I honestly never thought I would have to write a post like this, but I’m now almost a month into owning my ChessUp 2 and I’m extremely annoyed that I didn’t return it while I still had the chance.
After paying around €420, I don’t think my expectations are unreasonable. I expect the product to work… That’s it.
I should not have to spend hours searching forums for answers to questions like “How do I get this thing to connect to Wi-Fi?” when this is supposed to be a plug-and-play premium product.
Every time I manage to solve one problem - and yes, I usually have to figure out the solution myself just to be able to use the board - another one appears.
Here are the problems I’ve experienced:
- Wi-Fi constantly disconnecting
I still don’t know exactly why this happens. The only semi-reliable workaround I’ve found is using my phone’s hotspot.
Even that is not fully reliable, because reconnects still happen.
And unless I completely missed it, there was no clear information on the packaging that the board only supports 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. For a product at this price point, that is something that should be made very clear before purchase. - chess com authentication is a joke
Sometimes I have to log in 5–7 times - yes, literally, I counted - before the chess com integration finally works.
Chess com integration is one of the main features advertised prominently on the box.
This is not some obscure optional feature. It is one of the basic reasons people buy this board.
Having to repeatedly authenticate over and over again just to start playing is ridiculous. - Lichess works… until it randomly doesn’t
This is probably the most frustrating problem because sometimes everything works perfectly.
Then, halfway through a game, the board simply stops responding to my moves and I have to continue the game from my phone.
And before this gets suggested: yes, I know I should not have another Lichess session/application open while playing through ChessUp.
I am not doing that.
I know this issue has already been reported by other users, yet it still happens.
And the worst part is that it seems completely random.
Today, for example, I played three games in a row where after approximately 5-6 moves, the board stopped accepting my moves.
What is interesting is that if I open the app and make my move there manually, the board suddenly starts communicating again. When my opponent moves, I can see their move highlighted correctly on the ChessUp board - but I still cannot make my own move on the physical board.
From a user’s perspective, it looks like something is going wrong with the communication or synchronization between ChessUp 2 and Lichess. - Lichess randomly disconnects during games
Sometimes, even near the end of a game, I suddenly get a message saying that Lichess is trying to reconnect.
And that’s it.
I can’t continue the game.
So I can literally lose a completely playable or winning game because the board suddenly decides to disconnect. - Opponent aborts before making the first move - board sometimes becomes unusable
If an opponent leaves or aborts the game before making their first move, I have had situations where the ChessUp 2 stops responding entirely.
The only solution is to turn the board off and back on again.
This feels very similar to the Lichess issue described above.
I am genuinely disappointed.
How can a product costing this much money be sold when some of its most basic advertised functions are this unreliable?
To be fair, there have been days when ChessUp 2 worked perfectly.
And when it works, I really enjoy using it.
But there have also been far too many days where instead of playing chess, I spend tons of hours troubleshooting Wi-Fi, reconnecting accounts, restarting things, reauthorizing services and trying to figure out why something that worked yesterday suddenly does not work today.
That completely defeats the purpose of buying a product like this.
Instead of enjoying chess, I end up getting increasingly frustrated trying to fix things that, as a customer buying a premium product advertised as easy and reliable, I should not even have to think about.
So my question to the ChessUp team is simple:
Can you actually do something about these issues?
Are these known bugs?
Are fixes being worked on?
Is there a firmware/app update planned that addresses the connectivity and synchronization problems?
And just to save us some time with the standard troubleshooting questions:
Yes, I have restarted my router.
Yes, I have changed/reconfigured the Wi-Fi connection.
Yes, I have reauthorized my Chess.com and Lichess accounts.
Yes, I have logged out and logged back in.
Yes, I made sure there were no other Lichess or Chess.com sessions/apps running while playing.
Yes, I have restarted the ChessUp 2 itself - multiple times.
At this point, I’m not looking for another “restart your router and reconnect your account” answer or email to support team.
I would really like to know whether these problems are actually being investigated and fixed.
Because right now, after spending €420, this absolutely does not feel like the premium, reliable experience I thought I was paying for.
