As someone that owns the Gen 1 board, I am impressed with Gen 2. The board is sleeker and a thinner profile. I could be wrong but it feels lighter as well. It has a more premium feel and design. Also, I love the packaging. I just got it maybe 10 min ago so I haven’t played a game yet but wanted to share my initial impressions. I continue to be very much impressed with this company and product overall.
As a new to chessup user, my turn for first impressions: Pretty amazing.
I got to fiddle around for a hour or so, so here goes:
The physical board: Feels very good. There’s barely/no flex on it. The top of the board is solid and in 1 piece. I was skeptical when jeff said you could drop water on it and it would be fine, now I see why. The notations around it are perfect. Light enough to carry around, can’t wait to challenge some friends on it.
The piece recognition works great. There’s almost no delay to putting the piece on the board and it showing up on the screen (such as the board editor).
Carry bag is absolutly gorgeous. Feels great.
Contrary to some users, I had no trouble setting up my chess.com account on it using the app. It might change later (or a different way as I read here) but currently works. Once set up, no need to take out your phone. It plays on it’s own.
I played 2 online games, flawlessly, straight from the board. Showed up correctly on my account. I played a couple games against AI that I was able to analyze/download as PGN from the app later. Super easy to do.
All that’s missing is Jeff’s autograph
I’ll end this here because, obviously, it’s still the prototype software on it, so some things aren’t currently 100% functional (like challenging friends) but so far very impressed with the whole thing.
Can’t wait to test out new updates.
I’m very happy with this product as well. The only small thing I have found so far is the board corner. I’m guessing the top is some kind of vinyl sticker, but in one corner there is a bubble. It doesn’t just push down, its like either something was stuck to the bottom side before applying it or there could be a piece of plastic from the board that was sticking up. The other corners look fine, I’m just nervous that it potentially could peel up over time. Does anyone else have this as well?
We have provided feedback to the factory on this issue and it should be resolved moving forward.
With the pilot run, if you would like to exchange it later, you can.
There are likely a few like this out there in the pilot run.
It will not peel up over time, but it is not what we aim for with finish either.
The issue was this was hand placed with the wrong order on “edge guide” and unfortunately you see the small bend there. We are now working on a jig to help and explicit instructions on how to register the board top.
Again - please let us know if you would like to swap it out when we have the next batch in, we can take care of that.
I am thoroughly impressed with this board. There were complications with my trial run but from what I have seen of the board it is very impressive! The board and pieces feel great and look great. I was able to connect to chess.com flawlessly and easily. My only caveat with how the board looks and feels is the notation numbers and letters. I wish they were about two font sizes bigger. I also like the extra space on the side above and below the screen where i can place my pieces after they are captured. As someone else has mentioned, the carrying bag is fantastic. I recommend buying the carrying bag if you have not.
Very impressive. Better than I could have imagined. Feel of pieces and board and board UI is great. I thought the board lights would be distracting but they aren’t. Piece recognition is really strong… definitely some software bugs but I’m submitting those as they pop up. Biggest issue I’m seeing is the board getting confused if pieces are moved incorrectly especially while capturing. Again, I’ve shared some examples. Jeff et al. - well done and thanks for being so responsive to everyone. Fun to be part of the pilot!
And to add some confidence here - we have not coded the piece recognition into captures yet. Once that is released, any issues here will be greatly reduced.
Thanks for testing and reporting bugs!
I am interested in this. Will there be something sent out about this at the end of the beta or is this something we should note now?
Cheers
I totally agree. The carry case is very well built, and the soft velvet like interior is a really nice touch. Very glad I ordered one.
My ChessUp 2 just arrived, have played around with it for an hour now, and can already echo what has been mentioned before in this thread.
First, I was really surprised by receiving a (seemingly) finished product. As it is a pilot-run, I was expecting a dingy chess board, sporadically stuffed into an old shoe box and wrapped with yesterdays newspaper. So the sheer quality of the product boxing was already enough to get me smiling.
I also received one of the “bubbly edge guide issue” boards which, if I hadn’t read it in this thread, would have ever noticed. However, I believe this is only a added benefit, as in a 100 years when our grandchildren are auctioning off all our belongings, the auctioneer will say “Woow, do you know what you’ve got here?! It’s a first edition ChessUp 2 board, which can be determined by it’s edge guide imperfection. That’s money in the bank right there!!”
Also very happy with the overall build quality - seems sturdy and well put together. And especially happy with the fact that it can tolerate drops of water (i.e. subtle, falling tears when you loose your precious ELO) and a very responsive piece recognition.
