Nice review! It is a great little board, I know I have had one for about a month now. It has really helped me improve on my chess game in the short time I have had it. Could you do a comparison on this board and the Chessup board. Which do you like better?
I've pre-ordered the 4XR Classic model of this board - bigger/heavier/thicker wood-look plastic board, wooden Staunton pieces and the big selling point of 4 robots inside the board that can move the pieces. It's a lot more expensive with shipping fees, custom duty and VAT making it an eye-watering price. I really don't like that "all-green" default mode of highlighting squares that the player to move's pieces are on - seems pointless because the pieces are on the squares anyway! The modes should be off (the default IMHO), highlight pieces that be legally moved in green and maybe the same legal highlighting but colour-shaded (shades of green, shades of yellow and shades of red for good, OK and bad moves [using ponder multi-PV and colouring based on the best move for that piece - I'd also want a mode where that pondering/colouring went on continuously so that it would go deeper on its hint search]). I think this Mini board isn't really all that competitive - the app is a bit too basic (speech synthesis, speech recognition, board lighting options [colours, brightness, pattern animations for startup and checkmate], position setups and load/save games are all missing), no piece recognition (not a dealbreaker but rival boards have it and the robotic version will sorely miss it) and just being too late to market (rival boards with coloured hint lights have existed for some time now) means it'll be a tough sell. The robotic version isn't coming out until at least May 2025 and that's the one that's far more interesting, albeit probably priced out of most people's reach. I did make a lot of suggestions to Particula about the Gochess board and they said they'd put them on their todo list, but looking at the app today, pretty well nothing I've suggested has turned up. I think that piece recognition is a "nice to have" on a board where you have to move the pieces for each side yourself manually, but it becomes quite a bad omission on the robotic one because without it, if you have the pieces on random squares, the robots can't reset the board position to the start or to a puzzle chess position or even move the pieces to where you'd saved a game (not that the app seemed to have a save game feature yet!).
Yes I agree with ilypu in many respects, I think that the company could rertainly make some modifications on the software end of things and it would already make this a better product all around!
I wouldn’t buy a kickstarter of a product so expensive with such a lackluster prototype. Putting a lot of trust into something that’s likely going to be trash
what's the King size ? Pawn size. How light or heavy are the pieces ? are they so light / plastic which may fall fast from a small blow of air ? or they SIT FIRM on the board due to their average weight?
Just bought this second hand for €155 including shipping. This is my first E-board and I am semi excited. Im from Europe so importing quality e-boards from - for example - chessnut is quite expensive. What do you think about e-boards that work exclusively with apps to function, if the app isn't supported anymore - for whatever reason - and disappears you just have a normal chessboard? That is one of my fears haha. Did you find out in the end if you could dim the lights?
Dumb question but how does piece recognition matter? Doesn’t it know where all the pieces are starting and where you moving so it should know what piece is on each square?
Piece recognition helps when setting up pieces and puzzles on the board. Let's say if you're using board editor and you want to set up a position and continue playing from there, you can simply place the pieces and the pieces will automatically register. Therefore saving you the hassle of toggling between types of pieces and registering manually. You will also about accidentally placing wrong pieces on the board when they shouldn't be there.
good review. the design is not a problem but the bishop is way too taller for me. that sets me off not to buy this unless they give it for a very less price.
I agree I think the bishop is a bit awkwardly tall for the set but not terrible. I think the price is competitively set, but they could offer a bit more on the software end of things!
Does not come with a charger. Arrived on christmas with no way to play. Only came with a cable. Had to use my phone to charge it. Pieces can be changed incorrectly without any indication or registering that it happened. Requires internet and a smart phone to play. Cannot play without a connection. Just a regular chess board without. That was misleading because it never mentioned that. Only mentions 3 options for play. And there ARE NO instructions. Not online or even on the app. How do you castle. I could not get this think to register I was castling and tried numerous ways. How do you take back a move? So many issued without instructions. It seems to be glitchy in the way you play. I can take back a move since it registered my castle as me only moving my rook but the move it made stays lit and never shuts off and it continues to play from where it left off even if you take the moves back. Never was able to get one game played all the way through. I have about 12 smart phones and tablets and only two would work. I dont want to use my cell for my son to play so there was only one other option meaning if I dont want to use that one I have to buy a whole new dedicated tablet just for this device. DONT BUY! And after all this the only thing they will do is send a replacement or repair. No returns accepted. Never had a ruined christmas for my son before but this did it.
