DGT E-boards - worth the money?

Having come to the conclusion that trying to switch back and forwards from analysing positions on a computer screen to a 'real' chess board is hindering rather than helping my chess I was thinking about getting a DGT electronic board. Its a totally different perspective looking over a chessboard to staring at a 2D screen and I just find it difficult to adjust playing OTB.

They are crazy expensive though, I don't know if I can justify £400 ($600) as an amateur player with a 1650 rating!

Of course I could just play the moves on the computer and copy them on an analog chessboard so I was wondering what advantage there might be to shelling out the big bucks for a DGT board, if anyone here uses one?

I find a DGT eboard very useful when analyzing games from books (like My 60 Memorable games, etc.).

Analyzing on an ordinary board can be very difficult for beginners when faced with variations. When going deep into variations, one gets lost as it becomes difficult backtracking to original main line positions.

An eboard with, say, Fritz running helps immensely, as one can simply check out variations on the screen while keeping the main lines on the board. Also, the eboard will record all your games you might want to keep for posterity. :)

Playing with real pieces over the net is a bonus also. However, this is useful in non-blitz games only, as there's a delay involved with anouncing moves and moving actual pieces.

As a learning tool, I love it. The price is steep, though. Highly recommended if you can afford it.

-Izmet (http://bestchessmenever.com/blog/files/dgt-test.html)

I think the Novag Citrine chess computer can be linked to a PC. Still not cheap, but costs less than DGT boards.

Unfortunately the Novag Citrine reviews I've seen are universally unfavourable, it appears to be quite cheap and nasty for the price.

Not that I would compare my DIY boards with a DGT, but there's something to be said for giving it a look..

http://sishchess.blogspot.com

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/diy-chess-interface-boards

Done! It's cheap, < $30 all told depending on parts, it all started with my chess.com blog post from a year or so ago..

Post any questions you have.

-f

I know the DGT e board expensive, I have 2 of them. I also the PS3 and XBOX360 are expensives as well my understanding that the games cost around $60.00. I  find them fun to play when on the internet I normally play time controls 15min or 45/45 which is perfect for me. 

I actually use my iPhone or iPad as a chess computer and play the moves on an analog board. Chess.com is available as an app so I can use that as well :)

When playing on ICC (standard tourney G/60 on Tuesdays), for example, the DGT driver makes sure that the board represents the actual position on the screen (the driver warns you of discrepancies).  This is a big plus for me when playing online.

Sure, you can simply copy the position from the screen to a regular board, but you have to always double check to make sure you are copying the moves correctly and you have to spend much time looking on screen anyways to enter moves via the mouse.  With the DGT, you just have to glance at the screen to see the opponent move.  After a while, you get the impression you are playing OTB!

BTW, I am not sure they still do this, but they have rapid games on FICS on Fridays.  FICS via Babas chess supports the DGT board.  G/25 or longer games are not an issue with the DGT board. 

As for price, I have an old one (USB, I believe the new ones are bluetooth), but it outlasted my kids' Xbox, Playstation, Ipad, etc. So it is not that expensive in the scheme of things. 

You can also use a DGT board with PicoChess (google it).  You don't even need a computer/screen to play against stockfish, just the DGT clock with RaspberryPi.

True, I have one on order (DGT USB Board). I'm on a Mac so I have waited as there is no official support for it yet...

My main problem is (besides that the e board does not work with Mac OS X) that I can't use the board playing on chess.com either... As I don't use the Chessbase products and rarely play on ICC an e board would actually be a waste right now, but I still want one :)

I usually play on FICS, Playchess.com, and Lucas Chess is also a great that work with the DGT. I love playing longer time controls.

DGT BOARDS - BE WARNED - THEY DON'T WORK WELL VIA THE INTERNET AND ARE NOT SUPPORTED AT ALL BY chess.com

Hi, My friend and I both have recently purchased DGT boards, relatively new, purchased in the past few months, the USB versions. We have had nothing but head aches so far trying to play games with each other or other people across ICC.com and playchess.com (chessbase site). Chess.com does not support the DGT board at this time also, which is quite sad. We have done all that DGT support told us to do, downloaded and installed all their recommended drivers and software on now 5 Windows based computers, both 64 bit and 32 bit versions, loaded all their latest Rabbit plugins, and sent their support logs for analysis. We barely can get through a single game before the overall system stops working, either the ICC or playchess sites stop talking to the driver software (their Rabbit plugin) or the rabbit plugin stops communicating with the USB drivers (and sometimes unplugging the USB and plugging it back in will kick start the rabbit software again but other times it crashes and locks the computers up mid game. We have had to adjourn or abort more games then we can get through using the DGT boards via the Internet. While the boards seem much more stable using Fritz software directly, our primary goal was to use the boards via the Internet to play other people and gain practice for tournament play. Unfortunately, the software and websites interfacing with it don't seem to make DGT connectivity a priority, as for example chess.com does not even support them, and we are greatly disspointed in the overall experience so far. We are actively communicating with DGT support, sending them logs, doing what they tell us, but no luck in getting a reliable or enjoyable DGT based experience for either of us so far. So far, the DGT board is almost a big paperweight and waste of money for what we can do with it. We are hoping they and the sites get together and fix their software and drivers, but it appears DGT board owners are a minority and not important overall.

hi there webiron,

from my personal experience in owning both the USB and Bluetooth DGT boards i can personally say from my experience with the product that the Bluetooth board is by far the best board i've had, i love it !! it pretty much works flawlessly 85% of the time ! as for the USB board i myself had nothing but problems with connection issues aswell very difficult trying to get the board to maintain a stable connection was a royal pain in the arse most days!! and once it was connected you could barely concentrate on games you would play on it in fear of losing connection in one way or another especially if you accidently knocked the cable outta the board !!  as soon as i found out the bluetooth board was coming out, i immediately sold the USB board and bought the bluetooth board, must admit i was a little apprehensive at first, but no sooner than i got it outta the box set up was a piece of cake and i was playing in under 10mins with no problems !! only issues i have nowadays are "ghosting pieces" in the rabbit connect software but thats not a big problem very easy to resolve.  in short then if i was in your boots i would dump the USB on someone else and definately get the bluetooth board !!

I can say that I had no problems with the USB or Bluetooth boards.

ifekali wrote:

I find a DGT eboard very useful when analyzing games

He's talking about analyzing games that have been played in the past, not on-going games.

The only problem I had with the Bluetooth DGT board is getting it to work the PICO chess program.