Chessnut Air Review

First time using my modded 2.6" Zagreb on my Evo board.

The board performed flawlessly and the pieces were oh, so nice to use. Much better than the piano white/black pieces that came with the board.

Here we are about move 9, black was about to move 9... Nb4.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice and helped along the way.

Hi all,

I've been busy and was reading along but haven't chipped in.

It's remarkable how close your experience with installing the chips is to what I've experienced @rsava. Did you try switching around the chips with other sets, to check if it wasn't the chips that were faulty, as was the case with me?

I'm glad you got it working in the end, and the photos look very good.

If the chessnut air isn't as responsive/stable as the evo is, I can't help but wonder about the pro. I'm still quietly contemplating getting one of those, but I am still a bit wary, especially because it is so much more expensive than the air.

To close this post, a photo from past sunday where I was able to play two 15-10 games in the afternoon, in my study (in the garden, separate from my home, so in Total - magnificent quiet)

(Note the two promotion-queens in original plastic on the storage case)

And a close up of the board with the pieces:

As you might know, I have the Air, PRO, and EVO.

My feeling is that it's likely much easier to get wooden pieces on the PRO simply as the chessmen themselves are much larger, while doing so on Air sized pieces is quite fiddly. There is also the option of simply buying the Chessnut produced "Premium" pieces as well, which takes no effort and will be guaranteed to work.

I've made two custom sets for the PRO and also own the the "Premium" pieces. I almost always use the Chessnut Premium pieces rather than my own custom sets as Chessnut has managed to increase the weight of those pieces which feels very nice.

Things to ponder!

If you do plan to buy more Chessnut gear, consider using my coupon code for a discount: CHESSNOOB64

Because of a comment I made on a Youtube video, I went down a rabbit hole. For this one, I found a video he made.

A couple things to note: (1) This is not the current Chess Bazaar Collector's Staunton (2.4" King). The current one is a new design with a "squat" and more stable set which unfortunately has similar/same dimensions of the one that many are saying a tight fit here (also called "Collectors Staunton" but from a different vendor). You can tell this by the beveling on the bottom of the newer designs that isn't in the video — my thinking is they're doing that to make them more stable now. I believe this is the model since it has a 2.8" king, not squat proportions, and non-beveled bottoms. The dimensions of the old model are similar to the Zagreb style from the other vendor. For reference to the future, it appears that if the King diameter is >30mm it's "too tight" but anything Kd<30mm is okay. (For those curious, for Chessnut Air squares at 35mm, "ideal" Kd=27mm and pd=21mm.)

(2) I think in the video he uses blue-tak but in the comments he says he replaced it with tungsten putty to weight them down. Both serve a similar purpose in terms of making it easier to set the weights (though the tungsten obviously adds weight and costs a lot more for those of us americans who remember pinewood derby as a kid).

(3) He talks about trimming a couple mm more than the recommended amount to fit the pawns in. The rest sound like they fit. I have a feeling it might be easier in the newer Collectors because those have a wider base and weigh more.

I hope this helps anyone modding "Air-sized" pieces.

tychay Yea , wish had come across this video would have saved me some work , Still I like my set way better , there is not much in the base size in the end ,

I guess that it didn't come across in my previous post. If you don't mind the "tightness" of the King base being 3mm wider, the new Collector Series is superior to the old ones as you can see in the reviews. Besides being available in shesham/boxwood in addition to ebonized boxwood/boxwood, the squatter design and beveled bottoms make the pieces a lot more stable and not just a "miniturized standard set" like the old Collectors and many other travel sized sets. (In particular, I've noticed that even the more expensive travel-sized sets have massive compromises on the knight carving quality.)

(If you want it pre-drilled, then to my eye, IndiaChessArt's version looks to be in the same style and they do customization (while their Zagreb version is similarly sized to the old Collectors series. Also I suppose ChessBazaar claims they can customize, but I haven't looked into it since I'm not interested in pracitcally unweighted sets. Besides, my main chess set for the last 20+ years has been an "original" HoS Zagreb 59 — fun fact, "Zagreb '59" is a made up set by House of Staunton, the actual sets used in the tournament were some version of Dubrovnik and basically Frank must of copied popular Dubrovnik-inspired Eastern European designs — probably to hit a lower price point, because that's why I bought it back then — and gave us what we call a "Zagreb.")

I still hope my post helped explain about the tungsten putty and blu-tak are nearly interchangeable delta the weight and cost difference.

As an aside about the new Collectors version, I noticed Chess Bazaar also sells it as a set with a case that holds a 15" chess board. I don't know how roomy of a 13" Chessnut Air/Air+ chessboard fits, but it's an idea and can be purchased separately.

BTW, if you want to use baize cloth instead of felt as the felt, then this video shows how Chess Bazaar recommends replacing the felt. I'd imagine they can get away with doing a good job because they are pros, so if I were to try that method, I'd probably use a set of high quality curved nail scissors instead of what they used to make things easier.

Best of luck!

