SquareOff Pro vs Chessup vs Chessnut Air

I’ve been looking to get an eboard for Christmas. All 3 of these have some sort of ongoing holiday sale and are ≈$100 off. There are so many options with so many different features, and I’m a little overwhelmed with this decision.

I’m looking to get an eboard for a few reasons, but mainly because I prefer playing OTB rather than clicking with a mouse. I feel like I concentrate and see things better when I have physical pieces to move. I’ve heard these boards are notoriously bad for speed chess but that’s alright as I plan on using it for 10 min rated games or longer. The only real requirement I have for an eboard is chess.com compatibility. While not 100% necessary, I’d also like the ability to record an OTB game played on it and be able to export the pgn to analyze it with an engine (I know the squareoff does this but I’m not sure about the other two).

I’m having trouble deciding between these as they all have their own pros/cons. I love the portability and how lightweight the squareoff pro is, but at the same time I love how the Chessnut Air looks like just a normal chessboard. I also kinda like the gimmicky lights on the chessup, but would prefer a larger board. Does anyone have experience with one or more of these boards? And if so which would you recommend? Also, is there a better option than the 3 eboards I listed that is roughly the same price?

Thanks in advance! 

Go with a DGT !, If you are serious! 

Hey u0y,

the Chessnut Air allows you to directly interact with the desktop/mobile interface of Chess.com and Lichess (through JavaScript APIs, I guess) so there are no restrictions to their functionalities. Be mindful the Chessnut Air Pro (tournament size) is in pre-order at the time, but at a rather high price although it's not about its quality. About the ChessUp, its "light system" is useless for the purpose of chess learning process so, in my view, that's not a reason to buy it.

I would love to, but a DGT is out of my price range for the time being

The Chessnut Air is the only board in your list that has an open API and piece recognition.

The open API means there are multiple third-party apps that you can use with your board. Position setup is much easier with piece recognition, as you simply place the pieces on the board and the apps recognize which pieces are where.

Do you like the pieces? I know they are plastic, but do they still feel heavy/nice?

I have the Chessnut Air. It works very well on chess.com, using the native chess.com interface, which is great, and I like the pieces, though I would prefer the Air was a bit larger. The larger Chessnut Pro is available for pre-order. I would buy a Pro, as it looks great, except for what is personally a fatal flaw - it uses bright red move indicator lights, which I find unpleasant and unsettling - I can't shake the feeling that red flashing lights mean something's on fire. I am hoping that one day Chessnut will make a larger board with the nice green move indicator lights they use for the Chessnut Air.

Chessnut Air and SquareOff Pro both have the Windows driver available for connectivity with Fritz and Chessbase. Chessup has none (unusable in Windows for now) and its Andoid app is buggy.

I happen to have a Square Off Pro myself and read extensively on Chessnut Air reviews. In my opinion:

1. Get Square Off Pro if you intend to play OTB games outside and want the game moves recorded. It is VERY portable and does the job generally well. 

2. Get Chessnut Air for general functionalities of an electronic chess board. The only reasons I didn't get it are mainly aesthetics. (And the bigger pro version is would be a bit too bulky for me to be on the move with it.)

3. I don't understand why anyone would still recommend DGT for general personal use when these cheaper and more functional electronic chess sets have become available. DGT equipment are mainly good for tournament setting, or if you intend to have use it only at the comfort of your home. If you ever consider bringing it out, you better think twice. It's way too bulky, heavy, and in order for the board to record moves, you need to ensure availability of power supply (unless you get the more expensive version with in-built battery). 

I'm going with Chessnut air. I have had bad luck so far with shipping (seems like it might be lost) and you may want to reconsider if you order it off amazon. I ordered the phone holder and chess piece bag and its going to possibly take a month. Not to mention they attached someone elses tracking to the order and it shows as delivered and the photo of the fedex delivery is of a chessnut air box and not the phone holder. I seem to be the only one that has ordered and had an issue though. Just putting out there.

This was a great comparison, thank you!

That might be the worst experience with ordering something online that I’ve ever heard of. Hopefully everything gets sorted out!

@Bowser  Yes, it has been rather rough. I did finally get an update on my tracking and the board should arrive tomorrow. I have inquired with Chessnut over the phone holder/piece bag tracking having never update. 

I got a square off pro for Christmas

I had a square off pro for Christmas. It was too buggy. Support try to send a firmware update to fix. Update would not install. Try it on two Wi-Fi networks. Thinking about chestnut air or millennium eone.

Hey there, I have the chessnut air, and the chessup boards. So I can only compare these two. I'm interested in trying out a Square Off product one day, but they're in between product generations at the moment so I'm waiting for the new line to be more widely reviewed.

TLDR go with a Chessnut product. ChessUp is currently a prototype and isn't ready for mass adoption. Most of the value promises from ChessUp are future promises. 

Chessnut works better with android products than iOS in my experience. I don't have it setup on my PC or Mac so can't speak to desktop integrations. Overall I can accomplish all of the value promises Chessnut offers. The main draw is integration with chess.com where I can use my chessnut board to play games against humans and bots alike then post game analysis is simple right through chess.com.

Since chessup does not have a chess.com integration yet, this process to more trouble than it's worth. They do have a lichess integration but I wouldn't call it fully fleshed out as a feature. You have a very rough tool that isn't likely to satisfy all your needs.

Chessnut Air is the best option if compared to ChessUp for now. With Chessnut you can download 3rd party drivers for Windows so that you can connect to Chessbase or Fritz.

DGT is very good, i have one. But it is without LEDs. Chessup is good for children. Next i will buy the Chessnut Pro