DGT Digital Electronic Chess Computer

I received my DGT Centaur two days ago and I am hooked.The board is a good size (1.9 inch squares) and is very light and thin, which makes it extremely easy to move and use just about anywhere.The plastic pieces are heavier than I expected and feel good in the hand. The piece designs are easy to recognize, with well differentiated silhouettes. The pieces feel good to move, either by lifting or sliding.The bottom of each piece has a smooth slick black tape-like covering rather than felt or leather. This makes it easy to slide the pieces, but it also leads to the pieces sliding on their own if the board isn't placed on a level surface. I found that I could play a full game on my lap, but I needed to be very careful not to shift my position too much.The sensors in each square only detect whether a piece is on that square. They can't determine which piece it is. When the pieces are placed in all squares on the first two and last two ranks, the DGT Centaur assumes each piece was placed correctly in its starting position. After that, when a piece is moved, the board keeps track of its new location. This scheme requires the starting position to be set up correctly. If the pieces are arranged incorrectly (e.g., king and queen are swapped), then the legal moves won't match the pieces and the board will prevent you from moving pieces they way you expect them to move. If this ever occurs, you can look at the small board display on the e-paper display to see what pieces the DGT Centaur thinks are on each square.I've mainly been using my DGT Centaur to practice various endgame scenarios. It's quite easy to set up a board position. You select the type & color of piece you want to place on the e-paper display and then place all pieces of that type & color anywhere on the board. Once the pieces are on the board, you can reposition them one piece at a time and the board will remember which piece is which.When playing against the built-in computer, you can take back moves, one at a time, all the way back to the starting position. When the computer indicates its preferred move, you can choose to make a different move on behalf of the computer. This is great for practicing specific variations and lines of interest. All of this is done simply by moving the pieces on the board and so it feels very natural. I played dozens of lines of a new knight-bishop endgame I'm experimenting with to look for weaknesses.Some reviewers have complained that it's hard to take back many moves, because there's no indication of where the piece started. The notation used only shows the ending square. This is a fair complaint, but there is a workaround. You can scroll through the entire list of moves by pressing the up and down arrows. When doing so, the small board on the e-paper display will update to reflect the board position at that position in the move list. And so, by pressing the up arrow a couple times, you can see where the last move came from and them move the piece back to that position on the board. You can then repeat this process to unwind as many moves as you like. It's tedious, but it works.I can't comment yet on the strength or adaptive friendliness of the computer. I only played a few full-length games and I found myself unwinding moves and playing different variations so much that I didn't get a strong sense of the computer's ability.There isn't a mode for the computer to play itself, but you can emulate it by allowing the computer to play as your opponent and then requesting a hint for each of your own moves. This can also be useful in two player games between a strong opponent and a weaker one. For example, I could give a handful of coins to my son and allow him to "buy" computer hints at any time during our game.Some will justifiably feel the price is high for the build quality and materials, but I feel it's good value for my own family. I prefer playing on a physical board over a phone or computer screen and the gameplay feels extremely natural. Other than pressing one button to turn it on, there's no need to touch the controls or look at the e-paper display to set up a new game and play it through to the end. Both of my non-playing kids have spontaneously played multiple games against it (and me while I was using it), which is a great indicator of how fun and intuitive it is to use.

Package arrived no dings or scrunchies. Easy to setup light to move around. Only issue one of the black pawns had issue of not registering no matter what square I moved it too. So contacted seller which promptly responded within 8hrs. and resolved with sending out another black pawn coming from LJUBLJANA - SLOVENIA with DHL shipping. And in 4 days already reached CINCINNATI HUB - USA. So Five stars to US C-Games Trade for fast response and resolving issue.Otherwise being a casual player thru life always felt intimidated by online 2D powerful chess engines or players. Always felt rushed and overwhelmed with all the complex move strategies and stronger players. When my way is slow leisurely learning pace. Starting out friendly mode was being crushed by 8-10 moves. So started by slowing down and taking breaks and coming back to board. Within a course of a week went from 8-10 moves into blunders to 12-20 moves before blundering. Just finished my slow game playing to end resign on 32 moves. So much improvement in 1st week alone. And enjoyable the whole time. And love the stand alone all-in-one no phone,tablet or computer needed. Tho would have loved the ability to connect if desired.To the pawn not registering all I did was lick the bottom and registered fine after that. As the Black pieces taste like Licorice and the White taste like vanilla! :-) All kidding aside there is a trick being used with round metallic stickers putting on bottom of other chess sets to be used on the Centaur. Which I imagine also applies to any problematic pieces that came with the board. Also if having issue when resigning and moving pieces back to start. Sometimes the board will just loop and loop lights thru the squares not ending. Again this is an issue of pieces? Usually removing and resetting pieces resolves this and computer resets to new board. Never found a position or piece attributed to the looping but eventually resetting pieces most times resolves the issue. Also holding down play/pause button for 10 seconds will reset to fresh clean start.Now to my concerns with the board. This was released in 2019 without any hardware upgrades? Coming up on 4yrs without significant changes? Like bigger battery I get about 2 days worth of Off/On playing. When images of insides show plenty of space for a battery twice it's capacity. And would like a battery percentage and quick charge option. Also would like to see the display be increased much longer to see more moves on display. And add more definitive levels then just Friendly, Challenging, and Expert. More based on more levels assigned to ELO ratings would be nice.They could have also replaced the Pi-zero with a Pi-Zero W giving wireless connecting to computer,phone or tablet opening up internet chess to it. Or added a micro SD card slot for recording? The bottom is the most unattractive part of an otherwise elegant set without all the annoying gadget looking obtrusive buttons of other sets. Speaking of buttons would have like some rubber gasket around them so they are less cheap clickity sounding. Chess pieces with some outer ring felt? or made such as way to not slide around so easily when attempting to move the board if somehow pieces made magnetic would be perfect. Also if the board folded would have been a great plus to compact travel ability.Any of these would have been great and expected improvements over last 4yrs. Tho still a great Chess board and brings joy and enjoyment to many non-professional to professional chess players. And totally worth the $291 I paid for it.Update: Now been over 1yr. and still going strong without any hardware or software issues.