Nice review. I agree with you on all of your points.
I like the form factor to fit in a carry-on bag or laptop bag to take with me on the road. I tried taking the Air in my carry-on but did not like the fit.
The Evo is nice to take on a car trip (with the carry bag) and the Go actually fits ion that bag with the Evo.
And of course, the Pro is an incredible board to play games on, I use it with all my online tournament games I use Chessconnect for all my Chessnut boards, on a variety of devices.
I still contend that Chessnut products are the top of the niche market currently; my other boards are good, but the Chessnut products get used the most. I am waiting for the Chessup2 to get delivered (already ordered) but the latest video show the actual size of the "screen' and it looks much too small for practical use for people with large hands. They could have removed or shrunk the black border to enlarge the screen a bit. Hopefully we will be able to use something else to play games with that board.
I ordered my Chessnut Go and received it on August 20th. Here are my impressions:
This is a Chessnut board, and it behaves the same as the Chessnut Air, Air+, Pro, and Pro+. There are algebraic notations, so the board does have a light-side and dark-side. The Air+ and Pro series do not have notation and are... ambidextrous to light side and dark side.
If you have an Android phone or tablet you can also use WhitePawn, Chess Dojo, Chessable, ChessPNG and Chess for Android natively without using the Chessnut app
You can play on Chess.com or lichess using the Chessconnect browser plugin on any Chromium-based browser that can use Chrome Web Store extensions. If that sounded like IT goobily-gook, you can use Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. If you did understand, I'm sure you already know other browsers you may prefer.
Using Graham's Driver on Windows you can also connect the Chessboard to some Windows applications as well including ChessBase, Shredder, LucasChess,and others.
Would I upgrade?
Yes, I would. Having a larger board would only make it better. I would hesitate a bit to upgrade to the Evo, I like the features, especially the better LEDs framing the piece on all sides and in RGB. The Evo does also have Chessnut vision, allowing the board to see what is displayed on the built-in tablet and being able to translate to the position on the board. You can watch YouTube and Chessnut Vision will be able to highlight the squares as a game is displayed. Those are awesome features, but everything else is available on the Chessnut Go, Air, Pro using your phone or PC. I don't feel the extra cost is worth it at my level.
Other products I looked at:
I have not looked at every e-chessboard out there. I have only played on the Chessnut Go.
Most of the other products do not have individual piece recognition. What I would consider the toughest competition, would be the (still in prototype as of this review) ChessUp2.
My only desire would be for more LED lights to indicate moves. Like most Chessnut products (except the Chessnut Evo), only one corner of each square lights up. Another nicety would be for RGB LED's to allow multiple pieces to move at once using the piece recognition, it would be easy to setup a puzzle or any starting position. The colors could also be utilized to indicate legal moves of a piece picked-up and even use different colors to indicate ideal moves of a piece vs a blunder. A final item for my wish-list would be to use the color LED's to show threats to your pieces. Most of these exist or could be implemented on the Chessnut Evo.
Final thoughts 8.5 out of 10:
I like the Chessnut Go a lot. I like the form factor. I like the magnetic pieces will keep things in place in most commercial airlines and road trips. I ordered mine around the time I was able to order and not just pre-order (mid-August). I was unable to connect the Chessnut Go to my PC and the Chessnut App using the USB cable. Bluetooth connection is not available on the original Chessnut app for Windows. I could use Bluetooth to connect to my phone and to my PC using Chessconnect or Graham's Driver to Lucas Chess. I reached out to support regarding my issues connecting the board to my PC. The response was prompt, usually within a day or two, but I feel I was given busywork (try this, send a video, try that) until the "new" Chessnut app was released for the PC that would allow me to connect using Bluetooth. That was about two weeks after I received my Chessnut Go. I am still unable to connect the Chessnut Go to my PC using the USB cable, but I have full functionality using the New Chessnut app for Windows connecting via Bluetooth.