I guess that it didn't come across in my previous post. If you don't mind the "tightness" of the King base being 3mm wider, the new Collector Series is superior to the old ones tychay

You can always take of that 3mm with a Dremel , which is what I did today & looks + plays way better with regards to the tightness on the SQ . Will post some updated photos soon

Vitualis, which of your boards do you play on most?

PRO.

Here 's some updated photos of my DIY Collector Series by CB , After taking off the 3mm rim with a Dremel to deal with the tightness on the SQ . Very happy with the set , works really well & better for the eyes on the board + joy to uses a wooded chess set , To me , this is the best nicest looking chess set one can find for the Chessnut air in todays market .

Great idea btw. Did you varnish/laquer/wax the wood afterward?

Yes a coat of cooked linseed oil

Got my Chessnut Air+ last night. The package was damaged pretty badly (thanks, UPS). One of the pawns I think took the brunt of it and is cracked in several places - Chessnut is already working with me to get a replacement sent. In the meantime, it is functional.

I also tested out the extra sensors I ordered. I tried laying them on top of the sheet of felt - the thick one that @vitualis had mentioned. Most of them were fine, but a couple of them seemed less sensitive than the others. They all worked fine when placed directly on the board though, so I don't think it really could be called a malfunction, at least not yet. I ordered some of the thinner felt from post #700, hopefully that will work fine. I may try the thicker stuff anyway, and see if it works after the paper backing is out of the way, and maybe the felt is even stretched a bit or matted down a bit as I apply it. I really do prefer a felt feel to a velvet type feel.

Does anyone know of a thinner sheet of adhesive that is more like felt rather than velvet? It's very hard to tell on some of the product descriptions online - a lot of them say felt and velvet for the same product!

I don't know if this helps, but most chess pieces are backed by baize cloth not felt, the main difference is baize cloth is woven so it is dense and strong while not thick (IIRC, around 1mm, which sounds thinner than the felts being discussed). I'd search for someone specifically selling "baize" or "wool baize" (or go to a billiards store and see if they have seconds/discards for when they refelt pool tables). Pretty sure someone is going to sell it with adhesive backing if you don't have some spray-on adhesive handy as people use it for card and board game surfaces also, as felt has a tendency to pill and wear away and doesn't last long.

I hope that helps.

@tychay - thanks, that is helpful. I ordered a couple of things to try, one is the more velvet type thin stuff, which I expect will work, and some adhesive felt that is said to be 40% merino wool, 60% viscose. Thought that might be both thinner and more robust, but we’ll see. 
I wish I could get my hands on what Chessnut used with the Air+ pieces - that seems perfect. Very thin, and like a less fluffy felt.

I did do up a couple of queens with bluetac, the sensors, and the thicker felt. It is indeed more “fluffy” than I had hoped and the weaker of the two sensors was only being picked up intermittently. Again, that sensor bare works just fine. Between the fluffiness making the pieces shed and also wobble a bit, I don’t think that’s the solution for me.

The queens I did up weigh almost exactly the same as the provided pieces. They are slightly more bottom-heavy, I’d say (which is a good thing). I may at some point want to try the tungsten, we’ll see.

Anyway, here’s a picture so you can see how things are proceeding, how they look on the Air+ board, and how they compare with the stock pieces. Generally speaking, the pieces are slightly shorter and slightly wider than the stock pieces. Not sure I love the bright white, I may need to so up a set and paint it ivory to see how that looks, eventually.

Again, this is a 3d print at 70% scale of @conorokane ‘s incredible Dubrovnik files, done at my public library.

Today, after saving up and thinking things through, I decided and bought the Chessnut Pro. I'd like to thank @vitualis for providing the discount code, which I used and this made the price even lower than it would've been using their regular easter discount.

I will now patiently await its arrival and let you know, once it has arrived, what I think about it. The chessnut air works perfectly each time I use it so I expect the pro to be similarly amazing, just bigger and prettier.

Do the printed pieces have a "hollow base" or did you have to do anything, prior to adding the sensors? I really like the look of the ones you printed. I also have acrylic paints meant for miniature painting so I may try that. I don't know if you painted them at all.

Yes, they have a hollow base. Most of the sensors fit in perfectly with some Bluetack around them. I had to cut off the pawn sensors by 1-2 mm. 

No paint whatsoever. Just Black and White filament for the printer. I may play around with painting the white ones an ivory color if I go for a version 2.0. 

I’m in a bit of a holding pattern right now, though. I have one square on the board that is acting funny, but only with white bishop sensors. The package was badly damaged en route to me, and that is the location of the damage. I’m working with customer service now to see if I can get a replacement sent.

Anyone know of a hardware button press combination that will delete the storage or factory reset the Chessnut? I just got the Air+ and when I tried to use ChessConnect, it started beeping continously (I think the home screen random games/board positions were being "detected" and downloaded). Now the status is flashing yellow.
No way to download the "games" as they weren't actually properly recorded, so no way to free up space via any app in order to use the board. It's effectively a brick.

@tychay - There should be a pinhole right next to the "New Game" button. Power on, hold in the reset button for 5 or 10 seconds (forget which).