Hi! I’m a chess newbie and I absolutely love my ChessUp 2. Huge thanks to the team for creating such a brilliant product and it also shipped incredibly fast!
After spending a week enjoying it, I wanted to share some feedback, suggestions, and a few questions. Hopefully some of these ideas will be useful to the team. 
1. Chess pieces with a bit more weight.
The size and design of the pieces are perfect, but because they’re so light, I accidentally knock them over more often than I expected. It would be nice if they had a little more weight added to the bottom. Alternatively, I’d love to see an official wooden piece set designed for the ChessUp board.
2. UI: Arrow keys to adjust the rating slider.
This would be a nice QoL improvement. I sometimes find it frustrating when I’m trying to select the 600 Elo bot, but the slider ends up landing on 1000 Elo instead. I think being able to fine tune the slider with the arrow keys would make it much easier for a screen on the board.
3. Puzzle mode
Are there any plans to add a puzzle mode, either natively on ChessUp or through partner apps? I’d love to study chess puzzles directly on my ChessUp board.
4. Opening lessons (and more lessons in general)
I really enjoy learning with the ChessUp board, but I’d love to see more opening lessons integrated into it, as it feels completely different from watching videos or reading online and then trying the moves manually on a wooden board. Even if this required a subscription, I’d happily pay for it. (I’m not sure whether integrating lessons from Chess.com would be possible.)
I know I can choose an opening when playing against a bot from the mobile app, but that’s not quite the same as having structured lessons. Most of the time, I see a move suggested in the app, try it, and then forget the line after the very first move. Guided lessons would make learning much easier.
5. Chessiverse integration?
This is somewhat related to the previous point. I really enjoy Chessiverse because of its courses and its more human-like bots. It’s an excellent learning resource for beginners like me. Their bots don’t move instantly, which gives me a little extra time to think while still playing with a clock. It’s much less stressful than jumping straight into games against real players on Chess.com or Lichess. I also love how their courses let you repeat openings and practice the same ideas until they stick. I would absolutely love to experience that on the ChessUp board.
6. Time format options when playing against AI (UX/UI issues)
I noticed that I can choose a time format when starting a game against a bot through the app, but that option isn’t available when I set up a game directly on the board. It would be great to have more consistency between the app and the board experience for UI. It also feels quite strange that some features are missing when playing against bots offline using the board set up.
7. A true “0 Assist” mode (no legal move lights)
Sometimes I want to test my own knowledge and board vision without any visual assistance. Even on the lowest assist level, the blue legal move lights still appear whenever I touch a piece. I’d love an option where no legal move lights appear at all. So I could make my move entirely on my own, and only after placing the piece would the board tell me whether the move was correct or not, similar to how it already shows purple when a move is incorrect or simply accepts the move when it’s correct. I think this would be great practice for me before switching to a regular wooden board, where those helpful blue lights aren’t there anymore.
8. A travel size ChessUp board?
I’d love to have a smaller magnetic travel board from ChessUp. I’ve looked at Chessnut Go, but I’d still love to see if ChessUp would plan to release something similar. The biggest reason I prefer ChessUp is its excellent app integration and all of the learning features.
9. A ChessUp backpack?
I already own the carrying bag, but I usually travel with a backpack. I’m wondering if there’s any chance ChessUp might release an official backpack in the future? I wouldn’t mind if it were larger than a typical backpack. It would be much more convenient for traveling since I could carry the entire ChessUp set along with my personal belongings in one bag.
Those are all the ideas and feedbacks I can think of for now.
Thanks again for creating such an amazing product! 