Square Off Chess Set - Play Remote or AI Opponents

Product Description

The Square Off Chess Set gives all the lone strategists out there the opportunity to play a real, tactile game of chess without a real, tactile opponent. The board game, having either teamed up with Ouija spirits, or... [Read more]

Top Reviews

Broke Within 1 Month
by Jaclyn B. (1 out of 5 stars)
November 2, 2018

Worked great for 1 month then the internal mechanism jammed and it is non-functional.

They won't provide me with a date but are promising they will send another board when their back order is caught up. Took 8 weeks for the original board to get to me so I'm likely looking at waiting several months.

Buy with caution.
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Excellent chess computer with a few areas for improvement
by Christopher Ross (4 out of 5 stars)
December 11, 2018

I ordered the Square Off Kingdom set on 11/13, received 11/15. I had the Grand Kingdom set on my Amazon Wish List for a while, but it went out of stock. I expected both sets to be out of stock over Xmas and into the New Year, so I went for the Kingdom model while it was available. The box was surprisingly heavy with a shipping weight of 16 pounds. Opening the outer shipping box and the inner Square Off box, the set was well packed and setup directions were taped to the inside lid of the box.

Step 1: Unscrew the shipping pin which locks the movement mechanism in place during shipment

Step 2: Plug in the set with the included AC adapter

Step 3: Download and install the Square Off app

Step 4: Turn on the board and sync via Bluetooth

Step 5: Setup the pieces (which include an extra queen)

Step 6: Select 'Play with Square Off' in the app, select your AI skill level and your off!

You do need the phone Bluetooth connected to play against either AI or an opponent from Chess.com; you set the AI level via the app. A phone stand with the Square Off logo was also included.

Differences in the Grand Kingdom set: +$150 cost, larger size, better battery, captured pieces are moved completely off the board, auto-reset of pieces after game

At 1500 USCF, level 4 or 5 gives a solid challenge

Improvements I would like to see:

The set should have the ability to play vs AI without needing a phone

An option to play a set time control (1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60) and with increment via the app

Giving the set the option to play against itself

Giving the set to relay games from Internet tournaments

The inability to play without having the app connected was almost a deal breaker, but since the app is available on both Android and Apple, I set up an extra iPad to act as the connection for Square Off. Overall, I'm pleased with this purchase and I would recommend the set.
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What a disappointment! Doesn't work on day 1!
by nayls4g (1 out of 5 stars)
November 28, 2018

What a disappointment. I was so excited to see this board I ordered it right away. After my Excalibur board broke; this one even connects to chess.com! I open the box, install the app on my phone, turn it on and it stupid thing buzzes and buzzes and doesn't work. I am very disappointed hopefully I can get a quick exchange and if a second one doesn't work then a refund.
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Too Good
by palrem (5 out of 5 stars)
November 21, 2018

The board works AMAZINGLY well. Finished few games against the AI and my daughter loved it. VERY impressed with the board and how nice it looks and most importantly the precision by which AI moves the pieces. The chess pieces are well designed and feel premium. I would recommend this product for kids as well as grown ups as a great learning tool using which they can learn chess by playing against the AI at varying difficulty levels. It also has integration with chess.com where we can play with people across the globe.
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AMAZING
by Tim (5 out of 5 stars)
October 20, 2018

amazing, bought as a gift for my father, now he can play by himself whenever he wants. Truly a mind blowing creation.
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Be prepared for board breaking quick.
by Paul Patton (1 out of 5 stars)
November 25, 2018

First day broke... Amazon is refunding (great job Amazon!)..... I have zero confidence in this product. Sounds like a thousand motors and pieces moving every turn... so much wear.. can't imagine even a good working board lasting long.
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FUNNNNNNNNN !!!!!
by Doug Ingram (5 out of 5 stars)
December 30, 2018

My son and I have been playing chess nonstop since Christmas Day.

I must say this unit is a lot of fun.

For me, the look, feel, and finish of the board and pieces are acceptable at it's price point.

The robotics that move the chess pieces is somewhat loud .... it could be distracting for some people.

I do feel the robotic movements sound a little bit "clunky".

But I also think the noises can give the unit a bit of character.

It just depends on how you adjust your own attitude ... if you like the noise or not.

Today, at the end of a game, a person from Italy asked if I'd like to play a game with him.

This was done through the app that controls the game.

Wonderful stuff !!!!

All in all, this unit accomplishes its goal... It is super super fun... And it looks nice while doing it... Nice job square off chess team.
- Doug Ingram
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It's magic. We love it!
by William Ramey (5 out of 5 stars)
March 15, 2019

My son came home from a friend's house raving about this magic chess board.

When we set ours up the first time, I wasn't sure what to expect. Wow! I surprised how cool it is to see the pieces glide automagically across the board. There must be a magnet or something inside each piece, but they feel just like normal chess pieces when you pick them up. The board is really quiet when it's moving the pieces around, which makes the magic all the more magical.

When playing against the computer, you can gradually increase the difficulty setting from really easy to genius, which keeps the game fun for players of all experience levels. We're still on level 4 of 20, so there's little chance we'll get bored of it any time soon. Confession: we often end up with two or three people working together to try beating the computer at higher levels.

We used to play chess maybe a couple times per year but now we're playing a couple games a week, about half of the time against each other instead of the computer. But we still use the "Kingdon Set" because it's so much nicer than the old cardboard set with plastic pieces we used before.

Sometimes it gets confused when we switch between connecting it to my phone vs. my wife's but it always figures it out within a couple minutes.

We haven't tried playing with remote friends & family yet, but we've tried having one player on the board and another on a phone at home and it works great. I'm going on a trip soon and looking forward to continuing our evening chess matches at a distance.
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fun to use
by michele (5 out of 5 stars)
December 27, 2018

I bought two of these for Christmas. One for my 14 year son who is a new chess player but knows new technology. The other for my 80 year old dad who know nothing about technology but is experienced in chess. They both love it. Set up took less than 10 minutes for both boards. I was worried after the first few games as it we kept losing connection and the game would freeze we would have to start over. We realized we could not move the phone or ipad hosting the blue tooth connection. We can use the Square off app on the iphone or ipad as long as we just touch the screen and don't pickup or physically move the phone or ipad as the blue tooth connection seems quite touchy. We were able to complete games after that. On one board it was occasionally confusing what the board was doing but we realized looking at the app the black king was not moving. we now manually move it as needed and the manufacturer states they will send a new one. We are having lots of fun with the boards.
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Great present for parents and grandparents
by A. Dixon (5 out of 5 stars)
January 4, 2019

The box came in a nice sleek box, very similar to Apple's packaging, most of set up was fine, except that it skipped over the fact that you need to set up the board before starting a game if you want to play against the computer. Once I had all of the pieces on the board, than the rest of the setup was very smooth.

I liked using the app on my phone to select the level and see where the moves were happening. Also being able to continue to play on the physical board while out of my house by using the app was really cool, BUT make sure you put the board somewhere that dogs (and probably cats) can't get to it, as my 6 month old puppy grabbed one of the pieces while I was playing remotely which was an issue.

I hadn't seen the latest commercial, before I started playing, but the idea that you can play a game from long distance, is REALLY cool, and I'm going to try that next time I play.

My lone complaint after playing a couple of times, is when I had to put it away to make room on the table, storing the game pieces in the bland box they came in could be improved, just to make the piece holder with a bit more personality.

The overall quality of the board, pieces and presentation is high end, and you feel like you have a very high quality product.

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