Solution for DGT board on chess.com

I got a message from Jörn, author of the extension, today stating he will be looking at supporting the usb mini boards in the future.

Hi Carl

I have a dumb question so you run DGT Live chess and Chess.com on Chrome with the Chessconnect extension?
I still cannot get my freakin sound to work. In particulr the announce moves will not work.

Any thoughts

Take Care Be Well

Gordon 
Melbourne Australia

iamspoona

Hi Gordon,

You don't need DGT Live Chess. Just install the Chessconnect extension on Chrome. If you go into the Chessconnect settings, one of the dropdown boxes lets you select whether or not to announce moves.

Good luck!

BTW there is a large community of users on this thread -

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chessconnect-a-chrome-extension-for-chessnut-air-and-chessnut-pro-smartboards

DGT board means a life-time labyrinth with no way out and confronting minotaur after minotaur holding a dutch-made ax. One day it is this software another day that software, one second the board is live next second it is dead. One needs first to obtain a university qualification in electronic engineering before he can use it though never to his heart satisfaction! The DGT project is actually a white elephant project!

What exactly do you mean? I have no problems with my DGT board, neither on Lichess, Chess.com, Chessbase, Fritz, Bear, nor Arena.

@Johan960 Which DGT board do you have? I have the DGT smartboard and it did not work well with chess.com or lichess with the DGT drivers. I would frequently get "ghost moves" where I did not touch a piece, but a move was entered for chess.com or lichess. The Chessconnect extension for Chrome has solved all my issues.

I use a DGT Smartboard, too. Online I use chessconnect. Runs perfect for me.

Chess connect is awesome for my DGT it is working great these days

Take Care Be Well Gordon

DGT chess board a real headache! It needs a PC next to it to enable connection which is a mess! It keeps playing up quite regularly, one minute it works the next minute the board is dead! Opponent’s moves are announced via voice which is really time-consuming and make it practically useless for playing any game shorter than half of hour. There are times when DGT misses announcing opponent’s moves causing serious time loss unlike Chessnut and chessup DGT connection to chess.com and lichess is not straightforward and chessconect is not efficient and is itself an additional headache! Besides, DGT board is not supported by IOS and so apple users cannot access it. With Chessnut and Chessup around with can connect us to any app anywhere within seconds and without any needs for a PC and nuisance softwares and downloads, it is even absurd if not completely mad to use DGT board any longer specially in 2025!

Actually DGT + Chessconnect makes the process simple. No drivers, no installs. Just plug and play. All you need is Chrome. Simple. I have a DGT usbc board and it’s quite elegant with this setup. I also have a Chessup2 which is also great for a headless setup but I use both all the time. ChessNut was a complete fail for me. 2 boards were faulty so never going back to ChessNut. Cheers.

Which DGT board do you have?

The bluetooth one which is now packed and stored away because of being really useless!

I can understand your frustration, but don't give up.

Maybe it's just your Bluetooth connection. Other users and I use a USB-C connection. Try that in combination with Chrome-Browser, Chessconnect and, for example, Lichess.

Otherwise, the only other thing I can think of is that your board is defective, which is also not pleasant.

As I mentioned, it works great for me and I wouldn't want to be without it.

Good luck.

My board is perfect and almost brand new. I have tried USB cable too but off and on board disappearance is still an issue. Problem is DGT board is obsolete for this time and age where we have access to Chessnut Pro, Square-off Pro and Chessup which offer really pleasant and enjoyable chess experience. Basically Dutch products suck!

Strange because those DGT Dutch products that suck (dixit) are used at top grandmaster level tournaments. I have one myself and it works fine. Never had any issue with it. Maybe better read the manual. You complain for instance about the voice announcing moves... just click on the different settings and this option will be deactivated... Life can be simple sometimes. And if problems still occur you can always try a hard reset.

Dutch products do suck and they do not have the required technology and knowledge for producing high quality and efficient equipments and that is why factories, hospitals, and industrial workshops use Japanese, German or Korean products and you never see dutch ones! If you silence the voice, how can you follow the moves on the board? There is no way unless by constantly checking the PC monitor which is a joke as in this case you can use any non-electronic board and play on stockfish instead! Tournament organisers are stuck in a way with DGT boards! They purchased them over a decade ago at high cost and cannot throw them away just like that and naturally to replace them with for example Chessnut Pro etc will cost them huge amount of money. Of course, chess organisers have woken up and are already considering alternatives to the DGT boards.