Those of you who have been following this site and our YouTube channel have probably seen some of the old chess robots we have covered. The Milton Bradley Grandmaster and Fidelity Phantom 6100 were ahead of their time in the 80s. We had to wait till 2025 for another company to offer a superior design. The Chessnut Move is the first chess robot we have tested that has smart piece recognition. It also can move multiple pieces at the same time. The good behind it were kind enough to send us one to test. Let’s see what was included:
The Chessnut Move is roughly the same size as the Chessnut Pro but has self-moving pieces. It also comes with rechargeable bases you can use just in case you have issues with a piece or two. You get a charging dock to recharge every piece. The board itself has an AI engine that works offline. You can set the level and side to play with the push of a button.
We were able to use this board with Stockfish 18 through Arena. ChessBase is also supported. The official app lets you play against Stockfish, Maia, and Lc0. You have the option to follow live games on the board. Unlike any other board we have tested, this one can move multiple pieces at the same time. They move pretty fast too but we found online hyper-bullet games to be too fast for the board to keep up. It does well for Blitz and Rapid games though.
You can play Chess960 games on this board. It will automatically set the pieces, so you can just focus on playing. You can even pair it with Copilot, so the board can play against AI without you having to move any of the pieces. Ours came with plastic pieces but one with wooden pieces is also available.
