Electronic Chess Board

Apologies for the repetitive inquiry, but I'm seeking guidance amidst the multitude of options available. I'm considering gifting an electronic chess set to a child with a skill level of 1400+ Elo. My budget is around 250EUR/270USD. Ensuring a flawless experience is crucial as I've heard about potential bugs in some electronic boards. Could anyone recommend a reliable electronic chessboard within this price range to avoid any embarrassment during the gifting process?

I think the boards that most meet your criteria and are currently available for purchase are below. Others can share more about the user experience for each but there is a link to each of the products for details.

Check requirements for a mobile device for each.

DGT Pegasus ($270)
DGT Centaur ($345)
SquareOff Pro ($279)
Chessnut Air ($225)
ChessUp (Note: there is a crowdfunding campaign for ChessUp2 with an estimated retail of $299 but not idea when it's going to be available... I wouldn't rely on the estimated delivery date in the crowdfunding campaign).

Stay away from the SquareOff Pro, it is horrible. Of the remaining boards listed above I would rank them (and I own all of them except the Centaur, so the ranking is from personal experience):

1, Air

2. Chess up (although for a younger player, this may be #1) Maybe wait for the Chessup 2 though?

3. Pegasus

I don't think the Centaur is what you are looking for. If you have any specific questions, feel free to DM me.

It is worth pointing out that the upcoming chessup2 will have a direct wifi connection to chess.com. No other available electronic chess board allows such a potentially direct stable connection to a playing site.

@LifeOfPai1

Also take a look to the Tabutronic

https://tabutronic.com/shop/

Good call, those are nice boards as well.

On my list to get one but will probably 2025 before it happens.

As a gift, I wouldn't rely on the delivery date of a crowdfunding project. Once it's in people's hands we can see how it works.

I wouldn't expect any special APIa to be exposed to this project that aren't available to others.

Chessup is already a known company, they have a very successful Chessup 1 out. Their first Kickstarter was very close to being on time, barely pushing (if I remember correctly), and this time they have the experience of having done it already.

Will the Chessup 2 have issues initially? Yes, probably, most new technology does. Heck, look at chess[]com - it has been around for almost 2 decades and it is still a dumpster fire.

Bryghtlabs (Chessup maker) is already a company with a proven track record; and if chess[]com partnered with a company that is likely to fail (I don't think it is) then it would say a lot about how poorly chess[]com is run.

Yeah, I recommend you a wooden Certabo with RFID tags or a Tabutronic Cerno, also with chips. The Sentio uses magnetic sensors, very sensitive to EM sources. Ciao

I've just picked up a Millenium M815 model for ~$175, taxes included.

The pieces are plastic and magnetic and they are a Staunton variation, which makes them easy to recognize.

The board is pressure-sensitive. You lightly press pieces on their starting and destination squares for making moves. It's quite intuitive. The pieces are there for your visual help - otherwise they could all be checker pieces. I have no problem at all with this approach, just describing how things work.

There is a color LCD screen showing the board position. That's where you read the computer's response. You can select from several styles of pieces, but the default one is clean and legible. There is a small area providing information that can be switched between a game record and showing the computer evaluation. You can set a bunch of options to control the engine's strength, which is supposed to be over 2200 Elo. You can set up positions too and there are engine levels provided specifically for solving mating problems.

Power is provided by 4AA batteries, which is a plus for me.

Millenium is a German brand. Their products are made in China. They use a version of the ChessGenius engine, which was world champion in the 80s and 90s and seems to have been the first engine to defeat Kasparov on off-the-shelf hardware. The processor used by M815 is an ARM Cortex M4 running at 120MHz.

The board is larger than a tablet and about the size of a small laptop or an iPad (~13"x9"). A bag is provided for storing all the pieces. I got a small case for storing the board and two small plastic boxes for storing the pieces separately, which fit together in the bag, so now I can easily carry the thing with me. I'm pretty happy with it so far - everything works just as I expected.

There are probably better options if you are looking for luxury materials or a larger board or an even better engine, but I think that this is a very nice product, especially for a child. Back when I was starting to learn chess, a device like this would have been the matter of science-fiction.