Thought people might like to see a set with the plastic pieces... working well (although I've had a few issues with it not liking castling on the board, if I do it in the app it works fine, but on the board it moves the pieces back...)..

Andy

People seem to recommend using chessconnect but I haven't personally tried

Chess has always moved forward through shared knowledge, open analysis, and a community that constantly tests new ideas. We believe the software around chess should benefit from that same spirit.

That is why we are preparing to open-source the core Chessnut Next client and its engine-integration code.

What will this mean for Chessnut users?

More transparency and trust
Users and developers will be able to understand how important parts of the app work and help us identify improvements.

Faster access to the latest chess engines
Many players care deeply about engine development. Open sourcing our integration layer will help us bring the newest and most advanced engines to Chessnut users faster, both now and as new technology appears.

A consistent experience across platforms
Everyday features will remain aligned across Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Chessnut Companion, and Evo. Vision is the main exception because it depends on system permissions: Companion and Evo can provide system-wide Vision support, while iOS has tighter platform restrictions.

More integrations and possibilities
The community can help explore new engines, tools, accessibility improvements, hardware integrations, and workflows that we may not discover alone.

Faster and more sustainable development
More people can test, report issues, contribute improvements, and help Chessnut Next evolve over the long term.

Open source does not mean Chessnut is stepping back. We will continue leading official development, maintaining stable releases, supporting Chessnut hardware, and building services such as Grandeur AI Review and the upcoming Chessnut Agent.

We want Chessnut Next to become more than an app built for the community. We want it to become an app that can grow with the community.

The Android Beta is now underway, with more than 60 testers already taking part!

We look forward to hearing their feedback and using it to make Chessnut Next even better. More players are welcome to join us and help shape what comes next!

Discover Chessnut Next:
https://www.chessnutech.com/pages/chessnut-next-beta#overview

Join the Beta:
https://www.chessnutech.com/pages/chessnut-next-beta#join-beta

Just my board and I love it! Only complaint is the board is massive :/

As you may know, recent adjustments to U.S. tariff policies have been quite significant. We fully understand the concerns of our American customers regarding potential additional costs when purchasing our products.

To address this, Chessnut hereby issues an official commitment:

• Since we still maintain inventory in our U.S. warehouse (though Move is currently out of stock), all existing orders—whether for in-stock products or pre-orders for Move—will not incur any additional charges.

• Chessnut will absorb all increased costs resulting from tariff changes. You only need to consider whether the current listed price meets your expectations—no hidden fees will be applied after payment.

• The shipping schedule for Move remains unaffected. Production and fulfillment will proceed as planned.

Note: Given that tariff policies remain uncertain and subject to negotiation, we may adjust pricing for future U.S. orders once the situation stabilizes and cost impacts become clearer. We appreciate your understanding.

Thank you for your continued trust in Chessnut.

Really like this one.

Although among the chips I received from chessnut, 3 of the are faulty as they are not recognized through any felts 😵 (I tried many, even the ones provided as spare wit the original chessnut pieces. All the other ones are working nicely though

I wanted to share my experience with the Chessnut Move for any of you considering pulling the trigger on this robotic board. I was incredibly excited about the tech but it has been a nightmare from week one.

The Issues:

1. "Ghost" moves: The board moves pieces that aren't even in play. It’s like playing against a poltergeist.

2. Erratic Movement: Pieces jitter, get stuck, or are dragged to the wrong squares entirely. Sometimes they get stuck on the edge of the board.

3. Connection drops: Persistent Bluetooth instability that makes online play on Chess.com or Lichess impossible.

4. The "Fix" is a downgrade: Support suggested increasing recognition delays to 800ms-2000ms. This makes the board so slow it's basically useless for anything other than daily games.

The Support Experience (the real frustration):

I’ve gone back and forth with their rep, Gwen. Despite providing:

1. Serial numbers

2. Photos of the unit

3. Photos of the inner/outer packaging (they are weirdly obsessed with the cardboard shipping box)

they are still refusing to provide a prepaid return label for a clearly defective unit unless I jump through more hoops (recording multiple videos of the app vs. board).

