Best Smart Chess Boards (2026): Chessnut, Millennium Leave a comment
Enjoying chess can be difficult, enjoyable, and at instances irritating. Garry Kasparov referred to as the sport “psychological torture.” With nearly limitless potentialities, chess gives unparalleled depth, and you can simply fill a library with books on tips on how to play it. The web has opened up a wealth of potential rivals, and sensible chess boards allow you to play anybody on-line or off, to not point out dabble in quite a lot of chess packages.
I’ve been testing sensible chess boards for the previous month or so, with the assistance of my chess-mad eldest, and these are my prime picks.
The Sensible Chess Boards I Suggest Most
For my opening gambit, I’m recommending the Chessnut Professional. With a basic wood design, the Chessnut Professional seems like a daily board, however there are smarts hidden inside. The beechwood items are superbly weighted, an vital however usually underestimated function. They really feel nice in hand, and the set features a pair of additional Queens. It is a full tournament-size board (55 cm or 21.7 inches), so that you’ll want house for it.
The board may be very properly made, with delicate crimson LEDs hidden within the nook of every sq. that gentle as much as present strikes. I really like that it appears like a daily board whenever you’re not enjoying on-line. There are discreet controls on one facet with a USB-C port and Bluetooth connectivity to hook it as much as your pc, laptop computer, or smartphone. There’s no have to press down with every transfer, as every bit has a sensor chip inside that’s mechanically detected.
We used the Chessconnect Chrome browser extension to play matches on Chess.com and Lichess.org, and it was fast and simple to rise up and operating. The official Chessnut app options AI opponents, however they’re a bit weak and lack selection. It isn’t nice, however you don’t have to make use of it, and you’ll hyperlink as much as completely different on-line providers with a little bit of tinkering (take a look at Graham’s Applications for some higher choices). On-line play was sometimes a bit glitchy. Typically there’s a slight lag, and we needed to click on to reconnect for each sport. Battery life is sort of good (we acquired seven to eight hours), although it takes some time to recharge (finest to go away it in a single day).
When you understandably don’t need to spend that a lot, the Chessnut Air ($250) is a much more inexpensive choice. It’s additionally wood however a lot smaller (33 cm or 13 inches), with lighter items and visual LEDs. The Air+ ($400) is identical dimension however with superior weighted wood items and delicate LEDs on the board. Functionally, each provide you with a lot the identical expertise because the Professional.
