DGT Smartboard losing synch and other issues

Hi - glad to see this group!

I have a DGT smartboard that works fine on LiChess, but I have a couple of issues using it on Chess.com.

1)  The board sometimes loses synch with chess.com.  This typically happens early in the game, say 10 moves in, where moves are recognized on DGT Livechess bot no longer transmitted to Chess.com

2) Chess.com occasionally makes a move when nothing has moved on the board.  For example, you are thinking about your next move, and chess.com announces "rook on f8 to c8" making a move when no pieces have been touched.

Anyone else having similar issues or have any ideas about how to fix this?  Since there are no issues like this on LiCHess, I don't think this is a problem with my DGT not working correctly. 

Thanks,

Carl   

I've had a similar experience with my DGT Bluetooth e-boardm, at least as far as #1 is concerned. In fact I've found it unusable with chess.com.

I wish I had some idea on how to fix it, but it probably boils down to the integration's implementation, which seems to be superior on Lichess.

Thanks - I guess it's good to hear it's not just me :-)

Nope, have experienced the same thing with chess.com. Lichess was quite cumbersome with browser tabs and all, but I'll try it again.

The White Pawn app have excellent integration with the board, but there is some strange behavior in the Lichess integration that makes me lose rating even though my opponent abandons the game and I stand as winner. I have reported the bug.

The app has the best interface with my board so far. DGTs own software are miles behind unfortunately 

I have experienced exactly the same results you listed.    The Chess.com app's interactions with the DGT livechess seem to fail frequently.

Most notably, if you view the position in the DGT LiveChess app on the PC , the position is accurate and it reacts properly.  However those moves are either NOT transmitted to  Chess.com's window, or Chess.com's window is NOT processing the received moves.

One piece of troubleshooting info that may be useful in troubleshooting this would be that making NO moves on the board (and no movement whatsoever) sometimes causes Chess.com to register a move?!   

I played 1. e5 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 , but before I could play 3. Bc4, Chess.com 'thought' it received the move 3. Ng1.  I am 100% certain I was not touching the Smartboard at the time.

@TheRealZatarra2020 yep, same here. I played the other night and in several games in a row this happened, either forcing me to replan my strategy completely or losing a piece.

Very annoying

Thanks for the replies!  I'm glad to know this is an issue others are having with chess.com, and not an issue with my DGT board.

It seems all of the possible components here - the boards (e-board and smartboards), the drivers (firmware and LiveChess) and the chess sites (chess.com and Lichess) all suffer from problems that should have been addressed long ago. I mean, none of them are brand new

I have resorted to trying to repeat Khalims success with interfacing with the board programmatically, and, perhaps even the sites, if I get that far (Dart/Flutter is not my weapon of choice)

Here's my issues with a DGT Bluetooth

1) Disconnects between the Live Chess Driver and chess.com in "Play" however, not in "Live Chess". I can see the move on the DGT Live Chess App (driver) but it's not being detected by chess.com. Happens almost 100% of the time if the game exceeds 15 minutes.  

2) chess.com Voice Commentary Chrome extension works in "Play" but not in "Live Chess". It stopped working around 3-8-22.

When I notify chess.com, they all seem to respond like it's "my" issue. Try this or try that...

The Chrome extension was definitely updated around the date you mention.  It went from only working on "Live Chess" to only working on "Play"

I have the same issue as you where the moves show up on DGT Live Chess app, but not chess.com.  I have found that *sometimes* if  a move is not recognized, and then I make the move on the web browser interface to chess.com, chess.com will synch back up with the DGT board.  

Same issues, the ghost moves and the chess.com not recognizing moves about half-way through the game.  Live Chess is (was) better but now that option is gone.  The DGT Live chess app worked fairly well in the menu option "Live Chess", so it appears the functionality did not port well to "Play". 

I'm been told, the "devs" know there is an issue, but given the number of users effected, it might have low priority. 

After many conversations with the help desk (it should have taken one) about the Chrome extension "chess.com voice commentary" had stopped working in Live, they finally admitted it didn't work and had no reason to fix it since Live was no longer being updated. 

After using lichess.org for the past week, the chess.com DGT functionality felt like a beta experience at best and it now appears to be going backwards in integration. At least on lichess, they make you keep your board pieces synchronized to the game, I don't suffer disconnects, I can play a computer with my e-board ... and it's free!

I agree, the issue does not appear to be with the driver, since it worked "most" of the time in Live.  However, DGT hasn't updated it since July of 2018 and I don't anticipate any updates in the near future as it appears most of their previous released software development is stagnant (e.g.,  Picochess never (officially) made it to version 1.0). 

Help desk asked, "If I'd contacted DGT?"  My thoughts were, Why haven't you guys contacted them, don't make this my problem, or make me the "middle" man.

Here's examples from this mornings match play on lichess https://youtu.be/HEJdUjBc3D0

https://youtu.be/KjqJ3hjAzWU

Yeah - I've resorted to LiChess to use my DGT smartboard too.  

After giving Lichess a serious try (via web), I'm leaving as well - they are clearly prioritizing the DGT boards

Has anyone tried using the DGT board with chess.com lately?  There is a note on this page about a beta version of chess.com that may resolve the issue.  Has anyone tried it?

Chess.com is not yet usable with a DGT board.  You will simply be frustrated and lose rating points because the interface is too buggy and unreliable.

It's the single-most regrettable Chess purchase I've ever made.  

Thanks for the update ... 

@TheRealZatarra2020, that was my reaction as well after trying every combination I could think of - and losing at lot of rating, enjoyment and patience in the process.

The White Pawn was very promising but has the same problem as Lichess via web - sometimes the board and games comes out of sync, and you are constantly waiting for it to happen which destroys you focus on the game.

I have eventually made my peace with it, and if I prepare mentally I can actually enjoy a game with my pricey board once in a while. 

It's very sad DGT doesn't revise their software, I mean they are very old by now. I guess their primary concern are tournament events, and we are not their primary customer base, but if the the new Pegasus software work better, then there is no excuse not to rewrite the smartboard drivers as well

I had not used my DGT board with chess.com for a while due to the issues described above.  I tried to use it today and did not see any improvement in the problems.  I had both "ghost moves" and issues with the board losing synch and chess.com no longer recognizing moves from the board.  :-(  

I tried to use my DGT board and it works 50% of the time.  Very disappointing.  Castling doesn't work (if you move the king over, and place the rook opposite, chess.com reads it as a single rook move; some moves don't even register).  Waste of hours of my time troubleshooting.

Castling does work...if you move the king VERY, VERY fast 🏃!

See this post for all the details.