So I received the classic version for Christmas. I can confirm that the AI is super buggy. 1ST, the AI told me the best opening move was G4, which is absolutely not a common opening by any means. This was at level 4 AI. On higher levels, the best move seems to work ok. As a beginners learning tool I think its important to show bad moves consistently and should work as advertised. This board will allow beginers to hang a queen, lose a knight and blunder a bishop. The red circle indicators are not consistent as you saw in the video. I am surprised he glanced over that. The lighting system and AI are inconsistent and not accurate. There is no owners manual and this review on youtube is all i could find. The app is basic but stable. Super sketchy if you ask me. I put in a support ticket with particula. I guess we will see what they say..hoping for a firmware update to fix the bugs.
EVERYONE BE AWARE AND CAREFUL WITH THIS COMPANY. I ordered this board before watching this video…….shame on me. From their advertising, I assumed this board at this price would have piece recognition. It does not. When I tried to return the board I was told that if I had opened the package they would NOT give me a refund. I went back and forth with them several times and I was HONEST with them and told them that I did open the box and found out that this board was not a state of the art intelligent board. They told me they would not give me a refund. I am very upset that I am now STUCK with this board………….anyone want to buy it from me???? (LOL(
This chess set the pieces didn't move, at least not to my knowledge. I have followed them for a while, I think they have been developing a different bigger board with moving pieces. Maybe I'll get to review it someday.
This is the Mini variant. Just like the Lite version (same but tournament size), it does not feature self-moving pieces. That is exclusive to the 1XR and 4XR variants which will be released in 2025 (I hope so at least…). These boards will be a lot thicker to allow for the movement mechanisms
beautiful chess set
Great video, very interesting to see new products in this space. I’m still happy with my DGT Pegasus from a few years ago.
I am glad you enjoyed the video! Thank you for watching! The Pegasus is great, it's very similar.
Thank you for the video!
Thank you for tuning in!!
This is interesting but it sounds like the Chessnut Go or Air are better buys.
Nice review! It is a great little board, I know I have had one for about a month now. It has really helped me improve on my chess game in the short time I have had it. Could you do a comparison on this board and the Chessup board. Which do you like better?
I've pre-ordered the 4XR Classic model of this board - bigger/heavier/thicker wood-look plastic board, wooden Staunton pieces and the big selling point of 4 robots inside the board that can move the pieces. It's a lot more expensive with shipping fees, custom duty and VAT making it an eye-watering price.
I really don't like that "all-green" default mode of highlighting squares that the player to move's pieces are on - seems pointless because the pieces are on the squares anyway! The modes should be off (the default IMHO), highlight pieces that be legally moved in green and maybe the same legal highlighting but colour-shaded (shades of green, shades of yellow and shades of red for good, OK and bad moves [using ponder multi-PV and colouring based on the best move for that piece - I'd also want a mode where that pondering/colouring went on continuously so that it would go deeper on its hint search]).
I think this Mini board isn't really all that competitive - the app is a bit too basic (speech synthesis, speech recognition, board lighting options [colours, brightness, pattern animations for startup and checkmate], position setups and load/save games are all missing), no piece recognition (not a dealbreaker but rival boards have it and the robotic version will sorely miss it) and just being too late to market (rival boards with coloured hint lights have existed for some time now) means it'll be a tough sell.
The robotic version isn't coming out until at least May 2025 and that's the one that's far more interesting, albeit probably priced out of most people's reach. I did make a lot of suggestions to Particula about the Gochess board and they said they'd put them on their todo list, but looking at the app today, pretty well nothing I've suggested has turned up.
I think that piece recognition is a "nice to have" on a board where you have to move the pieces for each side yourself manually, but it becomes quite a bad omission on the robotic one because without it, if you have the pieces on random squares, the robots can't reset the board position to the start or to a puzzle chess position or even move the pieces to where you'd saved a game (not that the app seemed to have a save game feature yet!).
Yes I agree with ilypu in many respects, I think that the company could rertainly make some modifications on the software end of things and it would already make this a better product all around!
I wouldn’t buy a kickstarter of a product so expensive with such a lackluster prototype. Putting a lot of trust into something that’s likely going to be trash
I pre-ordered and still waiting an extra year almost. Too bad I cannot back out from the kickstarter project
Thank you for the review! After seeing it doesn't have piece recognition is a no go for me. Chessnut seems to be superior
I agree, I think it's ok for some basic game, but just like the square off pro, could get in trouble sometimes.
what's the King size ? Pawn size. How light or heavy are the pieces ? are they so light / plastic which may fall fast from a small blow of air ? or they SIT FIRM on the board due to their average weight?
