Chessnut Air Review

Truth. 
I’ve heard of the mechanical issues from owners of the MB/Fidelity Phantom, Excalibur Mirage and Novag 2robot and Adversary. 
Still hard to ignore for those who like the novelty.

Exactly. I have several things that were purchased as "novelties" which means I will likely buy a moving chess set for that same reason ...

Well, I agree with you all. Having a board with moving pieces reliable and fast enough for Blitz play is a very tough nut to crack, that's exactly why I mentioned the importance of fast and reliable on their FB page. If they crack the magic formula they will sell those boards like candy, if we get another curiosity then that will sell in modest numbers. But I really want to motivate them to the max to find that magic bullet. Come to think of it, they should include an option to turn off the movement of the pieces so if it's not fast enough or if in 20 years time the machine doesn't work you still can use it as a regular Chestnut eBoard.

BTW, I read that they are busy with Premium pieces for the Air/Air+/Evo for those of us that don't want to try making your own.

for those that missed it, there's a promotional youtube video from Chessnut introducing their portable Chessnut Go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9KmMTiZhkg

It looks quite nice, although I think for serious play it's way too small (even smaller than the Air).

Oh, wow, did not realize it was so small.

It might work for a nice study/analysis board or maybe even to throw in the suitcase for a trip.

Thanks for the video.

Wow, not sure how I missed this post. Thanks for this info.

This would be nice to add, depending on price point. The Pro Premium pieces are great but they are full size.

Thanks @zephyrusid This Chessnut Go is now on my radar. I do adventure motorcycle camping and this could be what I need during my trips.

Yes, @Yenster1, seems like a perfect little travel board. Small but it looked "playable".

It is on my radar as well, under $250 and it will likely find a home on my e-Board rack.

I have asked on Reddit if they have a projected release date and/or price point but no answer yet on that question. (they read the post, they answered another question in the post).

I'm curious how they did it/sensor compatibility. Those things have magnets in them, plus the tolerances on the current pieces are so tight not sure they could fit the current sensors in any smaller pieces then the Air/Air+. If the sensors are basically compatible., they must have taken the coils out of its housing and added a special magnetic enclosure to fit them.

So curious. I have a set of high quality wooden pieces designed for travel set (1.2" squares) and it would be interesting if there is a way to make them compatible.

Perhaps the rim of the piece is a magnet and the board is ... well that probably wouldn't work.

How about the rim of the piece is metal and the squares have magnets in them.

They say it is "Upgraded Full Piece Recognition", so new type of sensors?

The magnet is in the pieces. While it makes sense that some modification is in effect, since they're looking for a change in magnetism due to the sensor coils, I imagine the base design just requires tweaking. Also noticed that the set they show in the video has the default bag, but when it goes for sale it'll come with its own case. https://chessnutech.com/pages/chessnut-go.

I guess we'll see when it lands. My hunch is that they must have transitioned to alternate sensors, for instance, RFID tags.

Standard “pay to play” business approach. Certabo has been selling their rfid chips since they launched so you can use whatever chess pieces you prefer as long as they still work the board after they’re stuck underneath.

Chessnut's original sensors are rather old tech. I think it probably made sense for them from a cost perspective when they were trying to hit the price point for the original Chessnut Air, and they were able to succeed with that.

However, for those of us who have modded pieces, those sensors are finicky, and I suspect restricts Chessnut's manufacturing choices when it comes to more premium pieces. If I had to guess, the Go (which is a much smaller board) and their planned self-moving pieces board, will use alternate sensors. By virtue of their physical construction, neither of these boards would logically be naturally compatible with the existing boards anyway (the Go has squares and pieces which are too small, and the future self-moving piece board will need pieces that can be moved by a magnet).

Certainly, RFID tags would make creating custom pieces vastly simpler!

Looks to plastic for my liking , would be nice if it was made with a thin wooden board , size wise very nice . Any idea on the price ?

Personally, my view is that for small boards and pieces, plastic is much more robust than wood.

No inside information. They say on the web page that the pieces are magnetized. The rest is from this patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6168158B1/en It expired a couple years before Chessnut started making their pieces and I assume is how they are building their normal sets.

I think RFID would be more straightforward for a magnetic set, but piece compatibilty would be lost. If the Chessnut Go pieces aren't compatible, it'd be clear evidence the challenges are pretty big — which makes sense, already the Air+ has trouble sensing the white bishops on the A5 square.