Square Off - Chess Set

In response to Maik1988, “The board itself seems to have the squares coloured like a plywood yellow and sharpie black.”

I have posted pictures of my board. It doesn’t look anything like sharpie black.

https://youtu.be/whafcy8u5Ks

Brimoa33 i agree man i do not know what Maik1988 was saying. The board is so nice. even without the technology advances it has, it still one of my best sets... and that's saying something seeing how i have a collection now lol

I have watched the video and have a question about move speed.

So I get this and hook it up to play a game. I make my move (let's say 1.e4), it gets transmitted to chess.com. My opponent makes a move, let's say 1... Nf6. It seems like that move takes about 1.5 - 2 seconds (in the video).

Whose time does that come off? I mean if the average move is 1.5 - 2 seconds, after 30 moves that is 45 seconds to a minute. 

Or how about when a piece is capture and gets moved off the board? 

I know the board is not useful for short blitz or bullet games, but an extra minute to a minute and a half can mean the difference for a loss on time.

I have not played any games with a clock. If it syncs up with chess.com, they will probably come up with something then.

@Brionma33, thanks for posting those pics -- the board looks better than I had expected based on some of the comments.  Looks very nice to me.  I won't let that concern stop me from buying one.  Now it's just a matter of budgeting my modest income.

@ Jr: If you look up square off pictures on google, in some pictures the squares look really black. Perhaps it's due to cheap cameras or bad lighting, as the above pictures clearly demonstrate the board has a nice look to it.

@ Yenny: Budgetting your income is important, but realise that chess sets are bought once in your life, provided you take care of them and they're good quality. The latest set I bought cost as much as some very high-end android phone devices, but those who buy those phones will throw them away after five years, since forced updates will eventually make those devices obsolete. Do you know where all of those phones and computers and all of that stuff end up? See here;

I don't know about you, but I was bloody shocked when I found out what our government does with e-waste.

I am sure the pieces have to be light, as they probably are moved around by magnets. It is a compromise. They are not so heavy as we are used, but they moved alone, so...

I am planing to use them mostly for Daily Games, so the velocity doesn't mater.  But I guess even for classical time controls we will not lose much time. And the advantage is huge: using a physical board to play online games is just terrific. I am even motivated to play against the computer, make notes on the games and analyse them seriously, trying to improve my game doing so.

I thought about adding a robotic arm to my e-board to move the pieces as a fun thing to do.  I'd program the arm to have a nasty personality mode (selectable by its remote user): it can knock over the pieces on purpose when it's losing.

Since my attention is on something else ATM, I'd give this suggestion to Square-off (or any other self-movement e-board builder).  it'll almost be like chess.com (and other online chess sites) where the opponent runs down the clock when losing.

Just add one more button called "computer assistance", when pressed, accuses the remote player of cheating.  Then, it'll feel just like our beloved chess.com play : )

So far I have had no trouble with my board. I play against people more often than the computer. You can download the squareoff app for free at anytime, you do not need the board to use the app. There are 20 levels on the computer that you can play against before your board ever arrives.

How long does it normally take to get the board in the mail? I ordered over a month ago and back then they said 3 to 4 weeks?

Most of the time I wait where the available players are grouped & wait for a challenge. I don’t have as much luck finding opponents when I challenge for some reason. The wait times for a challenge vary, but I don’t feel I wait too long.

my chess board was a Christmas gift from my daughter. I am not sure when she actually bought it, but I didn’t receive mine until April. I don’t know if wait times have improved or not.

You have a great daughter! 

I'm still interested in buying one.  But I must wait due to my tight budget.  Summer is a tough season for part-time professors.

I can purchase one without having bad conscience because I recently sold one of my best chess books for a good price (750 Euro).  It sound a lot for a single book,  but this one is really rare,  a signed book by Alekhine, one out of 50 exemplars. The book goes to the collection of an Alekhine -specialist and chess author.  I can't imagine a better place for this book

Sounds like your book sale is a win/win.

You won’t be disappointed after your SquareOff chess set arrives. JR87 and I are friends on facebook so that if nobody else is around, we use messenger to see about playing each other. That way there is no wait time.

 I have a Facebook account but I am not active there since a while.