New: DGT for Chess.com macOS App (unofficial)

Lately, I got into chess after years of not playing, and I just fell in love with it again. I really like Chess.com yet I wanted to improve OTB (over the board) games. Being a programmer I instantly looked for some good options and found DGT Board to be a popular choice for electronic powered boards. I then got one and noticed the Chess.com's implementation of DGT eBoards as input for games is super flakey, most of the time it straight out does not work.

So I decided to develop a proper implementation to allow the use of DGT eboards on Chess.com, not only on Online play but also on Computer play and even Explorer for analyzing your games!

 

🤩 Features:

• 🗣️ Move announcements - When your opponent / you make a move, they are announced by voice AI. 
• 🖥️ Online play - Use your DGT eboard to play aganst online opponents on Chess.com.
• 🤖 Computer play - Use your DGT eboard to play against all computer bots on Chess.com.
• 📈 Explorer play - Use your DGT eboard in this mode to physically analyze your games or positions while getting validation and announcement for moves made.
• 🔌 Multiple Connection Engines - Choose between using DGT LiveChess 2.0 and our Embedded connection engine which is much faster *(Embedded highly recommended on MacOS)*.
• 🟢 Board Status Dialog - See the status of your board during the game, including battery life, connection status, and sync status.

Link to get the app:

https://github.com/amitassaraf/dgt-for-chess.com

It is open-source so you can package it yourself or download it through my Gummyroad ($0+).

Note: Only supported on macOS right now, will take a day or so to support on Windows if you'll want it

I find the built in support works great on Windows with my USB board, but if you need this for Mac then well done for writing it.

 

Is it officially supported by Chess.com, or are they likely to flag you as a cheat since you are not entering moves in the usual way?

 

Personally had a lot of issues, both on Windows and macOS computers. You can still use this if you'd like to play using your DGT board against bots on Chess.com which the official integration does not support  

 

Regarding the support by Chess.com, so no, I have independently developed it and it is completely unofficial and not related to DGT or Chess.com in any way. I do not think they will flag it as a cheat as it basically mimics a "cursor" on the screen to move the pieces and the goal obviously is not to cheat so I doubt they will do that, but, of course, I cannot know. Any Chess.com moderator here that can give some details?

I would urge you to contact chess.com about it and get it whitelisted. Id imagine many cheating softwares also try to mimic a mouse input, so you may very well appear to be a cheat software to the chess.com servers. Get this clarified before you open any of your users to account bans.

 

Thanks, baron, I have sent them a message, do note, there is no such thing as getting it whitelisted, it is unofficial. Technically recognizing my app as a computer-driven game is next to impossible so I wouldn't worry about getting flagged, especially as I've been using it for 3 weeks without issue  But I'd like to contact them anyhow to ensure it so I'll update.

I'll wait until you've had assurances that my account won't get flagged before moving away from the official method for now, good luck with it though! 

I'd argue against your point that recognising your app as a computer game is impossible. What's the difference between your app gaming mouse input to relay moves from the physical DGT board and another app faking mouse input to relay moves from a chess engine?  

 

This is why I think it'll flag up cheat detection. The fact it hasn't happened to you yet doesn't mean it won't. 

@amitassaraf1 - I looked into DGT e-boards, but their website indicates that they do not support Macs - see here - so I (reluctantly) moved on. You've gotten it to work anyway?

That sounds great. I‘d like to use my DGT board when playing against the computer, I‘ll give it a shot!
Thanks for your effort!

Anyone tried using virtual machine software like Parallels to run Windows on a Mac? The pass-through of USB devices is handled well by Parallels from my experience, but I have no experience using it with DGT boards. 

Wow - what a positive response from some know-it-alls.

Hallo zusammen

Ich bin auf Chess.com gekommen, um das DGT e-Board mit Apple und einer Engine zu nutzen. Das Spielen gegen online Gegner ist für mich eher sekundär.

Leider funktioniert das e-Board nicht stabil. Ich habe bemerkt, dass die Software von DGT richtig funktionieren würde (alle Züge werden bei DGT LiveChess sauber angezeigt). Jedoch funktioniert die Integration in Google-Chrome nicht richtig. Die Züge werden nicht übermittelt.

Daher begrüsse ich die Implementierung von amitassaraf1 sehrt! Super Effort!!! Auch, dass ich gegen die Bots spielen kann.

Sollte Chess.com diese Implementierung sperren, werde ich das Abo kündigen und mich wieder abmelden.

Nochmals besten Dank an den Programmierer für die "freiwillige" Arbeit.

Hello together

I came to Chess.com to use the DGT e-board with Apple and an engine. Playing against online opponents is rather secondary for me.

Unfortunately, the e-board does not work stably. I noticed that DGT's software would work properly (all moves are displayed cleanly on DGT LiveChess). However, the integration with Google Chrome does not work properly. The moves are not transmitted.

Therefore I very much welcome the implementation of amitassaraf1! Super Effort!!! Also that I can play against the bots.

If Chess.com will block this implementation, I will cancel the subscription and unsubscribe.

Again best thanks to the programmer for the "voluntary" work.

 

Assuming this is aimed at me? You don't think that checking you won't get your users detected as cheats is a positive response? 

 

Yes  The main issue is there seems to be a compatibility issue between apple's hardware and LiveChess, making it unreliable and mostly just slow (5-7 seconds per move). So I wrote this to bridge the gap allowing using custom embedded implementation in python using some libraries I found which makes it instant and work super reliably

 

Am still working through bugs in the app itself but the connection works great and you can use it to play online and computer opponents with your DGT board!

The topic is not about what I think, or what you think chess.com is or isn't going to do.

The guy puts in some to write some software for a Mac (btw do you use Macos?) and makes it crystal clear that it's not official. You put in effort to P*** all over his work. If people decide they want to use it it's up  them.

It looks like you didn't understand what my comment meant in the slightest. 

Hey, great that you took the time to develop this for us Mac enthusiasts! Is the software also safe, how could I possible check that?

 

The fact that the software is open-source means that anyone can see the code, meaning if there was anything malicious GitHub would ban this software if someone were to flag it. 

Hi Amit,

I downloaded your App today and tried it. Unfortunately I got some issues with the connection. I‘m using a Macbook Pro with Mojave and a DGT USB smartboard connected with an USB cable. If I try to use the embedded engine it never establishes a connection, although the board is correctly recognized by Livechess. If I try to use the connection via Livechess it is working but I have the usual issues with syncing and connection drop outs. Nevertheless I managed to play at least parts of a game against the computer and it worked pretty well, besides the connection issues. Is there something I can try to get the embedded engine running with my board?

Thanks a lot for your effort, Happy New Year and greetings from Austria!
Thomas