Chessconnect: a free chrome extension for electronic chessboards

That Chromebook was released over 6 years ago so is probably beyond the update lifespan of that device.

@joernupbde Ok thanks I appreciate your work.

@joernupbde One other question: In analysis mode on chess.com, the LEDs for the from/to squares stay lit even after moving the pieces (until making the following move, then those two LEDs stay lit). This is rather distracting when trying to analyze. Are you aware of this issue?

Yes, that's one of the "needs ironing out" things. But thank you for bringing it up. I am always greatful, when someone takes their time to write a bug report. 👍

Bonjour à tous,

J'aimerai résoudre un soucis . Mais tout d'abord je remercie les personnes qui contribuent au développement de l'extension "chess connect" sous Windows 10.

Je suis entraîneur et joueur passionné par les échecs.

Je dispose d'un échiquier dgt usb " rosewood/maple " acheté en 2016. J'aimerais pouvoir connecter ce modèle filaire usb ebord à mon pc Windows, mais je n'y arrive pas. J'ai pourtant bien essayer, ajouter l'extension, j'ai bien l'extension "au vert " avec mon dgt raccordé sur le pc usb.

Mais sincèrement sous Windows c'est vraiment compliqué, il faut batailler.... faut il lancer et utiliser également livechess de merde en arrière plan également.... ajouter multiples onglets en parallèle pour pouvoir en ligne sur la plate-forme ?

Une version android avec ce modèle filaire usb serait tip top. Pour info, ce modèle de dgt a un embout de type trapézoïdale côté échiquier . Sur les nouveaux dgt c'est un type usbc si je ne me trompe pas. Mon dgt fonctionne parfaitement sur les applications Android "chess for Android " ou "pgn master" en utilisant mon téléphone avec les câbles type OTG + câble d'origine noir usb_embout trapézoïdale....

Merci pour votre aide svp

@jeje75lefou I'll answer in English because my French ist poor at best. First, no, you do not need to run Livechess in the background. In fact, it is important that no other software is connected to your board. Second, multiple tabs is a bad idea, too.

Thridly, it is important to select the connection method "USB (DGT eBoard)" before connecting to you board.

If I translated your question correctly, your DGT board has a micro USB socket. I've seen cases where Chessconnect mistook these boards for Millennium boards (they use the same USB chip). I am currently in the process of writing a fix for this problem. However, every update requires _lots_ of testing (and I am currently on family holiday). So, it may well be end of April, before this fix becomes available. 🫣

Bonsoir joernupbde,

Je te souhaite de passer de bonnes vacances en famille. Profites en bien, ça passe trop vite.

Je joint une photo de mon dgt "rosewood/maple" ebord usb filaire acheté en 2016. Parmis les premières générations je pense....

Ça serait vraiment tip top de pouvoir jouer sur ce plateau depuis n'importe quel plate-forme chess com ou lichess avec ton extension "chess connect ".

Avant ceci, pour jouer sur lichess il fallait doubler les onglets lichess et avoir livechess et autre manipulation compliqué que je ne maîtrise toujours pas...

Je ne suis pas à quelques mois près, ça fait déjà 8 ans que j'attends une fonction simplifier pour jouer en ligne facilement. Je vous félicite encore pour votre projet.

Cordialement

@GoingUpTheCountry has an interesting problem on ChromeOS with a Chessnut board. The Chessnut gets mounted as a keyboard by the operating system and after this, Chessconnect as no longer able to access the board via USB ('not allowed' error). Bluetooth works fine.

I have the exact same problem and I wonder, if anybody knows a way around this? I am fairly certain USB will work, once we get around this 'not allowed' problem. I currently do not have access to my Chessnut board. So maybe, somebody can jump in?

