Chessnut - Play Chess

This is made for use with the chessnut physical board. Don’t rate if you don’t have the board :P it connects to lichess and chess.com, you can play online, play bots, whatever. Also love games can be recorded then thrown into the lichess app (seamless) for computer review or analysis. Does everything I need for my board. Do not read user reviews with one star as they do not have the chessnut physical board, which the app is intended.

The app could be great, but it has some bugs. The biggest problem is the levels for the chess AI - There are only 8 levels (my other chess apps have 30-50) so it's almost impossible to find a level that is right for you - one level is so easy it's no fun, the next level up is so hard it's no fun. This would be easy to fix, but there doesn't seem much development going on. The board is great, but it's hamstrung by this crappy slapdash app.

The Chessnut board is amazing, but the app that comes with it is awful. The “analysis” function simply doesn’t work, the levels of difficulty scale very badly: lvl 1 is very easy (as it should be), but lvl 2 is already too strong for most people (I tested it against other engines and found that at lvl 2 it can already beat a 1700 Elo bot, which is way too strong for most people, lvl 3 is probably 1800-1900 strong). The app does an ok job at connecting to Chess.com and lichess to use the Chessnut board to play there, but it has a lot of limitations too. The PC version of the app (which allows to connect the board to a computer via usb, removing the lag of a Bluetooth connection with a phone) is even worse that the phone app: it doesn’t even install, it’s just a downloaded directory with an executable file. It doesn’t even show you which version it is, it doesn’t have an “update” function etc. I really hope they improve this app, because I like the board itself, but if they don’t do it, I don’t see a future for the Chessnut board

App crashes almost immediately when playing within the app. Playing online seems to work better, but it still crashes occasionally.

App crashes constantly making it unreliable to use with the Chessnut board.

This is a great app. I am in support of your product. Can you please add the feature that “beeps” when the opponent makes a move? It would be helpful to have a audible beep to tell me to move in case I am not looking at the board, or if I forget to see the led indicator. When the opponent makes a move, a beep will sound. It would be nice to control the duration of the beep. I would also like more control over the LED. Having the option to show the last made move with an illuminated LED would be useful. In addition, hi lighting the square the piece originally moved from would be nice as well. Example: white moves pawn to e4- now both theE2 and e4 LED’s are illuminated until black completes their turn. Please allow users to play their move before physically moving their opponents piece to a its new square. This would then allow us to not lose time on our turn moving an opponents piece. EXAMPLE: E7 and E5 LED’s are illuminated indicating lawn to E5. however, white is able to play their move immediately after seeing the E5 LED. Following whites completed turn, the user may now move the black pawn to E5, not wasting their own time on moving an opponents piece Maybe I am working or cooking not looking at the board l Thanks in advance for considering this feature. I look forward to the future of Chessnut and their relationship with their customers feedback

Android now has the new app! When will it be coming to iOS? Thanks Everything works great but we really need landscape mode especially for the iPad. Also need an upgrade path for those Air owners who want to upgrade to a Pro.

The software works well for the most part but when playing against the computer the time controls don’t work properly. No matter how much time you set the controls at the computer will always move quickly. It will end up with more time than it had at the beginning.

Worked fine but they updated it and it broke I guess. I can’t sign in, nothing happens. They really cheaped out on the app unfortunately and I’ll be attempting a return. Do not recommend.

Work well on iPad with the board. There are still glitches but they do not bother me too much so long I play play on lichess and chess.com. Issue. Cannot play blitz on lichess on iPad, Does not recognize board moves on move one sometimes