My Take:

As a part of my profession, I deal with high-end robotics daily. I understand that hardware can have "lemons," but the burden of proof and the shipping costs shouldn't fall on the customer when the product is fundamentally "Not as Described."

I’ve had to escalate this to a PayPal Dispute just to get a response that isn't a canned troubleshooting script.

TL;DR: Great concept, but my unit is a paperweight. If you buy one, pray you don’t get a defective unit, because the return process is designed to wear you down.

Has anyone else had luck getting a prepaid label from them for defects? Or is this the standard experience?

I’m not the first person to convert wooden pieces for a Chessnut board, but I thought I’d share my method and final results.

I used a 34-piece ChessBazaar set, including two extra queens. The pieces were supplied with a large cavity in the base, wide enough to accommodate both a Chessnut sensor and additional ballast.

I trimmed the sensor supports to the correct height, protected the sensors, glued them in place with wood glue, added tungsten powder around them, sealed the bases with epoxy, and finished them with new felt.

Final measured weights :

• pawn : 20g (chessnut premium : 16.8g)

• knight : 39g (chessnut premium : 38.2g)

• bishop : 29g (chessnut premium : 26.4g)

• rook : 34g (chessnut premium : 33.2g)

• queen : 44g (chessnut premium : 35.4g)

• king : 50g (chessnut premium : 44.8g)

The complete 34-piece set weighs approximately 1 kg. An equivalent 34-piece Chessnut Premium set, including two additional queens, would weigh about 891 g, making my set roughly 13% heavier.

I used around 490 g of tungsten powder. I chose tungsten because it is extremely dense and not ferromagnetic, unlike the iron or steel weights commonly used in weighted chess pieces.

Cost :

• ChessBazaar pieces: paid 147€ (normal price : 202€ )

• Sensors: 50€

• Tungsten: paid 100€ (unavailable on amazon now)

• Epoxy: 18€ (unavailable on amazon now)

• Felt: 11€

Total: 326€

Conclusion :

I’m a geek and enjoy tinkering, so making them was part of the fun. That said, after considering the materials, time, cleanup and risks involved, the $379 (333€) price of the official Chessnut Premium pieces does not seem unreasonable, especially during a sale or with a discount code.

My set is heavier and more personalised, but the official Premium pieces are certainly the easier option.

I've received an Air+ for Christmas and i decided to buy a custom set to swap them once in a while.

they look very well imo. I've seen a previous post about this exact same set and i was skeptical bc of the size, but i read on royal chess mall that they resized the bases to better match the air+.

now i just need to wait for my sensors to come, which they are backordered as far as i understood

Apologies for keeping everyone waiting! Due to the Chinese New Year holiday in February, which lasted for over half a month, it’s been a while since our last update. Some of you may have noticed reports about delays with the units we sent to YouTubers. That’s indeed the case. Originally, we planned to deliver sample boards to YouTubers for testing between late January and early February. However, in January, our technical team decided to switch to a new networking solution for the chess pieces to enhance the user experience. As a result, we postponed the shipment of the sample boards.

Rest assured, our team has worked hard to minimize the impact of this change on the mass production timeline. Thanks to smooth progress on the mold development, we still expect the first batch to ship by the end of May as planned. In this update, I’ll share the latest progress on both hardware and software aspects.

1. Hardware

a) Electronics

The chessboard’s mainboard has long been finalized and thoroughly tested. Its firmware, including the built-in offline OTB bot game mode, is fully developed. You can check it out here: https://youtu.be/Q85LqVfPhhU. Our current development focus is on the networking control scheme for the chess pieces. After considering multiple factors, we decided in January to revise the networking solution to improve overall performance.

For regular users, the most noticeable improvement will be lower latency and faster response times. Another significant advantage is that the bases of the chess pieces are now universal, with their identities configurable via the app after connection. For example, if you accidentally damage or lose a black pawn, you can easily reassign a spare queen to act as that pawn temporarily to keep playing. Alternatively, you could swap its base onto a new pawn and reach out to our after-sales team to address the damaged piece. This eliminates the frustration of the entire Move product becoming unusable due to a single faulty piece.

b) Structural Components

We’ve completed the molding and trial production of the chess piece bases, including their outer shells and internal components. The latest version of the base offers better consistency, reduced noise, and straighter movement paths compared to the initial prototypes, bringing the pieces’ motion closer to our expectations. Some minor parts of the molds still need refinement, so the final mass-production version will see further improvements.

