Chessnut Air Electronic Chess Board with AI — Handcrafted Wooden Board, LED Indicators, Adaptive Difficulty, Full Piece Recognition — Play Online on Major Chess Platforms

After rediscovering chess, I found myself playing games on chess.com every day. Even after thirty minutes, my eyes would get bloodshot from being fixed on my tiny phone screen. I did a lot of online research to find an eboard, and settled on the Chessnut Air. I was deciding between Chessnut Air, Chessnut Air+, Chessnut Pro, Chessnut Evo, and Chessup. First I ruled out the boards with onboard computers (Evo and Chessup), since my favorite thing to do is play real opponents and I like using game analysis on my phone. Chessup was easy to rule out from one look at their product support forum and all the raging users telling the founder that he had swindled them. I then ruled out Chessnut Pro. Due to the board's massive size, it would take over half my desk, and it would be too easy for that symbolize the impact of chess on my life. Also consider that, with online play, you will need to rotate the board depending on if you are black or white, so the board takes more space than it appears to. The smaller size of the Air has not been an issue for me. I chose the Chessnut Air due to the crudeness of the wooden pieces on the plus. I like the aesthetics of the plastic Air pieces. Also, the board and pieces look enough like wood or ivory that the effect is about the same, for me. After all, it is an e-board, so I'd rather have a plastic one that looks like wood instead of a wood one with crude pieces. A common complaint I have seen on boards like the Air is something like, "You could just put your phone next to a regular board and do the same thing." From my experience there is a HUGE difference. Yes, there is a chessboard UI on the phone during the game, but I forget my phone is there and never look at it. When I do look at the phone, it is to glance at the clock, or confirm which piece my opponent's pawn is promoted to. The lag hasn't been a problem. It seems to be less than a second per move. I have not experienced a single issue using this board after a month of daily use. I was concerned that worrying about the board's reliability could affect my games, but I am not even thinking about the board while playing. Both chess.com and lichess integrations work flawlessly. Both integrations work within the Chessnut app using the chess.com/lichess website, not the mobile app. Some people complain about this, but I don't care, considering I am not looking at the app during the game. After the game, I go into the chess.com app and analyze it. It's possible to analyze through the Chessnut app, but it's more awkward since it is a website on phone through an app. The board UX is great. If the king and queen are in the wrong spot or you knock a piece over, the leds just light up and you swap them. Battery life lasts for lots of games - too many to count, maybe ten or fifteen. At first I was leaving the board plugged in, until I read that the battery life will probably exceed the life of the board. If the battery ever fails, an external battery would work. The only minor hiccup was setting up chess.com integration. It wasn't letting me do it, and I found that I needed to convert my gmail SSO password to a local password. Considering this integration is a core feature of the board, it would have been nice to have a little card in the box explaining this, instead of needing to google it. Ultimately, this board has greatly improved my enjoyment of playing online chess.

Probably the coolest and most fun thing I’ve purchased in years. I first thought that the pieces move on their own and was sad to discover that the board just lights up and you have to move the pieces yourself on both sides. But I found it to be super easy to understand and do and really fun that I could take this board anywhere and play a game of chess. Playing over the board is so much more different than on screen. Much harder, but it’s the real deal. This is a great product and I’m happy to own it.

Absolutely love this board! The battery life is great. The board is compatible with chess.com, lichess and chessable with the handler app/extension or third party web extensions (chessconnect). It's not regulation size, it's a little smaller, but I think it's perfect for analyzing. I haven't had any issues yet and love having a physical board for my online games and studies! Well worth it!

I actually own two of these boards, one for home and one for vacation house. I use it to play the bots on Chess.com and real opponents on Chess.com and LiChess. In addition I've used Chess Dojo and Chess for Android and probably some other apps with this board. The Chessnut Air has worked very well with all of the apps using apple, android and windows based devices. The best part of the Chessnut Air is that it's the oldest of the Chessnut products. For the most part, the bugs have been worked out and there is no need to contact Chessnut for customer service. Customer service at Chessnut is pretty much non-existent in my experience. Another reason I gave four stars is because it's hard to tell how full the battery is. There is an icon on the app but I think it only shows full, half-full and empty. I'd like a little more information about the charge level of the battery. Even 5 bars would be an improvement. Finally, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to access the battery if it needs replacement. Some of the other Chessnut products have an access hatch to get at the battery. There may be an easy way to do it that I just don't know about. Overall, the Chessnut Air is a great choice regardless of your chess level. The fact that it works with so many apps makes it appropriate for any chess level. It simply works better than any other chess computer I've owned.