Just bought this second hand for €155 including shipping. This is my first E-board and I am semi excited. Im from Europe so importing quality e-boards from - for example - chessnut is quite expensive. What do you think about e-boards that work exclusively with apps to function, if the app isn't supported anymore - for whatever reason - and disappears you just have a normal chessboard? That is one of my fears haha. Did you find out in the end if you could dim the lights?
Are you enjoying the board? I am considering one as well
👍😊
Thanks for watching!
Dumb question but how does piece recognition matter? Doesn’t it know where all the pieces are starting and where you moving so it should know what piece is on each square?
Piece recognition helps when setting up pieces and puzzles on the board. Let's say if you're using board editor and you want to set up a position and continue playing from there, you can simply place the pieces and the pieces will automatically register. Therefore saving you the hassle of toggling between types of pieces and registering manually. You will also about accidentally placing wrong pieces on the board when they shouldn't be there.
do other magnetic pieces work on the board?
I am not really sure, that's a good question though, I would have to test if I have the time. Thank you for watching!
good review. the design is not a problem but the bishop is way too taller for me. that sets me off not to buy this unless they give it for a very less price.
I agree I think the bishop is a bit awkwardly tall for the set but not terrible. I think the price is competitively set, but they could offer a bit more on the software end of things!
Does not come with a charger. Arrived on christmas with no way to play. Only came with a cable. Had to use my phone to charge it. Pieces can be changed incorrectly without any indication or registering that it happened. Requires internet and a smart phone to play. Cannot play without a connection. Just a regular chess board without. That was misleading because it never mentioned that. Only mentions 3 options for play. And there ARE NO instructions. Not online or even on the app. How do you castle. I could not get this think to register I was castling and tried numerous ways. How do you take back a move? So many issued without instructions. It seems to be glitchy in the way you play. I can take back a move since it registered my castle as me only moving my rook but the move it made stays lit and never shuts off and it continues to play from where it left off even if you take the moves back. Never was able to get one game played all the way through. I have about 12 smart phones and tablets and only two would work. I dont want to use my cell for my son to play so there was only one other option meaning if I dont want to use that one I have to buy a whole new dedicated tablet just for this device. DONT BUY! And after all this the only thing they will do is send a replacement or repair. No returns accepted. Never had a ruined christmas for my son before but this did it.
👍👍👍
So I received the classic version for Christmas. I can confirm that the AI is super buggy. 1ST, the AI told me the best opening move was G4, which is absolutely not a common opening by any means. This was at level 4 AI. On higher levels, the best move seems to work ok. As a beginners learning tool I think its important to show bad moves consistently and should work as advertised. This board will allow beginers to hang a queen, lose a knight and blunder a bishop. The red circle indicators are not consistent as you saw in the video. I am surprised he glanced over that. The lighting system and AI are inconsistent and not accurate. There is no owners manual and this review on youtube is all i could find. The app is basic but stable. Super sketchy if you ask me. I put in a support ticket with particula. I guess we will see what they say..hoping for a firmware update to fix the bugs.
They need to get the piece recognition sorted , till then its a no go for me
EVERYONE BE AWARE AND CAREFUL WITH THIS COMPANY. I ordered this board before watching this video…….shame on me. From their advertising, I assumed this board at this price would have piece recognition. It does not. When I tried to return the board I was told that if I had opened the package they would NOT give me a refund. I went back and forth with them several times and I was HONEST with them and told them that I did open the box and found out that this board was not a state of the art intelligent board. They told me they would not give me a refund. I am very upset that I am now STUCK with this board………….anyone want to buy it from me???? (LOL(
Cuanto es el Precio?...
I don't understand something, sir. This company wasn't doing self-moving chess. What's happening?
This chess set the pieces didn't move, at least not to my knowledge. I have followed them for a while, I think they have been developing a different bigger board with moving pieces. Maybe I'll get to review it someday.
This is the Mini variant. Just like the Lite version (same but tournament size), it does not feature self-moving pieces. That is exclusive to the 1XR and 4XR variants which will be released in 2025 (I hope so at least…). These boards will be a lot thicker to allow for the movement mechanisms
Oh my, those pieces are truly fugly.
They are certainly different! Thanks for watching.