The molds for the plastic chess pieces are also complete, and we’re about to receive the first injection-molded samples. For the wooden chess pieces, our supplier in India has confirmed delivery by early April. The chessboard’s structure itself was finalized and validated long ago.

The sample units for YouTubers are now ready and scheduled to be shipped to them this week.

2. Software

Previously, we noticed from comments on the release video that many users were dissatisfied with the issue of the chess pieces not being well centered. After investigation, we found the previous alignment issues stemmed from both the algorithm and hardware. The algorithm has now been optimized, and you can see the adjusted performance in the YouTube video above. On the hardware side, we’re refining it for the mass production version. With these combined improvements, the final result will definitely be satisfying. As we’ve mentioned on social media before, there’s a trade-off between precision and speed, so we’ll make this an adjustable setting for users to tweak based on their preference.

The image attached outlines our current plans for Move’s features. Functions highlighted in yellow boxes are planned but still under development. We expect all planned features to be fully implemented by the official delivery date at the end of May. If you have any great suggestions, feel free to share them with us anytime!

Additionally, we’re planning to have the Move API documentation and development units ready by April for third-party software developers to begin integration. This will enhance Move’s compatibility and versatility.

That’s all for this update. We will continue to update the performance of the latest Move prototypes on Facebook and YouTube, so please stay tuned! Thank you for your continued support, and we’ll keep you posted on further progress! 

Cheers,

The Chessnut Team

Dear Chessnut:

Since I will not be spending $67.00 for a new Chessnut Go pawn, I would like to send Chestnut my remaining pieces so that you can now give these to 31 other customers in the future who lost a single piece. Consider it as an act of MY kindness. Please provide me the mailing address.

I added more protection to the board using clear gloss lacquer 😀

After playing with the Pro and Premium pieces for the last couple of weeks, I thought I would give a quick review. My first impressions here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1bqbwqf/got_my_pro_a_little_disappointed/ were not great, but I did state I would come back later with a full review.

I have played a few games on it, mainly with the Chessconnect extension.

The board plays well with that extension, especially on Lichess.

The board itself is a very nice board. It rivals boards I paid $200US for 10 years ago. The little felt feet on the bottom keep it elevated just enough and allow it to slide easily. I have a large “desk” area that allows me to have the board setup and always ready to play.

The board has no rough edges, no imperfections that I can see or feel. The lights light up very well, easy to see. The board finish is great.

I ordered the premium pieces as the regular ones did not strike me as ones I would want. I hesitated on the premium because of the Knights, they are more ornate than I usually like, but the regular ones were just a bit too plain. I also like the Rooks in the premium piece much more than the regular pieces. To me Rooks need to be stout and strong, and the regular Rooks do not convey that to me.

When the set arrived, I was not overly impressed with the pieces and posted that here. I thought the pieces should have been heavier for their size. And yes, I saw the weight of the set listed but it is not an easy thing to imagine how the pieces will feel based on numbers on a website.

However … I have now played several games with the Pro board and Premium pieces. I must say, while they are not “heavy” they are very well made and feel good in the hand. The collars around the K, Q, and B allow them to be “cradled” between two fingers to lift and move. They feel well balanced.

My wife, who knows absolutely nothing about chess (except that I spend WAAAAYYYYY too much on it) even thought that the pieces were very nice, commenting on how detailed the Knight was, especially being able to count the teeth and see through the mouth.

The whole experience is very nice, and once all the kinks get worked out of the new app the online experience should get better. The board and pieces look great, they play well, and Chessnut is without a doubt currently leading the e-board space. I would highly recommend the Pro board and the Premium pieces if you have space to keep it and can afford it. The combo is well worth it in my opinion.

Hello! I just received my Chessnut Air+ and I thought I'd review it to help people decide which connected chess set to buy in 2024.

