Square Off Pro

[AdminX]

I guess this is their answer to the DGT line.





https://trueform.io/products/square-off-pro

[mephisto]

I have followed these two Indian young lads for quite a few years now, well before they decided to form the Square Off company. I own the original Square Off robot and have their new one on order. This latest release is a great idea and I will definitely buy that as well when it is released here in the UK.

[AdminX]

Unboxing Video



This is growing on me.

[purechess]

In Europe it will cost 399EUR. Crazy!

[mvanthoor]

I guess this is their answer to the DGT line.





https://trueform.io/products/square-off-pro

I love the rollable board. It would be great for travel. I dislike the fact that it relies (at least seems to) on a smartphone app to properly function. With the DGT-boards (and also the way too expensive new Millennium 55), you need to connect a computer module to the board to play. That looks a bit 80's like, but it makes your board independent from changing technology such as the internet and smartphone.

For, who says that SquareOff will still exist in 15 years? Who says that their app will be supported on Android 21 and iOS 25? Or does the board just become obsolete?

I still think, should I buy a third electronic board (I already have two DGT-boards, two Pi's and two DGT3000 Limited Edition clocks), it would probably be a 40x40cm Certabo board and a DaVinci module (which seems to be a Pi).

The DGT (and probably the Certabo as well) )setups also have the benefit that they can be customized to a great extent, with your own engines, and how you control the system. My own image running PicoChess 0.9N is heavily customized, so I can access it by remote control, ssh, FTP, and the web browser, and it contains my own opening books and self-compiled engines. Something like that wouldn't be possible with Square Off, but it _is_ more of a consumer product.

In Europe it will cost 399EUR. Crazy!

Why are so many chess players always screaming "Crazy!" and "Idiotic prices!" when talking about electronic chess products?

€399 seems to be a reasonable price. The cheapest DGT-board costs €409. The Millennium 55 costs €799, and then you still need a €200 module or the €150 chess link to actually be able to DO something with it. (That board _is_ overpriced.) In the 80's and 90's, the top computers cost like fl. 2500; or something like €1200. The Revelation II even costs €2700. In a normal computer, a decent mainboard costs €250 nowadays (for a high-end system), and a graphics card of €400-500 is a midrange product.

So no, I don't think €400 for the SquareOff Pro is crazy. If you're willing to pay for it, is another matter.

[AdminX]

I guess this is their answer to the DGT line.





https://trueform.io/products/square-off-pro

I love the rollable board. It would be great for travel. I dislike the fact that it relies (at least seems to) on a smartphone app to properly function. With the DGT-boards (and also the way too expensive new Millennium 55), you need to connect a computer module to the board to play. That looks a bit 80's like, but it makes your board independent from changing technology such as the internet and smartphone.

For, who says that SquareOff will still exist in 15 years? Who says that their app will be supported on Android 21 and iOS 25? Or does the board just become obsolete?

I still think, should I buy a third electronic board (I already have two DGT-boards, two Pi's and two DGT3000 Limited Edition clocks), it would probably be a 40x40cm Certabo board and a DaVinci module (which seems to be a Pi).

The DGT (and probably the Certabo as well) )setups also have the benefit that they can be customized to a great extent, with your own engines, and how you control the system. My own image running PicoChess 0.9N is heavily customized, so I can access it by remote control, ssh, FTP, and the web browser, and it contains my own opening books and self-compiled engines. Something like that wouldn't be possible with Square Off, but it _is_ more of a consumer product.

In Europe it will cost 399EUR. Crazy!

Why are so many chess players always screaming "Crazy!" and "Idiotic prices!" when talking about electronic chess products?

€399 seems to be a reasonable price. The cheapest DGT-board costs €409. The Millennium 55 costs €799, and then you still need a €200 module or the €150 chess link to actually be able to DO something with it. (That board _is_ overpriced.) In the 80's and 90's, the top computers cost like fl. 2500; or something like €1200. The Revelation II even costs €2700. In a normal computer, a decent mainboard costs €250 nowadays (for a high-end system), and a graphics card of €400-500 is a midrange product.

So no, I don't think €400 for the SquareOff Pro is crazy. If you're willing to pay for it, is another matter.

I agree with a lot of your points, smarts phones have pros and cons. The points you make are valid, one positive point I do see with smartphones is being able to give chess engines a hardware boost over time. I also suspect that the SquareOff Pro is Wifi and not Bluetooth. Plus, I am also willing to bet you can mod a better set by just adding magnets to the piece bases. If I do order it, I have a set here at home I would rather use than their default set.

[mvanthoor]

I agree with a lot of your points, smarts phones have pros and cons. The points you make are valid, one positive point I do see with smartphones is being able to give chess engines a hardware boost over time. I also suspect that the SquareOff Pro is Wifi and not Bluetooth. Plus, I am also willing to bet you can mod a better set by just adding magnets to the piece bases. If I do order it, I have a set here at home I would rather use than their default set.

I don't care about hardware power when using the DGT-board. It needs to be strong enough to run Picochess and an engine, and the Raspberry Pi 4 is more than enough. (The W Zero would also work, but it would be scraping by, because Picochess, isn't really frugal with hardware power because it's written in Python. Its main loop takes a large part of CPU power. That's the reason why someday I want to start working on a Picochess rewrite in Rust.)

Because I play (at the moment) at around ~2000 Elo max, CPU power is not an issue. I don't use the board for analysis. If I want to analyze a game, I'll use a massively overpowered desktop computer running Stockfish which can reach depth 20 in 0.1 of a second.

[purechess]

The regular price for this rollable chess device is 499EUR + you have to deal with their companion app.

[GONeill]

I also suspect that the SquareOff Pro is Wifi and not Bluetooth.

No, it's BLE 4.2: https://squareoffnow.com/product/pro

I've sent them an email asking if they will publish the board's API so I could write a driver for Arena, LucasChess and Shredder but I'm not expecting them to reply. They didn't bother last year when I emailed them.

Graham
https://goneill.co.nz/chess.php#eboard

[mephisto]

Square Off have just advised me that the Pro will be available on their website in November.