Should I Buy One?

It  /does/ work with Frotz, I have used it that way. I think you have to enable it in Fritz also, thre is a DGT section in the settings or on the options bar

It should work, the Fritz program came with the board.

There is just a tick box with DGT on it. When I click it, it opens the rabbit config screen, where I can select COM4, board goes live straight away, every single time, but I can't get any move to register in Fritz. Been trying everything I can think of since Friday. I can see the PC gets my moves on the board tab on the rabbit config screen. It's just Fritz 14 doesn't receive them.

I wonder whether the problem is that my PC is 64 bit and the Fritz program and rabbit thing are 32 bit. Cojntacted support a few days ago, but no reply yet. If not solved tomorrow it's going back.

I can't get it to work on chess.com either, for that matter. At the moment, it's just a large, expensive chess set.

I also have 64-bit and can play with Fritz. But in my opinion, there are several problems when using takeback and setting up positions. The software support is spartan (for example, it won't tell you if you set up an illegal position and there are no voice announcements for your own moves). 

Playing on chess.com works, but not if one goes ahead as it seems natural. There are several points which one must avoid, and that these points must be avoided is not possible to find out. Sample setup instructions that may work are here.

Thanks for the reply. I would be happy if for starters, I could use the board to play against the Fritz computer or against a chess.com bot. I am still waiting for some reply from DGT support. I just got an automated message that they received my questions. Right now it's either get the DGT Pi or send the board back. It would be nice to have a working board though, it's pretty and big.

I also tried, and it didn't work anymore to challenge bots on chess.com. It does not matter for the non-DGT-users as they can play against the computer (which is not supported for the board).

As you say, your board is detected by the Rabbit plugin. I have no idea why it does not work with Fritz. When I brought it so far, it usually did work.

It's hard to say when buying such an expensive product, but still, for me, Fritz does not work. The boards move recognition is excellent, excelling in primary purpose. But the software integration lacks several points. I don't know why they are not approaching it, as this does not seem big things, and it would make the big required difference. The board ships with an older version of Fritz, I got Fritz 14 still in 2020. I bought the latest version Fritz 17 to find all problems exactly the same, nothing was improved.

One can play on Lichess and challenge bots there, but you cannot sort of set a custom strength. You have to use what is there.

I find the voice announcement on Lichess a bit worse than on chess.com. For example, moves on the a-file are hardly understandable. So it still needs the computer screen, no real OTB feeling for me.

Based on your post, I rechecked other options, and as I understand, the free actively developed Lucas Chess became just now a great option to use the DGT board!

Lucas Chess has great engine support. You don't need the DGT e-drivers, there is a built-in option to use the board! To have move announcements, you need to quickly record pieces, files, etc.

To use the DGT board is straightforward, and as outlined below.

1. Setup and start
   1. Download and install Lucas Chess
      https://lucaschess.pythonanywhere.com/downloads
   2. Start Lucas Chess
2. Activate DGT Board
   1. Click Options / Boards
   2. Under Digital board, select «DGT Alternate …», click Accept and confirm the selection
3. Record move announcements
   1. Click Options / Custom Sounds
   2. Quickly record all the entries
4. Start engine game
   1. Click Play / Play against an engine
   2. Select Opponent
   3. Make sure the checkbox for the DGT board is checked
   4. Click Accept
5. DGT Control
   1. Wait until the DGT Control is loaded (can take like 30 seconds)
   2. Click OK
6. Configure announcement
   1. Click Config / Sounds
   2. You can select to announce opponent moves, own moves or both
   3. Click Accept
7. Play and win!
   
   
   
   

Here another user is asking the same question regarding bots, the answer being playing against bots is gone.

Thanks for taking the time Daniel!! You have been most helpful.

Thanks. I only point out what is there, however. That is only possible due to Graham O'Neill, who implemented the support for the DGT board for Lucas Chess. Technically that this does not require the RabbitPlugin anymore is only since the latest Lucas Chess release June 2021.

Have you tried Lucas Chess? In case how did it work out?