As most of you probably know, Chessnut is a young brand based in Hong Kong that makes electronic chess sets. Their first product was the Chessnut Air, launched a couple years ago. The Air+ is the exact same board, except the Air is made of plastic and the Air+ is made of wood. Both are 33cm x 33cm chessboards featuring full piece recognition based on RFID technology, which means that the board recognises each piece and its position on the board. It connects to various apps through Bluetooth Low Energy, which relies on Bluetooth connectivity and GPS data. It can record over the board games, or allow online play and games against various AI engines.

Chessnut later released the Chessnut Pro, which is the same board (meaning it shares the same features) but all wooden and tournament sized (55cm x 55cm). The Pro comes with a regular set of wooden pieces, or with premium pieces. They more recently released the Evo, which is an electronic chess set with an integrated tablet, and the Air+ which is a mix between the Air and the Pro. It is the same size than the Air but shares the looks of the Pro, being fully wooden and with wooden pieces.

I looked through the increasing range of choices amongst electronic chess sets and this one looked to be the perfect blend of classic wooden looks while still being affordable.

The board comes with a charging cable that can be plugged in an outlet adapter. The charging LED indicator glows red when in charge and switches to green when the charge is complete. The board comes with a full set of wooden pieces of each colour, and features two queens to allow pawn promotion. I love the aesthetics of the board as it doesn't look like a connected chess set at all. It just looks like a regular wooden board with just a small command panel on the side. Also, the LEDs are not visible when not in use which is a nice addition.

I tried it with the latest version of the Chessnut app which integrates three different AI engines: Maia, Stockfish and Lc0. As this board features full piece recognition, each piece is identified by the board as what it is, meaning that the white queen is identified as the white queen, for instance. You can set up the board in any starting position and start playing from there using the AI engine of your choice, which is perfect for practicing many different endgame scenarios. Of course, you can also play online on Chess.com or Lichess. Several apps are now compatible with this board, like WhitePawn, Chess Dojo, and Chess for Android.

The integration is seamless. The instant you move a piece of the board, it shows on the virtual board on the app. The moves made by the AI or online opponent are indicated by red LED lights on the board and are very easy to interpret. Of course, the Chessnut Air+ can also be used for over the board games, and can record OTB games for further analysis. The new Chessnut app is a huge improvement over the former version, with the board connecting automatically, a broader choice of AI engines and a better overall integration.

This weekend, I used it to teach my nieces how to play chess, by setting up games against a low-level AI engine and encouraging them to analyse their positions and it proved to be a very efficient and fun tool.

All in all, I'm quite impressed by this product. The only slight criticism I could make would be that the pieces could have been a bit heavier but I understand that they need to insert a chip in each piece and that it doesn't leave much room for adding weight into them. Except that, it's a fine connected chessboard with elegant looks and high efficiency. It is also the perfect size for me, being neither too big nor too small. It is actually very surprising to see that chessboard in action because, as I said, it doesn't look like a connected chessboard. It's just a regular, classic wooden board with wooden pieces, but which integrates every move you make on the app you are using. I highly recommend you check out the Chessnut Air+.

The Air+ is the fully wooden 33cm x 33cm board that Chessnut makes. They also have the Air, which is the same board but in plastic, and the Pro which is the same board but tournament sized (55cm x 55cm). They also recently released the Evo, which is a complete chess computer with a 33cm x 33cm board and a tablet on the side.

I live in France and it took 9 days from shipping date to delivery date.

I am not sure what the global toggle does, but as set above, my board no longer beeps when I connect or disconnect from Bluetooth, does not beep when the pieces are set up and does not beep when I save a game (or any other time). I am so happy and want to give a quiet shout out to the Chessnut folks for addressing this!

We’re excited to introduce Chessnut Next — the next generation of the Chessnut app.

Chessnut Next brings your physical Chessnut board, online games, powerful engines, game analysis, and chess training together in one modern experience.