I thought a lot before pulling the trigger on this one, read the Amazon reviews, watched a lot of Youtube videos about the Chesssnut air and so far I’ve been very happy with the product. I am mainly using this board for online play 15+10 at least and otb studies. It does its job very well done and the craftsmanship looks very polished, price wise I will say this one is fair, it could have been better but it also could have been worse. Pros: - Accurate piece recognition. - Beautiful board and pieces design. - Smooth online performance, it connects effortlessly to major platforms like Chess.com and Lichess via its app. - The Chessnut app offers nice features besides online play like: Bot match (Maia, Stockfish, Leela and more), and some nice settings like: Limbo Move Delay which allows you to adjust the move input up to 3000Ms. If you like sliding the pieces on the board I recommend adjusting the setting from 150Ms to 300Ms according to your preference, these settings helps a lot so it doesn’t accidentally register the wrong square while you are sliding the pieces on the board. Cons: - Chess pieces are small and light for my taste. - Board size could have been a little bit bigger like 15 or 17 inches instead of 13. - LED dots on squares are not hidden, it was annoying to me at first but I got used to it. You have to pay more for the upgraded Chessnut air+ if you want a more pleasing look. Overall I give this product a solid 8 out of 10. It deserves 5 starts review on Amazon because you get a lot of value for the money spent. Until a few years ago you would have to spend a lot more to get the same features this board offers. It’s nice to see an affordable and quality product on the market now. There are actually many more options available out there. Just do your research like I did and pick whatever it’s best for you. For me the Chessnut air is the winner! Cheers.

I play a lot of online chess and very little over a physical board, so I bought this specifically to improve my live-board skills—and it’s the perfect solution. It works flawlessly and syncs easily with Lichess and Chess.com, letting you play online games while moving real pieces. I had one small hiccup at first: the app didn’t recognize the board until I enabled Bluetooth access. After that, it’s been smooth. The price is spot on, and not taking advantage of the current 20% discount would honestly be a mistake. The board itself is excellent. The pieces are a bit light, but totally fine; heavier or wooden pieces are optional upgrades, not necessities. It also works great for in-person games and records moves automatically so you can analyze later. It’s simple, does everything the more expensive boards do, and costs about half as much. I considered the Evo but chose this instead—glad I did. The built-in “brain” on the Evo makes it larger and bulkier, which I didn’t want. If you want to play online chess but move physical pieces, this is an excellent—and easier than expected—solution Note: in my opinion this would be appropriate for any age or anyone who plays chess.

Solid quality. User friendly and great compatibility with all the major online chess platforms. Highly recommended.

Doing online games, and using the clock mode in the app works great. Unfortunately the offline OTB mode (which is what I mainly wanted it for) seems to only be able to record the first 15-20 moves. I have not gotten a single game to record fully which is very disappointing.

Very nice. High quality. Excellent gift for my fiancé for when I dont want to play chess with him, he is able to play it online and still get the feel of playing it with actual pieces

Great product

Fonctionne très bien, permet de se confronter à d'autres personnes en ligne tout en déplaçant les pièces en réel donc c'est super

Endlich Mal ein spielbares PC Brett! Noch dazu mit vernünftigem Preis (knapp 200 Euro im Dezember 25). Hatte kurz ein Dgt Pegasus .. zumindest auf lichess kaum spielbar. Die Figurenerkennung ist meines Erachtens nach ein muss für solch ein Gerät und funktioniert hervorragend. Auch die Bekanntgabe des Protokolls so dass unabhängige Programmierer das Brett für ihre Software nutzen können find ich toll von Chessnut!

Great chess board, although sometimes longer to sync with the app. While playing sometimes when you move the computer piece, there is a slight delayed.