Anyone into chess - chess computers?

chessnut air is the budget option. I’ve just bought one, it’s really good physically if you want a compact size. You can play on lichess or chess.com (NB the latter isn’t officially supported). You can also play against the computer which isn’t very good at low levels but might be ok for you. I haven’t investigated that much.

There are lots of other chess computers that don’t connect online but just play the machine in situ. I don’t know anything about them.

I have an app on my phone called Chess Pro which is pretty good. I find I make moves too quickly while playing on the phone though. What I do is have a proper board and pieces set up and I play the game on there, only using the phone to input the moves. I find I concentrate much better looking at an actual board. Games can take several days to play.

Part of an overall plan to do lots of things less "digitally" (if that's a word).

chessnut air is the budget option. I’ve just bought one, it’s really good physically if you want a compact size. You can play on lichess or chess.com (NB the latter isn’t officially supported). You can also play against the computer which isn’t very good at low levels but might be ok for you. I haven’t investigated that much.

With these e-boards, how much is the computer they are Bluetoothed to a thing in the experience if you are playing with lichess - i.e, once setup could you carry on the game with the computer in another room (within bt range) or are you constantly referring to it?

You need to refer to the computer (/phone/ipad) for your clock time assuming you have time controls. I think some of the most expensive boards also have options for a synchronised clock - top end DGT perhaps. But certainly not the chessnut air which doesn't have a display at all other than the LEDs on the board. But if you are playing a casual game against the computer with no time controls then it's basically stand-alone once you've started the game.

Also if you make some mistake with piece placement, you'll need the screen to see where everything goes. The chessnut air will indicate squares where something is wrong, but that doesn't always tell you enough if you've kicked the board over!

However if you really are't interested in on-line play against humans then there are lots of other options for stand-alone chess computers that are probably more suitable than the chessnut air. An eBay search brings up lots of them going cheap.

I was in a similar position to you as regards chess about 6 months or so ago. I knew the moves and some basic ideas but hadn't really played for years.

Then my daughter started playing at school, so we scratched together a set to play with at home. Then I got onto chess.com, played bots for a bit there, then started playing rapid games against humans most days. I discovered the world of chess YouTube content. I tried out the "Chess with Dr Wolf" tutoring app. I found there's a wealth of chess content online.

As such, I think if I were aiming to play but without screens I'd probably try to go the complete opposite direction: join my local chess club and play over the board weekly or whatever, and buy some books on openings, etc, for evening study at home. I had a look at the English Chess Federation website recently and there are multiple clubs near me so maybe it's the same where you are?

For me at least I'd find it hard to use a computer-type chess tool without being tempted at some point to just break the smartphone out and falling back into screen use by default.

When I was a kid my parents bought me an inexpensive electronic chess set from Argos. This doesn’t seem to be a thing any more, only much more expensive “premium” options (albeit that look a lot nicer, and no doubt play better/faster, and internet capable etc). It was perfectly capable of kicking my arse back then though, and I doubt I’ve improved much since 😃

loads of those old-school ones on eBay though. Found the one I had!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285611758782

Thecaptain - where did you buy the Chessnut air from? Directly from them? Did you end up paying vat and import duty ?

" join my local chess club and play over the board weekly"

This is way to go. A bit more effort but a computer or online games doesn't match the buzz of over the board games, especially in a competition.  Local clubs will play in leagues.  Or there are day or weekend tournaments. I played a lot back in the day. Keep meaning to go for a local  tournament.

Main difference is in the time limits.  Local leagues and many tournaments have reasonably big time limits.   Glasgow evening leagues used to be 1 1/4hr for your first 30 (or thereabouts) moves and then if you got past 30 moves you got an extra 15m added to your clock to play the rest of the game.  So 3 hours max if both players went to the wire on their clocks.

Weekend tournaments were slightly longer time controls. Usually they were 5 games. One on Fri night and  2 on Saturday and Sunday. They were Swiss tournaments so you got 5 games regardless of your results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss-system_tournament

There are plenty Allegro tournaments around now as well.  Fast time limits mean a 5 game tournament is played in one day.   For example the Lothians Allegro has a limit of 20m + 10s.  You start with 20m and 10s gets added to your clock every move.

https://www.chessedinburgh.co.uk/lothallegrocong.php

This is way to go.

I can see it's a thing. But maybe not for me. I'm thinking of this as a coorie thing - I live in the Highlands and whilst I've not looked I'd imagine a local chess club would probably be an hour or more drive each way, maybe more. I'm thinking a snowy post work fat bike night ride, a bit of dinner and settling down in front of the stove with a board and a dram (rather than a laptop or a TV remote). Still keen to learn and get better though.

I can see it’s a thing. But maybe not for me.

Fair enough, I guess here in the populous environs of North Manchester it's a bit different!

Interesting that you say it's a good idea tho @irc, I might see about joining my local club in Bury.

Thecaptain – where did you buy the Chessnut air from? Directly from them? Did you end up paying vat and import duty ?

Oh I just replied to your message - but yeah, direct from them and no duty but a significant delivery charge. Around 170 quid all in.

I used to have a travel Kasparov computer. **** me he was good even set to lowest level.

I might be shit at chess.

So I did it. Signed up for my first over the board tournament for over 20 years. I will be interested to see how it goes.  I rejoined Chess Scotland and was given a rating of 1408 based on my last active games decades ago.

That rating was for what is called classical chess these days.  Long time limits.  This is a one day allegro tournament in Edinburgh. 5 games. Time limit 20 minutes then 10 seconds added on for each move you make.  So for a 6o move game that is an average of about   30 seconds a move. I suspect I may play below 1408 at the allegro time limit. Either way. I will get a specific allegro grading after I have played enough games.

http://congress.org.uk/congress/358/entrants

Current STW tournament almost finished. Looking like a win for Wasnevergreat

https://www.chess.com/tournament/stw-clocks-back-2023

I'm really enjoying my return to OTB chess, about 40 years on from when I used to play as a schoolboy. Only problem round here is the rurality, there's about 10 of us in the local club and any other opposition is generally an hour or more each way. I've also been doing a bit of live on-line competition with ECF (on chess.com) and 4NCL (lichess) which is a step up from random people on those servers - it's still on the computer but the opponent has a real name and pedigree so it feels more "proper" and you get an official ECF rating.

I've got a chess club 5 minutes ride away. Tuesday nights. May give them a look. Back when I played I used to play about 9 league games a season and a couple of weekend tournaments.  So around 20 games. I liked the away games were the opponents played their matches in a pub.  There were a couple in cycling distance.

At the time I was only off 1 weekend in 4 so it was a bit hit or miss. I have more weekends off now and more spare holidays so I could get a quite a few games in if I enjoy it once I'm back.

So I went for a ChessNut Air board in the end and it arrives tomorrow apparently. Not quite what I thought I wanted but hopefully the amount of screen use will be minimal. I decided the learning aspect of chess.com and virtually playing others rather than just bots would be something I'll like. Really looking forward to it.

Is chess.com premium worth it?

I've found my local chess club an hour away.....maybe in the future.

So can you use the ChessNut Air board to play against other chess engines (chess.com being the obvious one) or is it just against whatever engine the chestnut app uses? I've googled but it's not totally obvious (at least not to me). 

This has also made me think about a return to playing over the board against a human. Haven't done that in 20 or more years.

I'm heading over to my local chess club in a couple of hours to have a look.