Centaur + Bag - NEW Revolutionary Chess Computer - Digital Electronic Chess Set

I really like the fact, you don't need to download or mess with a smart phone with this chess computer. Also can allow two players to play a game in analysis mode with hints if you want that feature. You can also set up chess problems too. It can beat most players with an estimated ELO rating of up to 3000! Another neat thing is you can use your own pieces, providing you use metalic silver stickers or aluminum foil on the bottom of each piece!! With a brand like DGT your getting exceptional quality chess computer!

With its intuitive AI feature to play at, and a little above your current level of play, this e-board provides very intriguing games and provides fun and learning on all levels. I would recommend this board to anybody who wants to sit across the board from an equally matched opponent and match wits. An excellent learning tool. I learn even when I lose!

This review is for the DGT Centaur electronic chess set. Over the years, I have had many electronic sets, but recent offerings have been poor -- my favourite being made by Fidelity. I have decided that the best device for me needs to have two features: 1) It must consistently beat me 2) It should do so quickly -- I get bored watching a machine think A lot of thought and engineering went into this product, and it fulfills these demands appropriately. The board is quite large. The plastic pieces are weighted. Extra Queens are provided for advancement! The software is so intuitive that one wonders how things are accomplished. For example, you wish to prematurely end a game and start a new one -- but there is no new game button. All you need to do is reset the board -- the machine knows! Let's say you wish to take back a move -- but there is no "back" button. All you need to do is move the piece back. Similarly, if you are studying an opening -- move the black piece back and move the correct piece for the opening you want! There is a nice bag you can purchase, but this does not look like rugged hardware. I would not suggest banging it about. This is an elegant product which I immediately enjoyed (and will continue to do so until they develop something "better")

The board constantly freezes and is extremely difficult to use. I am unable to start a new game or properly exit a finished one. It often fails to recognize moves, and the interface is confusing and unresponsive. Overall, it does not function reliably and does not meet expectations

UPDATE: Had to take off a star. I still recommend it, but have found that occasionally it asks for an illegal move. Once it wanted me to move a pawn backwards and another time it would have me capture a piece or occupy a space already occupied by the same color. This might confuse a beginner just learning. REVIEW: I am a self-taught, mediocre player who never really had regular opponents to play, so I never developed any real skills. I set up the pieces, and just based on the reviews I have been reading, I immediately started playing. So cool. Just like playing a person, except you move their pieces to the square they indicate. Not hard at all. Ok I had been looking at the various versions of self-moving chess sets, as I am a tech junkie. But this is so much better, especially for improving your game. Instead of just losing my first few games, I began to use the hint button once every few moves. Then I would move on my own. Or I would decide on a move, then hit the button to see if the computer agreed. I also tried using it for opening move suggestions...a place where I am both rusty and weak. Seriously, moving the opponents pieces, is much faster than waiting for a magnetic machine to do it. Quieter too. This is just like a regular chess set with the tiny e-paper window square, which I didn't pay much attention too at first. It is uncanny how well it keep track of all the pieces and moves, considering the pieces are not tagged differently from each other. So you must set them up correctly to begin with. I was even able to do a pawn capture en passant, correctly, even tho I later could not find anything in the instructions about it. But I tried it, and got no objection from the computer. And played on. Oh yes...and no chess notation to worry about. Just follow the big circles on the squares. But if want to learn notation, you can see it on the little e-screen to the side. I didn't even check (no pun) but I assume I am playing at the friendly level. This is so much more like playing a real person, that I could have hoped for. And it allows take-backs (I know, not very pro-like...but I have no rating, so who cares). You don't even have to push any buttons, just reverse your last move and play on. It will know what you did. As others have said....just get it! Unless you are a grandmaster, you won't be disappointed.

This is a stand alone chess computer board with pieces. The game it plays is very competitive, more adaptive play than the earlier stand alone chess computers that were more useful for beginners than serious players. The board and pieces is big enough to simply play against person as well, but it is not recommended as the board may not be durable enough to handle rough play as the board has some flex. I recommend getting standard chess board and pieces for daily competitive play. It is way cheaper!

I tested the DGT Centaur when it arrived and here's the result: 1.) Draw will be declared when there's a five-fold repetition. Is this within the rules of FIDE?? 2.) In challenging mode there's an instance where the computer allowed its rook to be captured for free so that there will be no 50-move rule-draw or something to that effect which lead to a loss for the computer. This is not acceptable in challenging mode to allow the computer play horrible blunders where an average human player will never do. 3.) The device program/firmware cannot be upgraded to fix the bugs discovered by its users to improve the product. DGT should have designed their product to be software upgradeable. That's why I rate this product for just three stars. I advice the readers of this comment to look for an alternative chess playing computer hardware where its software/firmware can be updated. Had I known the issues above I should have bought the millennium the king performance computer.

The board is great! It really adjusts to your playing level. I do wish the board was a different color, but it is easily overlooked because it is so nice. I upgraded to wood pieces I already had by adding aluminum tape (for ducting) to the bottom of the felt. Everything advertised works perfectly!

