PHANTOM: The Automated Chessboard

Intriguing is not the word I would use.  The Phantom chessboard sounds pretty far from completion

I was looking at a funding page for the Phantom board and it shows over 2 million dollars raised.

Huh, and they are still soliciting money. 

I smell something funny.

The page says "Estimated Delivery December 2021"  but it's almost 2023 now.  They're sleeping on people's money.

Yes, I paid and I am still waiting.

Neat

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meticulous/meticulous-espresso

Carlos Pendas, the creator of Phantom chessboard scam, already started another scam on Kickstarter: espresso machine. The guy is ridiciluous. Poor backers over at Kickstarter wasted 2 milion dollars on Phantom chessboard ( it truly is Phantom ), and the way things are, he's about to cash in another 2 mil.

Looks like he's simply honing his craft...lol

That's too bad.. I read a review of one that moves its pieces, but I said it was very noisy and not necessarily reliable. I wonder about the lag times if you're trying to play blitz. I just read about the Turk. That's an interesting one that now relates back to this post.

The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player (German: Schachtürke, lit. 'chess Turk'; Hungarian: A Török), was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854 it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once.- Wiki

It seems to be more of a fraud than a hoax since advertisements for the phantom board are still live and shop shows “availability”.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wondersubstance/phantom-the-most-advanced-chess-board-in-the-world/posts/3768890

The project is still in development with some updates on the design of chess pieces and final completion of the chess board.

The market for electronic chess boards seem to be heating up.

Sorry but you got scammed there is nothing like a official shop out there everything out there selling it is a scamm

I've just seen a targeted ad for this on YT - it looks incredible! It says it's available to buy for €120 (70% off!)...has anyone actually got one?

Maybe P. T. Barnum got one, idk...

Don't buy it, any sites claiming to sell it now are scams! I think the whole kickstarter and phantom chess board are also in question as to whether it's legit

Are the following projects also unreliable (Hoax) GOCHESS ( https://particula-tech.com/gochess/ ) and CHESSXI ( https://chessxi.com/ ) ????

You probably weren't expecting this detailed or length a response. I'm a cybersecurity professional and often investigate cases of fraud. This is something I investigated out of personal interest. Below is a snippet.

TL/DR; I'm not convinced the product will deliver or meet the expectations of users. I have noticed some deceptive practices regarding the product and campaign. The reality with crowdsourcing is you are not guaranteed a product will ever deliver. You will not be refunded money if it fails to deliver or meet expectations. To reduce risk of disappointment or loss of money, buy the product after it launches.

I have researched GoChess quite a bit. Here are some red flags I noted in my research.

• It wouldn't be the first project to deceive the chess community (or even chess.com).
  • Chess.com was fooled by Regime Chess:
  • The Mechanical Turk. Created in Vienna, 1770. An elaborate mechanical contraption created the illusion of a chess playing computer and fooled the world for over 50 years. It was just a chess playing human hiding inside to move the pieces.
  • Regium Kickstarter campaign launched February 2020. This is a similar project making grand claims that never delivered. The kickstarter campaign has been suspended.
  • Phantom Kickstarter campaign launched June 2021 (estimated delivery December 2021). As of June 2023, it is still not delivered but continues to sell and promise a deliverable product.
• I noted potentially suspicious or deceptive comment(s) on chess.com trying to hype GoChess.
• GoChess makes big claims about a robotic chess board with online integration (the holy grail for many chess enthusiasts… we all want to believe it will exist).
• GoChess shows a mobile app with non-existent chess.com integration. This uses the chess.com name and logo. This is not labeled as a mockup or planned functionality.
  • The Kickstarter campaign video (@1:46) states “GoChess connects to the leading chess platforms so you can play against anyone… anywhere” and displays an app with chess.com name and logo. This could be deceptive marketing if GoChess has no rights to use chess.com brand or private APIs.
  • The kickstarter comments section, the campaign states “@Margarita, some of the features are related to 3rd parties, such as having your own account on Chess.com (if you wish to connect to it)”. This implies chess.com integration is an existing feature and I'm not aware of this existing.
• I have not seen a prototype that shows piece movement AND board LEDs
• Very little information available about the identity of the person behind the kickstarter project
• Very little information available about the underlying technology or engineering team
• It appears the delivery date is now May 2024 (I believe it was December 2023 during my research in June.)
• No substantial updates on KickStarter.
• Updates are no longer public. There is one private update.
• Last public update states "We've reached the end of our campaign journey on Kickstarter".
• GoChess appears to now be on Indiegogo