I want to start paying OTB chess but I have no one to play with. So I thought why not buy any some chess board (Like Squareoff or Chessup) that let you sync the board to online chess apps like lichess and play multiplayer games but on an actual board.
However those are very expensive.
Can you suggest any alternative boards that perform a similar function which could be less expensive.
The Chessnut Go board is reasonably affordable and works great playing online here or The Other Site.
Bear in mind that for Rated games Lichess limits you to Rapid tie controls or longer when using these boards. Unrated games can be faster
IIRC not even all rapid time control, only 15+10 and slower. But I wouldn't really want to play anything with less than 10 seconds of increment on an e-board so that I don't find it a problem.
What I do is play on my real board and copy moves to and from my laptop. I play only classical this way, so copying moves is not a big deal and this setup lets me study the real board instead of 2d computer board.
For classical games, mirroring on a normal board is definitely a good option. I know people who play their online games like this and I was doing it myself for a month or two before I switched to an e-board. (And I still do when I'm somewhere where I can't take my e-board with me.)
From my point of view the biggest difference is that with an e-board, I don't have to handle the mouse (or keyboard or even touchpad) and can focus better on the board with only an occasional peek at the monitor or display. With an e-board providing LED indicators showing opponent's move, even that wouldn't be probably necessary.
@mkubecek said in #6:
> For classical games, mirroring on a normal board is definitely a good option. I know people who play their online games like this and I was doing it myself for a month or two before I switched to an e-board. (And I still do when I'm somewhere where I can't take my e-board with me.)
I think that this is ok--but I would note that players should be careful (and disciplined) enough not to play out variations on the physical board to help their calculation. I think that most players that would mirror their moves physically probably understand that it shouldn't be used for any sort of advantage, but I mention it because some newer players might not immediately understand that it ought to be treated only as a reflection of the board state, not an additional tool.
My rule of thumb is "Don't do anything that would give you a significant advantage you wouldn't have in an OTB game." I would even suggest to play your moves on lichess first and only then mirror them on the board to avoid the temptation to change your mind if you only see it was a mistake after you play it on the board.
Hey thank you for the suggestions.
The issue is that a lot of the boards are either unavailable in India or they have a very high price for me.
I feel replicating the moves is the only option but it feel unnecessarily inconvenient. However that’s what I will have to do eventually I feel.
Even with an e-board you still have to replicate your opponent's move (there are projects which do move them themselves but it still feels more like a technical curiosity than like a practical solution). But I don't really mind this part, it turned out, the main difference is not having to mirror my moves on the computer.
Yes, especially the full sized boards are still very expensive and I was a bit surprised that Chessnut or Millenium boards are in fact about as expensive as DGT.
