Chessnut - Play Chess 4+

The Chessnut board is amazing, but the app that comes with it is awful.

The “analysis” function simply doesn’t work, the levels of difficulty scale very badly: lvl 1 is very easy (as it should be), but lvl 2 is already too strong for most people (I tested it against other engines and found that at lvl 2 it can already beat a 1700 Elo bot, which is way too strong for most people, lvl 3 is probably 1800-1900 strong).

The app does an ok job at connecting to Chess.com and lichess to use the Chessnut board to play there, but it has a lot of limitations too.

The PC version of the app (which allows to connect the board to a computer via usb, removing the lag of a Bluetooth connection with a phone) is even worse that the phone app: it doesn’t even install, it’s just a downloaded directory with an executable file. It doesn’t even show you which version it is, it doesn’t have an “update” function etc.

I really hope they improve this app, because I like the board itself, but if they don’t do it, I don’t see a future for the Chessnut board

This is made for use with the chessnut physical board. Don’t rate if you don’t have the board :P it connects to lichess and chess.com, you can play online, play bots, whatever. Also love games can be recorded then thrown into the lichess app (seamless) for computer review or analysis. Does everything I need for my board. Do not read user reviews with one star as they do not have the chessnut physical board, which the app is intended.

The app could be great, but it has some bugs. The biggest problem is the levels for the chess AI - There are only 8 levels (my other chess apps have 30-50) so it's almost impossible to find a level that is right for you - one level is so easy it's no fun, the next level up is so hard it's no fun. This would be easy to fix, but there doesn't seem much development going on. The board is great, but it's hamstrung by this crappy slapdash app.