A Connection That Transcends the Board: The Story of Chessconnect

I'm a believer in serendipity. It was only after a frustrating search for a solution to my e-board's connection issues that I stumbled upon a piece of software that changed my online chess experience. That software is Chessconnect, a Chrome extension that worked flawlessly on the first try. It not only solved my technical problems but also unlocked new possibilities, like playing bot games and using the Chess.com coach with my physical board.

Chessconnect has truly elevated my enjoyment of the game. I wanted to share this discovery with others who might be facing similar frustrations and, more importantly, to get to know the brilliant mind behind the creation. Join me as I interview Jörn Gehring, the creator of Chessconnect, to discuss his journey, his passion for chess, and the future of his software.

Introducing Chessconnect

Sawbonez (SB): "Can you give us a short introduction to Chessconnect and what it does for people who aren't familiar with it?"

Jörn Gehring (JG): "Certainly. Chessconnect is a universal tool that allows popular chess sites like chess.com, lichess.org, noctie.ai, or chessiverse.com to be used with electronic chess boards. It supports many brands of chess boards. In most cases, it provides significantly more features and a more stable connection than the original app provided by the board manufacturers. Chessconnect was originally written as a browser extension for Chrome. This makes it really easy to use in a desktop environment. I might even go as far as to say that for using an electronic chess board together with a PC, Mac, or Laptop, Chessconnect is currently the best option. However, it is also available as an app for Android and iOS.

It is being developed in close cooperation with the chess board manufacturers and the chess sites it supports, so using it is perfectly legal. I published the first version of Chessconnect in 2023. Now it is used by thousands of chess enthusiasts all over the world on a daily basis.

So, long story short, if you own an electronic chess board or think about buying one: you definitely should have a look at Chessconnect."

The Person Behind the Software

SB: "I noticed we both have doctoral degrees. I practice medicine in the United States; tell us a little bit about what you do."

JG: "That’s right. I discovered the world of programming when I was about 14 years old. It was the '80s and computers were just becoming available for home use. Looking back, I think I was born at exactly the right time. My parents bought me one of those Commodore C64 home computers, and from that time on, I wanted to become a software developer. Nearly 10 years later, I got my master's degree in computer science and another 5 years later, I became a Ph.D. My focus of interest was on high-performance computing, and I wrote my thesis about what is nowadays known as cloud computing. Those years of learning and researching on the frontier of what was possible with computers were incredibly exciting, and I am still happy to have been given that chance.

After that, I left academia and became head of development in a small software company. I got this job in 2000 and have been doing and loving it for 25 years now. It is less exciting than my years in research but still fun and fulfilling."

SB: "What about your personal chess journey? When did you start playing, and what role has chess played in your life over the years?"

JG: "My chess story is much less straightforward than my computer career. My father taught me how the pieces moved when I was still a little kid. But he didn’t really love the game and consequently did not kindle much love in me either. Then, in my late teens, I gave it another go but again did not get very far. I always lost to those bishops hiding in some remote corner of the board—completely out of my focus. I could not get my head around the fact that in chess, everything is connected. A move of a piece in one corner of the board can drastically change the character of another piece seemingly far away from the action. This is exactly what now fascinates me about chess, but at that time, I found it frustrating.

It took almost 40 years until I gave chess a third chance. It was shortly after the pandemic. But it was not really related to the Covid times nor was I influenced by 'The Queen's Gambit.' It was the fact that it had become possible to use computers for learning chess. So I bought a Chessnut Air chess board and created an account on chess.com. And this time, I made it past the initial steep learning curve of chess and into that new world where the positions on the board started to mean something. A whole new world opened up! Don’t get me wrong, I still suck at chess like most of us do, but I found my love for the game. And I do not think that I am ever going to lose it."

The Story of Chessconnect

SB: "When did you start building this software, and what prompted you to write it? Was there an 'aha' moment when you realized it was needed?"

JG: "It all started when I bought that Chessnut Air board in 2023 and started playing on chess.com. Back then, the Chessnut app was not as mature as it is now. A lot of features from chess.com were not available through the app, and there was a bug which repeatedly got me kicked from online tournaments after the first or second round. It took me a while to realize that this was indeed caused by a bug in the Chessnut app. And then my software developer ego kicked in, and I started looking for ways to fix it. I decided to try writing a Chrome extension that could replace the Chessnut app for me. I never intended it to be used by others. It was initially written only to enable me to play a tournament on chess.com without getting kicked. Looking back now, the decision to go for an extension was what paved the road for the future success of my work.

As a first step, I wrote a quick proof of concept to see if I could:

• read the position from chess.com

• transmit moves to chess.com

• read the position from my Chessnut board

• control the LEDs on the board

Fortunately, Graham O’Neil, who wrote Graham’s Driver, had already solved the last two topics and made his solution public. Had he not done that, Chessconnect would not exist today. If I remember correctly, my proof of concept was written in one weekend. And from there, it was just another two or three weeks until I had a hastily written piece of software which finally enabled me to play my tournaments. The original plan was to stop there. But I knew that others were struggling with that tournament bug, too, so I decided to make my solution public. I took the time to solidify the software and make it robust enough to be used by others.