Good morning,

yes I would like to be a beta tester of this extension, but I don't know how to do it? on chrome from Windows.
on google play I know how to do this. Besides, in this regard, it would be a really great idea to be able to have an Android application extension that would support my chessboard eboard USB DGT and connect it with an Android phone or tablet with cable otg .,please. it would be simpler. An exemple, with application "chess for Android " and câbles otg+origin, it is good.
please tell me how to do beta tester? and if it doesn't work, how to send a bug report please. thank you again have a nice day

I don't know about ChromeOS, but in Windows there is a Usage Page of 0x0001 (keyboard) and 0xFF00. You must access the board via the 0xFF00 Usage Page HID address.

Wohoo...a reply from the master himself @Graham_NZ! First of all: thank you Graham for your documentation on the Chessnut protocol. That's what made Chessconnect possible in the first place. 🙏

Secondly, yes I am accessing the board with usage page 0xFF00. So, this is not it.

Indeed.. impressive, thank you both much!

My whole saga is about having something that connects over USB and works... since bluetooth yes, works, connects, but sometimes bluetooth just lights up half the board in a middle of a game, sometimes disconnets in the middle of a game, etc.

For this reason I have Chessnut Air and then I bought Pro and a couple of laptops. Unfortunately none of my laptos works this way. Windows is horribly slow and most of them don't see the USB connected to either boards. And Chromebooks so far I tried HP and Acer and no luck :-)

Anyway, I'll keep trying, and yes, I'd love to beta test/QA as well.

@GoinUpTheCountry - First, are you a Canned Heat fan with that user name?

Second, I am using the extension on a) a Windows NUC desktop, works great; b) a Windows Lenovo laptop, works a little slower; c) a Windows HP laptop and it is horrible; and finally d) a Galaxy S7 tablet and it works great.

The laptops themselves are good laptops, on the Lenovo (my work laptop) I run VMs while also running all my other non-VM apps for work. And even then the extension is not as snappy as the NUC.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the BT chips they use in the devices. Some may be better than others when working with the boards.

Guilty as charged

Yes, I only tried on a old HP laptop and on a newish Dell.. both not happy with the USB connected Chessnuts

I had for a short time, from work, a Macbook Pro, and it worked perfectly over USB. Connected, asked permission as keyboard, etc. then it just worked.

Then I thought I would save some money and get a Chromebook and try. Well, so far not happy, but I hope the chrome extension will so later on. I like the chromebook, Acer 314, it is snappy and fast otherwise

Chessconnect runs entirely within Chrome. So, in theory, it should be be completely platform indeptendend and behave in the way anywhere it runs. Well, that is most definitely not the case. At any given time, there are about three users where something does not work as it does on my development and testing platforms. 🫤

But then again, that's 0.3% of the user base and in almost any case, those three users are three new friends I made somewhere all over the world. 😃

One other thing: in my survey, several people have requested Chessconnect for the Chessnut Evo. I do not have access to an Evo but I thought having Chessconnect for the Evo would be pointless? 🤔

In my opinion, it would be pointless. The Evo is an all-in-one device, you play on the website with the built in tablet on the side.

I would see no reason to use my Evo with the Chessconnect extension. Perhaps the users who requested that feature can explain their use case for it.

I have an Evo. It would be not only pointless but difficult. It uses Firefox and I'm not sure it is even possible to install a Chromium-based browser on it. It kiind of reminds me of Steve Jobs' old mantra--something about people not knowing what they want.

@Rsava, Thank you for mentioning Lenovo laptop.

I remembered I have an old beast, "ThinkPad E15 Gen 2 (15”, Intel) Laptop" and I just tried it, played a bot.

I can confirm, it works perfectly with the Chessnut Pro board and the Chessnut Windows app, connected with USB 3.

Note: Over USB 3 only, with older USB cable did not connect.

Again, Lenovo laptop, Windows 10, USB 3 connected and Chessnut application, downloaded from the official Chessnut page.

Works perfectly so far. Well, at least until Chess.com changes something and then Chessnut will have to keep up. But at least, as long as Chessnut sells boards, I am thinking they will have to keep up their apps. We'll see.

The same configuration should work with Chessconnect, too. And Chessconnect is usually quicker to adapt to changes on the chess.com code. 😇