Even though this is the "budget" in the DGT line, it's my favorite, not on price, but on features. I love the interface. Turn on and play by moving. No hookups, blue tooth, wires, usb, computer connections to worry about. That would be a problem if the built-in program was mediocre -- it's NOT. It's superior. It really is an algorithm that learns and emulates human play. I haven't played enough games yet to give a long-term view, (I'll update when I get there), but after a few games, it's just plain enjoyable. My level is only low intermediate. I play online, and I've dabled for decades, but I'm no expert. But I really enjoy playing this. I'd forgotten how enjoyable chess could be -- mostly because it's hard to get together with people now (due to the lockdowns) and online and bluetooth are counter-intuitive when you just want to sit down and play. I also love the minimalist design. I wasn't sure when I ordered if I would. I love the "light up squares" and the grey-white-black colours, but I'd heard it was all plastic. However, the pieces are weighted plastic and well molded, so they feel good in the hand. The board is very light, but stable on a good table, so no worries. It's light enough to lap-play, but I don't think I'd do that, or the pieces would slide everywhere. Superb, and I believe I'll get years of enjoyment from this. I have a wood and my father's antique boards too, but I might just use this board for OTB play anyway. Highly recommend, unless you're stuck on beautiful carved wood board pieces, in which case, for computer chess I'd recommend the tournament-quality DGT boards (but they require extra options to tie in to computers and they're not "plug and play). For the rest of us, Cenatur's the best, really. I thought I'd experiment with adapting nice wooden chess pieces later -- you see a lot of YouTubes on that. But now that I have it in hand, I think I like the ones that come with the board. They suit it, look like their crafted to be together. A word on the interface -- superb. It's e-ink -- I'm a big fan of e-ink. I could definitely see taking this outside to the garden in the spring/summer / fall (it has a long lasting battery! Bonus!) The e-ink is fully readable in sunlight, and the lighted board spaces are LED and bright (there's an outdoor setting). So, everything is well thought out. The interface requires NO instruction book. The only thing I had to look up was full shut down (otherwise it goes into neutral). Powerdown is hold the play button for three seconds. That's the only thing not intuitive. The options are great, and clearly simplified for FAST use. It's adaptive, so you don't need forty levels of play. There is NO way to record games onboard (although you can pause or walk away from a game and come back to it.) If you need that, you'd need the other DGT boards and a tie-in to online or your computer. I use ChessDrop app IOS for recording, very simple! I'd rather have the one button and play Centaur than have to cope with set up, etc. In all, my perfect chess companion until I can go back to OTB live play:-) Love it...............

Scacchiera elettronica , buona rifinitura pezzi in plastica di buona qualità corredata da una borsa per il trasporto e due tasche per i pezzi. Prezzo un po alto ma sono soddisfatto dell

Excellent jeu & partenaire d’échecs Mode amical permettant de le battre, si besoin en suivant ses conseils 😉 de coups à jouer Mode normal efficace, évidemment alors moins facile à vaincre Très content de cette belle acquisition, qui permet de s’amuser et de progresser 🌻

update: For the fun of it I thought a Harry Potter Wizard Chess Set would be nice but the chess pieces are made of cheap plastic mold with a hollow base. With a hollow base I couldn't even sticker a metal circle to the bottom and after contemplating a solution I found that had some almost dried out dry wall filler that were putty-like so I ended up filling up all the hollow bottoms chess pieces with dry-wall filler. After the plaster hardened I tested them out on the chess computer board and they worked without the need for any metal disc. It seems as long as you have a flat bottom chess pieces the board seems to recognize it. Which really means that almost any chess piece that you have a liking to will probably work as long as you can create a flat bottom on the chess piece. I like the Harry Potter Wizard Chess set and I bought two of them so I could have extra queens. update: I am into lego too so on black friday I bought a few sets of the lego chess set and made some modifications to each of the initial lego chess piece design; bigger base, all one colour like all black instead of black and blue and all white instead of red and white. It took two chess sets to make the modifications i.e. to get all the all white and all black lego pieces. Once that was done, I sticker a metallic like disc to the bottom of each of the lego chess piece. The lego chess pieces works wonderfully. update: Bought a chess table 18"x18" and fits the DGT Centaur perfectly (see last photo). What a wonderful standalone computer chess board! I am using Marble chess pieces straight out of the box without having to paste metal disc on the bottom. It has been several decades since I have played against a computer chess as the old chess algorithms were so predictable that it always trades but not Stockfish as I watch it skips the straight trade into trapping me instead! I am wonderfully surprised as I didn't expect it because I didn't realize that the engines have advance quite a bit in 3 decades (duh!) Yes I've been behind the times. The board is wonderfully light and very intuitive to use. Just set up all the pieces and start playing. If you decide to resign or reset, just move all the pieces back to their original position and the computer will reset. If you want to take back a move, just take back a move; no need to push any buttons. In fact I haven't even press on any buttons since I got the board except the power button to turn it off. There are so many computer chess boards out in the market and it is confusing as straight e-boards needs a computer and then there are smaller computer chess boards that doesn't look like it would play anyway near the level of DGT Centaur running Stockfish at 1ghz. I bought the version that comes with a Bag and trust me that this is all you need for the next decade.Forget expandability, upgradeability and all the complexity of online play. If you want all those other features use your iPhone but for a game of chess between just you and the computer near a fireplace this board is good enoug and the marble pieces looks wonderful on this board.

Yes, I only gave it 4 stars instead of 5, but be aware why.... I took away 1 star merely for appearance - it does (as mentioned in other reviews) have a very flimsy appearance and not really a proper bottom either. But, if you can live with that, it seems short term (I've only had it a little while) to be a great game. I have played with a computer before and the computer just does not simulate playing with a real person. The Centaur does and part of it could be that it's tangible and you have to actually physically move the pieces, but I really think it's more than that. As they claim it matches your playing skill somehow and makes for really great games. It does feel like playing a human opponent, except you don't have to wait 10 minutes for them to move. Also, for my first game I plugged it in and let it charge, but I've played "I think" 7 more games cordless and it hasn't yet needed a recharge, so that's handy too. One small flaw (at least as far as I can tell) is, there's no meter or gauge though to tell you when it needs a recharge, which would be nice, just so you don't get part way through a good game & maybe the battery dies. Anyhow, since it's relatively new for me, I can't judge for longevity but overall, if you don't mind the price, I would recommend it, the games are really good.