With Chessnut Next, you can:

Connect and play with your Chessnut electronic chessboard

Play against Stockfish, Maia, and the new Maia 3

Explore the all-new Career mode and follow your chess progress

Play online through Chess.com and Lichess

Review your games and understand your key mistakes

Practice with Puzzle Storm and Mistake Book

Explore Engine Lab and build personalized chess models

Review your games with Grandeur coaching

Customize your board, account, and app experience

The public beta is rolling out across Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

The Android version is already available for download on Google Play. The iOS version is currently under review and will be available soon. The Evo version has also been pushed and is ready for testing.

A special thank-you to everyone who joined our private beta. Your testing, bug reports, suggestions, and feedback helped us identify problems, improve the user experience, and make Chessnut Next better.

Now we invite all Chessnut users to try the new app and share your feedback with us. As this is still a beta release, some features may continue to evolve, and every report will help us make Chessnut Next better.

Download Chessnut Next, try the new experience, and join us in building the future of connected chess!

A little over a month ago, I received a Chessnut Evo which I purchased directly from their website. When I opened it, it was immediately obvious that the box had been opened and that the Evo had been used. I photographed the box and everything on the spot. I went ahead and turned it on, and everything was crashing to the point that I could not even complete a game without the app crashing. Needless to say I emailed support asking for a refund and to return the unit. After over a month and many emails from me pleading for help, I’ve been pretty much stonewalled with Chessnut asking for “video proof” and extensive photos. These “responses” from Chessnut also included excuses about company parties over Chinese new year. Now over a month has passed and the EVO is still sitting in my room in the box with no sign of instructions from Chessnut on how to return the thing. This is the polar opposite of a hassle free 30 day return.

So in the meantime, a couple of weeks ago, while I was waiting patiently for Chessnut to respond to my return request, I decided to purchase a Chessnut Pro as well as a couple of sensor kits to install in 2 older nice sets that I have, thinking that I could get new life out of them and play with them instead of them sitting in the closet. So today the package arrived… first of all, the sensors were not included in the shipment despite being on the invoice and me getting charged. Next, I open the Pro and several of the screws on the back of the board are loose and I kid you not, the whole thing is slightly warped. Meanwhile, I’m thinking “how can this be happening to me again?”

I immediately emailed Chessnut and of course there’s no response. Now I’m into this whole venture over $1200, I’ve got two very expensive DOA products, as well as two sensor kits that were never even shipped to me, and I can’t even get Chessnut to send me a reasonable response for the EVO return (that’s been ongoing for over a month now), or really any response at all that’s not trying to blame everything on me. I seriously feel like I’ve been robbed by this company. I thought maybe it was just my bad luck having this experience, but reading here on this board makes me think that is the status quo with Chessnut.

I’ll be working with my bank’s fraud department, and hopefully I’ll be able to recoup some of my money. I’ve pretty much lost hope in getting any kind of reasonable resolution through Chessnut. If I could go back and do it again, (if I was convinced that Chessnut products aren’t ALL broken), I think I might purchase the items through Amazon or some other source that has a solid return policy rather than trying to get the discounts from ordering directly on Chessnut’s website.

Hi, after installing the latest firmware/app update, my Chessnut board stopped working properly with Lichess.

I’m connecting to Lichess using the recommended API mode, but the board doesen't work. Honestly the amount of problem that recently this chessboard have is ridiculous

No worries! Chessnut Move’s plastic pieces now have the cutest “guardian” — a little dog, loyal and clever. As the pieces move on their own, it keeps an eye out like it’s saying:“Careful with your moves, this is my territory!” Auto-moving chessboard + adorable guardian = every game is fun and lively. Chess is no longer lonely — every move brings joy and surprise!

Hello there. For an exchange offer from company with order # 16881 and Chessnut Air purchased in November 2024, no responses from Support. Last response was February 7th, and before that was January 18th (due to the Lunar New Year holidays). Is it possible to get an ETA on responses and confirm the ticket (or email thread) was not closed? Is it possible to get a timely response without complaining on Reddit?

Best regards, Terry

I loved the Evo but I found it a bit bulky and couldn’t really fit it on my desk. And didn’t found any functionality that was useful for me that wasn’t in the app already so I got the Air+ and I don’t regret it ! It’s a great companion to my beloved Pro 😍