Certabo Electronic Chess Board

The Certabo does NOT come with an "engine." I've updated your own post with an extensive explanation on this.

Thank you chessroboto, I've asked yet another question on my post as I still don't understand how you use Stockfish which they mention on the Certabo site. I want to go through Dvoretsky's endgame book and be able to set up positions and variations on the board, have the board sense the position and then see if I can win winning positions against Stockfish. However, I also like these very visible blue LEDS and the ability to play games on chess.com. It may be that I need a Millenium to study endgames and a Certabo to play on Chess.com....

I received a reply from Certabo but they didn't tell me the diameter of the electronic chips that come with the Fazio Brown. I presume they can't be cut to size and the set I'd like to use have a variety of diameters - King/queen 36mm, Knight/Bishop 33mm, Rook 30mm, Pawns 26mm. 

Thanks again for your help and patience.

Sure you wouldn't be better off with a DGT board, hooked up to Fritz on your laptop or computer? You get a free fritz licence with them 

You want to study The Endgame Manual? Here’s my recommendation. 
https://www.chessable.com/dvoretskys-endgame-manual/course/12519/

If you need an engine to analyze variations on Any position, they have a Stockfish engine accessible any time. 
The key to their effective teaching method is called the MoveTrainer. You can read up about it here:

https://chessentials.com/chessable-honest-review/ 

chessroboto is right, the Certabo does not have an engine built-in. I would explain it like this: when you buy a Certabo board, you get an electronic board and chips to set up electronic pieces. The board needs a computer to be connected to, to play on chess.com, or to run an engine. This is where you need a PC, a Mac, or a Raspberry Pi. The Certabo board connects over USB, which is how the position information gets sent back and forth.

The "Pi hardware" is a Raspberry Pi, which is a small computer designed for embedded projects like this. It fulfills the same role as connecting your Certabo to a PC or to a Mac. You can buy a Pi pre-configured to use with Certabo from their website, or you can set up your own. But you don't need one. Robotvinnik plays Certabo with his Windows laptop/tablet if I remember right.

Stockfish, chess.com, or whatever engine you want to run is running on the connected computer. Certabo's software ( https://www.certabo.com/download/ ) is talking to the board to update position information and run the engine.

Also, for your other post, the chips that came with my Fazio White are 20mm, all the same size.

Thank you chessroboto, chessable looks great.

DGT looked a lot more expensive unless I was mistaken.

Thank you patzerific, someone from Certabo answered my questions via Whatapp today and I've added what I learnt to the main Certabo discussion at https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/which-chess-computers-can-sense-the-identity-of-the-pieces?page=3#comment-54452688

HI! My kids are chessplayer and I would love to buy them a Certabo. After many many hours looking for electronic devices,  I decided to buy Certabo, since I guess, it is far the cheapest option. However I got lost a bit on the computer side. I defenatelly  would love to use it to analyze endgames  and also it is said, with it PI Rasberry computer it can be used with chess books also? How does it work, what can I do with a book, PI Rasberry and the board and how can I analyze an endgame with it? In case I have a good computer to connected to the board but when I am not a tech guy, can I easily attach to the board several UCIs, or go I better with the Rasberry PI? Also sorry for my english, I am not native english speaker but hopefully you understand, what I mean

Hi, i'm also doing all the research to decide on "certabo vs dgt" (i'm in the US so shipping cost from italy is also a factor). One piece of information I've not yet been able to find is wether a certabo board could also be connected to the DGT PI (since it's already Pi friendly) or if that's the one PI it won't connect to for proprietary reasons.

plus, could you just stick the certabo chips on your own pieces as they are, or do you actually have to remove the felt base, and sand etc.. as some users here mention? (i'm asking because i'd like to use the pieces of my regular staunton chess board without ruining them if i end up gettig a certabo)

Thank you for the treasure trove of other info on the matter, I found it tremendously informative (it's a bit of a stress trip to decide on an eboard if your budget is tight).

I have not tried this myself, but I don't think that the DGT Pi clock will recognize the Certabo board even if the Pi is hiding a Raspberry Pi 3 inside. The software will not match the expected hardware.

The Certabo chips allows you to use any of your own pieces with the board. You can just stick the flat chips on the felt and use it as-is if you do not want to go through the hassle of removing the felt and the glue.

Great to know, thank you. 

Has anybody done it either way and could post pics of results? It would be interesting to see the difference

I suppose that by just sticking the chips over you lose the felt touch and it would perhaps be more esthetically pleasing if you carefully removed the felt from the House of Staunton set, stuck the flat certabo chips and then put the original felt back over it, huh? food for thought...

I think i'm veering towards a cerbato board more and more... kind of expensive euro to dollar, though.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for all the information about this, it makes it a lot less daunting for newbies like me.

Pemese:

If you decide to stick to using a computer, you must install the latest software drivers for your machine. I assume Windows. You can download that from the Certabo website under Software. You will need software to use with the Certabo that’s connected. 
https://www.certabo.com/certabo-forum/topic/certabo-chessboards-supported-by-fritz-arena-shredder-etc/

Now if you do not want to fuss with a computer, Windows drivers and chess software, you should consider Certabo’s DaVinci dedicated chess computer. It has more than 50 chess engines built-in and is future-proof because Certabo continues to release the latest version to upgrade the system that runs off the Raspberry Pi mini computer that the DaVinci uses. 

https://www.certabo.com/faq/ 

Pemese:

To use Certabo with chess study, you must always start by “calibrating” the chess board with the pieces with whichever solution you choose to use. From there, the software knows which piece corresponds to the chip that is glued underneath it. You should be able to simply setup your desired position for study and run the engine from there. 

Sorry, forgot to ask: can anyone who has bought a certabo from the US share any information about custom charges etc. (on top of normal cost and shipping from italy) , if any?

(Trying to avoid surprises). 

thank you kindly

Everything should be included in the shipping fee via DHL. 

that's great thank you. Does anyone know if any bluetooth module would work with the certabo or only the one on their web? I only just saw it. Wonder if there is a less expensive alternative perhaps.

That tech is new even to me. Would be nice to hear from any owner who has had the chance to use it. 

I want to share my experience in my first week with the certabo chessboard (Lucien model). I wanted to play online but with a real board, I was bored with the pc and the smartphone, but I wasn´t sure about if it was going to be a satisfaying experience. Well, I received it a week ago, and I am really happy and enjoying a lot the experience. First two days I had some poblems with the softwares, but Pietro (from certabo)  helped me with all the process, I really apreciate his patience, he is always ready to help you, and in a couple of days I was playing without any problem. I usually play 15+10, I think you cant play faster in a proper way (maybe 10+10 or 5+15 or similars)  for now (I am sure It will be improving in time), but anyway I am very happy playing every day. Sorry my english (I am spanish).

Great to hear. What prices are you using?