Looking forward to late nights bathed in the pulsating LED lights from my new ChessUp 2 board, as I checkmate one opponent after another
Good job team Bryght Labs, good job
/Christian
Late to the party due to surviving the hurricane that ripped through the mountains, but mine did also have the slight physical dent in one corner of the face of the board. I’m not worried about it honestly. It’s just cosmetic.
The board itself has been working great. I even set it up with no wifi (though had to turn it off and on again during set up to be able to skip the wifi set up process), and very spotty internet service.
I did two firmware updates over bt connection to my phone that way, and I’ve also since done a firmware update directly via the board (which is considerably quicker of course).
I messed with it some in a completely offline setting given the lack of grid access and such, and all the bot play directly from the board has been fun and pretty much flawless.
Everything feels very smooth and responsive 99% of the time. It just seems to work. Looking forward to some higher rated bots in the future.
I did also get to try the learning section where it plays a video, pauses, and automatically resumes play once you make the indicated move. That has so much potential and I really look forward to some more lessons down the line.
Opening training would be great, where you can just practice different lines.
Really enjoying it and sorry I haven’t been able to participate in the testing as much yet, but things (at least at my house) are starting to get back to “normal”, save no potable water
Thanks @Jeff
P.s. Looking at my board again just now under a flashlight and I can’t actually see the bubbled edge anymore. What I do notice a bit, however, is inconsistent “flatness”. The face almost seems to not be adhered consistently/well across the edge, being flush with the edge in places, lower in others, and you can press on a bit in places to get it back lower, but that seems potentially temporary.
Hi
Thank you for sharing your first impressions regarding the exterior quality and finish of the chessboard.
However I have a question about the pieces themselves
Looking at the numerous videos showing ChessUp 2, I noticed that the white figures show a lot of bumps, blemishes, a sort of uneven veneer.
They are not shiny and polished and you can see as if they are quite dirty… with gray pencil marks or as if they are scratches?
Does it just look like that when taken out of the box and need to be wiped down?
Or are they just like that already?
Are the black ones like that too or do you just not see it on them?
Thanks in advance for your reply!
They are a marbled plastic. That is the design and it is intentional. Every white piece has a unique pattern.
They are also nearly invincible. There is no paint or veneer or scratches. The material is really tough.
I just thought about that too, that it might be just the style and intentional design. Cool! I can’t wait for it to ship to Europe.
Regards!
When I first opened the box and saw the pieces, I thought that was super cool. I really liked the marbled look, I was expecting just plain white pieces. Very nice touch.
Now that I have played the Chessup2 board quite a bit, I feel I have a few more things to comment on.
1.) The piece durability is insane. I have had nearly 100 people use this board, many of which are high school students putting it to the test. The pieces have dropped from pretty high distances onto some very hard floors without any issues. Whereas our normal plastic pieces have to be replaced weekly. This is amazing considering these pieces have a comfortable weight and do not feel just like empty plastic.
2.) The first week I received the board, it was very buggy but over the last few weeks the consistency has been remarkably improved. By buggy I mean piece recognition reading as certain pieces had not been captured or others were captured when they were not even on the board etc… The stability has improved from only completing one out of three games completely to having played every game since the last update without any issues. (This includes with students who had the job of trying to make the board mess up.)
3.) The board is very easy to clean. I use a lens cleaning wipe and it comes away no problems.
4.) The fact the board can receive updates directly and easily means that any issues can be fixed quickly.
5.) The board is very responsive. I just played a game against an online opponent and I was in a time scramble to complete a four move checkmate. The board relayed the moves almost immediately to chess.com and allowed me to finish the checkmate with plenty of time to spare. I do find myself lower on time than my opponents on average due to having to physically move pieces, but OTB chess is more enjoyable anyways and that just means I need to use increment time controls.
Overall: one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Chessup has a real winner here.
Great to hear. FWIW - with ChessUp 1 we tested what it takes to break a piece - and it was a ~30 foot drop onto concrete to break them *sometimes. We also ran over a board with a 5,000 lb vehicle - and I still use that board. We make durable things
ChessUp 2 does have the display, so that requires some caution, but even with the display ChessUp 2 passed our 1 meter drop tests.
Well that is neat! Great for clumsy students (and myself) dropping pieces often.
I do kinda wish there was a good game button at the end of a game though. I usually say good game afterwards when I play online.
My puppy chewed on a pawn for a minute or two before I realized it and it survived that too with just the felt getting pulled a bit, but I stuck it back and the piece is otherwise undamaged EDIT: And, by puppy, I mean 40lb butthole.
lol
We do sell spare pieces just in case.
We actually had a chessup 1 customer email us once that their dog ate a piece. The vet and customer consulted on if the piece was safe to pass… all worked out. No word on if the customer just stuck the felt back on that one.