PHANTOM: The Automated Chessboard

Here's a video:

It's a surprisingly high quality board even beyond being robotic. Really nice weighted pieces and walnut finish.

Glad you received it! I'd be furious about the damaged battery after all this time.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t irritate me, but ultimately, I can still use it with the cord until a replacement comes, so there’s no rush to get a replacement. I’ll just use it with the cord until then, and then solder the replacement on when it arrives. I think what happened is one of the magnets in the h bot array, which was loose but luckily not damaged, rolled and hit the battery during shipping. It’s not really their fault, it’s the fault of the shipping company. Still though, they offer replacements for any issues whatsoever and I’m sure their batteries don’t cost much for them to ship.

I received my board today! It’s beautiful and just looks and feels like magic. It’s not Chess.com enabled though. Lichess (which I will need to join) and StockFish.

While I cannot stand the pieces (although I do understand the reason for the design), I think the board looks sharp.

I just received my Phantom board (order #140-something) in the UK, after having almost given up the ghost (or phantom). So the good news is that it’s not a scam and the better news is it’s actually pretty neat. To reassure fellow investors I posted a brief blog video at https://billygatechess.blogspot.com/2025/07/phantom-robotic-chessboard-made-of-real.html. I’m into chess e-boards and am working on a universal BLE gateway to make e-boards less dependent on their manufacturer apps.

Looking forward to more reports by backers as they receive their boards. Your board looks really good.

I'm sure the chess community would love to test out your interface for use here on chess.com.

Their beta chess.com integration worked fine on my Phantom, via the board. One time a piece didn't move for some unknown reason but the app told me to move it manually and it was recognised. Definitely will only work for higher time controls. Even 15+10 is still marginal (I've suggested a time scramble manual override mode on their Discord channel).

Would love some updates from anyone who ordered recently.

I've had a Phantom for a while now and played a couple of dozen games on chess.com. The board itself is beautiful and its piece-movement and piece-occupancy sensors clearly work. The dev team (on Discord) are good folk and very helpful and responsive and they are getting closer to quality software (firmware and app) but there are still quite a few bugs to iron out. The board is suited to 15+10 (it's more like you are playing 10+5 against a 15+10 player, given the low speed of the auto-piece moves) or longer games. Faster games than 15+10 are currently impractical. I think the Phantom has a nice niche among eboards, i.e. a beautiful wooden e-board, and I wish their dev team the best. See my BillyGateChess blog for related info.

I play on Lichess with 10+5 time control. Its like playing 5+3 on fast speed for piece movement. Piece recognition works fine but sometimes you have to move a piece manually. Nothing terrible in

The gaming experience without the need to look at the screen is just great.

Hi All! I received my board around 20 days ago. I ordered it 2 months ago, paid extra for it to arrive before Christmas, and it got here on time! It’s funny because while waiting… and while deciding if I want to buy it in the first place (I saved up for 4 months to afford it safely), I kept refreshing this forum to see what everyone’s thoughts were as I was skeptical.

Good News: It arrived, and it’s beautiful. As others have mentioned, the build quality is insane and very hand made. The board is sturdy, it doesn’t make too much noise.. I actually like the sound it makes. It has a silent mode, regular mode. Fast, and Extra Fast. 

It works on Chess.com and currently I am using it for 30 minute games. The best part is that when there is a bug or anything, you message the owners on Discord and they patch it on the next software update. Ive seen this happen 3 times already and this gives me reassurance. 

I have attached a small video. https://youtube.com/shorts/YZnz8KvIZDo?si=yFIvW9Buf20mN9L0

Very proud of this product.

Thats a lot noisier than I was expecting, but the pieces do move nice and fast. Same tech as the Square Off boards I assume, one piece at a time?

Its really not connecting with chess.com?

Thats a dealbreaker for me

It has been chess.com enabled for a while.

It is chess.com enabled! It wasn’t when I first received my board but that was a while ago 😄

I have one with all options inside. Purchased from disapointed baker for 100$. Works very nice, so amusing.