Originally, Chessconnect was only intended as a bugfix or workaround for the problems I had with the Chessnut app. But then German chess enthusiast Bernd Haehnle, who had very good contacts with Millennium, approached me and asked if I would be interested in adapting Chessconnect to Millennium boards, too. And that is basically when my little bug fix started to turn into something much bigger."

SB: "How has the reception of your software been in the online chess community? Do you have a way to gauge how many people are using Chessconnect right now?"

JG: "When I decided to make Chessconnect publicly available, I was expecting maybe 10 to 20 users. And initially that was the case. But the number of users kept growing and growing. What I still find remarkable is how supportive the chess community is. Of course, Chessconnect in its early days had lots of bugs and limitations. But with very few exceptions, every user who ran into some kind of problem or was missing a feature was extremely patient and supportive. There were many problems that I could not reproduce and where I needed a user to help me out and do some testing for me, sometimes for many days or even weeks. And seldom have I encountered such patience in my other life as a professional software developer. My guess is that chess players just like a challenge and enjoy solving problems. At the end of the day, that is the key factor in the development of Chessconnect. Had I not received this tremendous support from the chess community from the early days on, Chessconnect would not exist today.

And to answer the second part of your question: at the time of writing, Chessconnect has around 4000 active users. That is not a huge number, but the community is large enough to give us some weight in the world of electronic chess boards."

SB: "What was the biggest challenge you faced when you were working on the software?"

JG: "That might come as a surprise, but the biggest challenge by far was to get accepted by chess.com. In the early days, Chessconnect existed in a gray area where using it on chess.com was not considered cheating but it was not officially allowed either. That was why many of the stronger players were reluctant to use it. It took a long time until finally Chessconnect was acknowledged by chess.com and granted access to the official API. For me that meant I had to rewrite large sections of my code to switch from simulated mouse clicks to the API. But once that was done, it was a real breakthrough. I still use the simulated mouse clicks for features not supported by the API. That is probably why Chessconnect became so popular. It can access features of a chess site that are not available through any API. And it can deal with chess sites that do not have one, like chessable.com for instance, which is my current project."

SB: "I'm currently only familiar with your Chessconnect software. Do you have anything else out there that you'd like to share with the world?"

JG: "Not really. I started Chessconnect as a fun project for myself. And that has not changed. I keep developing it further because I enjoy doing it and because the chess world is such a supportive community. In my work life, I constantly have to deal with multiple topics simultaneously. In chess, I can focus on one single thing—either the game at hand or the next feature for Chessconnect. I enjoy that very much. And that is how I treat Chessconnect, too. I grant myself the luxury of only dealing with one topic at a time and take the time to get all the little details right. So, no, there is nothing else. I focus on Chessconnect and continue to improve it slowly but steadily."

The Future of Chessconnect

SB: "New e-boards seem to be released pretty regularly nowadays. How do you decide which ones you are going to support?"

JG: "Sometimes the manufacturers approach me and ask if I want to include support for their board. I usually do. And sometimes users ask me about some boards I did not know before. I then contact the manufacturer and ask them if they are interested in having their board included in Chessconnect. I do not charge any money for that—just a sample board for testing and some technical support along the way. If the manufacturer is willing to provide that, I will do the integration. And it works the same way with chess websites."

SB: "Any thoughts on the future of Chessconnect? Is there anything you want to share with the world?"

JG: "Chessconnect exists because chess websites neglect the electronic chess board community and because many of the board manufacturers focus more on the hardware and less on the software. Should this ever change, Chessconnect will become superfluous. Until then, I will continue to add new boards and more chess sites. I am also thinking of adding a stand-alone mode where Chessconnect can be used to record games, export PNG files, and control a chess clock or provide one. Other than that, the development is mostly user-driven. Players post interesting new ideas on the Chessconnect Discord server, and when an idea is backed up by others or poses an interesting challenge, I will try to add it. However, I try to stick to the old Unix paradigm of 'do one thing and do it well.' Chessconnect is meant to bridge the gap between electronic chess boards and interesting chess websites. That is what I am trying to do. But nothing is written in stone. So, that focus might still shift in the future. The upcoming offline feature already deviates from that path."

A Final Thought

The passion and dedication Jörn brings to his work are evident in every line of his software. Chessconnect is not just a tool; it's a testament to the power of a single person's determination to solve a problem and improve the experience for an entire community. If you're an e-board enthusiast, this is the one extension you can't afford to be without. Check it out today and join the growing community of players who are taking their game to the next level.

To learn more, check out https://chessconnect.de/