Chessnut smart – After a month of testing, a tournament-size Chessnut Pro stood out for its wooden feel and easy setup with Chess.com and Lichess, while the smaller Chessnut Air and Air+ offered cheaper entry points—at the cost of some consistency and online smoothness.
The first thing you notice with the Chessnut Pro isn’t the tech—it’s the way the board sits like a regular wooden chess set. No glowing gimmicks while you’re not playing. Then, the moves start, and tiny red LEDs hidden in the corner of each square quietly light up to show what’s happening.
I spent the past month testing smart chess boards. with help from my chess-mad eldest. and I kept circling back to one practical problem: chess is only fun when the board gets out of the way. The Chessnut Pro does that. using a sensor chip inside every piece so you don’t have to press down for each move.
The pieces matter too. The Chessnut Pro uses beechwood pieces that feel beautifully weighted—an “often underestimated” detail that you notice immediately when you pick them up. It’s also the sort of set you need space for. This is a full tournament-size board at 55 cm (21.7 inches).
On the connectivity side, the board has discreet controls on one side with a USB-C port and Bluetooth connectivity. That means it can hook up to a computer, laptop, or smartphone without fuss. For online play, we used the Chessconnect Chrome browser extension to get matches going on Chess.com and Lichess.org. Setup was quick, and once it connected, the games were easy to run.
There’s a catch, and it showed up during play. Online matches were occasionally glitchy—sometimes there was slight lag, and for every game we had to click to reconnect. The official Chessnut app includes AI opponents, but they felt a little weak and didn’t offer much variety. It isn’t something I’d lean on. but you don’t have to use it if you prefer linking to different online services.
Battery life was solid. We got seven to eight hours, but recharging took a while—best to leave it overnight.
If you don’t want to spend as much, the Chessnut Air is the softer landing. It costs $250 and keeps the wooden look, but it’s smaller at 33 cm (13 inches), with lighter pieces and visible LEDs. The Chessnut Air+ costs $400 and is the same size. yet steps up with superior weighted wooden pieces and subtle LEDs built into the board.
Functionally, the Air and Air+ deliver much the same experience as the Pro—smart, hands-on play that can work both offline and online—just in a smaller footprint and at different price points.
Taken together. the point is simple: a good smart chess board shouldn’t feel like you’re wrestling with a gadget. With Chessnut’s boards, the feel is close to a real match at the table. The online hiccups are there. but the overall “regular board” experience is strong enough that you keep wanting to come back to it.
smart chess boards Chessnut Pro Chessnut Air Chessnut Air+ Chess.com Lichess.org Chessconnect Chrome extension Bluetooth USB-C chess AI
So it’s basically chess but with lights? Kinda cool I guess.
I don’t get why people need “smart” boards. If it glitches and you gotta reconnect, that defeats the whole point. Also the red LEDs sound distracting.
The article says it doesn’t have the glowing gimmicks until you’re playing, but then it’s got LEDs on each square lol. And “sensor chip so you don’t have to press down” — ok so it’s like cheating at setup? Not sure I’m buying it.
Tournament-size is nice but I feel like any Bluetooth board is gonna lag at some point. They said it’s easy setup with Chess.com and Lichess but then “every game we had to click to reconnect”… that’s not easy, that’s annoying. I tried one of these “smart” things once for checkers and it kept losing track, so I’m probably skeptical. Bet it looks great on a desk though.