While we’re partial to SquareOff as far as smart chessboards are concerned, we do appreciate ChessUp’s training features that show the available move options for every piece you touch, complete with color coding to let you know whether it’s a good move or bad move. The Bryght Labs ChessUp 2 takes that original chessboard and adds even more features.
Like the original, the chessboard comes with light-up tiles that show you the available moves every time you touch a chess piece, essentially serving as a virtual coach to help shore up your game. In this version, though, it gets full integration with Chess.com, allowing you to use all of the website’s features directly on the board.
The Bryght Labs ChessUp 2 has a small touchscreen on the side of the board that you can use to choose various play modes, pick opponents (both AI and human via Chess.com), and more. The Chess.com integration is very important, by the way, since this allows you to play with, pretty much, anyone in the world, regardless of whether they’re using a ChessUp board or not. Plus, since your games are saved on the website, you should be able to review your play using the built-in analysis tools.
When playing AI or human opponents, the board uses the light-up tiles to show you what move your opponent made and you’re then supposed to move their piece there. And no, you can’t cheat, since the board will not allow the game to continue if you don’t place the piece on the correct tile. It also does a great job of precisely recognizing all the pieces, so don’t even try to do anything clever (well, you can try, but it probably won’t work).
The Bryght Labs ChessUp 2 retains the same instructional features as the original, allowing players to use it as helpful training tool. You can choose from five levels of assistance during games, from beginner all the way up to master level. At the first level, it simply shows all available moves every time you touch a chess piece, basically helping players get acquainted with the game rules, while the second level lights up all good moves in green and potential blunders in red. Level three adds a blue color to the proceedings, with blue indicating not-so-good moves (but not outright blunders), while the fourth level keeps the same, but with less tolerance for potential mistakes. The highest level, on the other hand, differentiates between good moves and best moves, using blue for former and green for the latter.
If you don’t have an internet connection, it comes with built-in AI bots up to 2,000 ELO, so you can play local games with AI assistance even without a human opponent. Features include a playable area of 12 x 12 inches, a 34-piece set with piece recognition (you can’t replace it with any pieces from another board), built-in wireless connectivity (no need to connect to a phone or PC), and a rechargeable battery rated at six hours between charges.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Bryght Labs ChessUp 2. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $199.