit of a mass-produced whiff about it.

You are absolutely right. The Chessnut Air is smallish, and that is what I wanted. I have a big non-connected board I use for OTB matches. It is heavy and big, not easy to move around. I like playing in different places and outside, so I wanted something easier to transport. I must say that the Chessnut is the smallest board I would accept, and it could be a bit bigger! On the other hand, it is similar in size to the other three boards I have examined. Of those, the only other one I would have bought is the Chess Up, but it cost twice the Chessnut, and it is to ”colorful” for my taste with all those red, green or blue lights -doesn’t look like a chess board.

Just in case it may be useful, I include a table I have comparing basic size differences between the 4 boards:

Cell size (cm). .

Millennium eOne: 3.0

Chessnut Air 3.5

Chess Up 3.8

DGT Pegasus. 4.0


King size (cm)

Millennium eOne: 5.5

Chessnut Air 6.8

Chess Up 7.1

DGT Pegasus. 7.0


Weight (gr)

Millennium eOne: 932

Chessnut Air 1450

Chess Up 1700

DGT Pegasus. 1840

 

Absolutely no problem with that if it floats your boat, but my grudge is with the manufacturers who set off designing an electronic chess board and do not even include the industry "standard" sizes as an option. 50-60mm squares have been the tournament choice for years for a reason - the consensus is that it's the best size for a chessboard. Smaller, often foldable portable boards have been around for years for a reason too - they are handy to carry around, play outdoors in a park, take on holidays with you etc, but it should not be the default (and only!) offering imho.

M_Chavez thanks for the input. I have looked at certabo. I am impressed with what I see and heard from people like you. It is a little over my budget for now. I also have seen they make smaller boards a little cheaper. I have play on smaller boards like the chessnut air and have done fine with them. I was looking at square off pro because of it being bigger. It reviews was great. Then it seems like as time went on people started to have problems with it. I am not ruling of certabo. I am impressed by people like you on how much you like it. Again I do not know if I want to put that much more money on it. I do have time to make a decision. I plan getting it for Christmas if I am not sure by then I am retiring in February and I can also get as a retirement present. Thank you for your input

 

I’m not interested right now (and it’s not even out yet) but…it is 55x55 mm. 

FVB7 In my case it might be worth waiting for