DGT Pi Chess Computer

I got my DGT Pi to go with my e-board and both worked really well, the Pi has a number of different books opening and a few different engines you can use, starfish 8 is the strongest, have it hooked up to a usb speaker and it sounds out the moves. in the two years I have used this, it has worked very well, started using it with my Smart board recently and that works really well too. I marked all the pieces A to H on the felt base so it easer to put them back at the start of a new game, better than the colour spots. having the pieces on the wrong square at start-up is the only problem I have had. would have loved to have been able to connect the Pi to my computer so i could also see the moves on Fritz but using the Pi engine... both the e-board and the Smart board work really with with Fritz 14 that comes with the boards, I'm using fritz 18 now and it works well with them also...

I haven't used it as there is problems with the screen and it not working as it should!

As you know, and is not a secret, the DGT Pi is two products bolted together: a fully functioning chess clock from DGT called the DGT3000 with a Raspberry Pi computer bolted to the bottom of it. What is meant to happen is that upon power-up, the Raspberry Pi should start up and the DGT3000 display should show the DGT Pi running both as a chess computer and a clock. Unfortunately, for many people including me, the Raspberry Pi computer is difficult and very fussy to get working and without doing a power-on procedure in precisely the right order the DGT Pi operates solely as a dumb DGT3000 chess clock and not as a chess computer at all. DGT know there is a problem and do nothing about it. Their FAQ on their website is ridiculously sparse and their manual, as others here have said is appalling. Really poor show DGT! This is a complex and badly supported frankenstein monster of a product....although very good when one can get it to work.

Il dispositivo ha funzionato regolarmente per qualche giorno, poi, all'improvviso, si è bloccato nel corso di una partita e non è stato possibile riavviarlo. Peccato, perché aveva caratteristiche interessanti. Ho avviato comunque la procedura di reso Amazon.

When I first got mine, it was acting up. It kept saying, "Set Pieces" even though my board was set up properly. I emailed the Digital Game Technology support folks and I was shocked that they responded so quickly. They instructed me to run the board testing software that came with the DGT board and sure enough, I found issues. The result was showing pieces missing. I read somewhere (probably the manual) that the board should be away from other electronics and not on a table with a metal frame as this could cause issues. Well...that was it! I had put my board on a metal-framed table. As soon as I moved it to wooden table everything worked great!!!! I hope my story spares someone else from the same frustration. I LOVE playing against the DGT Pi and its great selection of engines and levels! And I love that the DGT support team is ready to respond immediately to my concerns! Great product by a great company! UPDATE - ONE WEEK LATER: Still loving te DGT Pi! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find levels/engines that played like a human opponent on a low enough level that would be a fun match for me. I started out on the Texel engine and it is so much fun. I was able to get two queens on the board on level 4 (3 seconds per move setting) and I was heading for an easy win - got over-confident and forgot to watch out for a stalemated position! UGH!!!!! It sucker-punched meh! Ouch!!! I now have a love/hate relationship with my DGT Pi. My only complaint, which is a minor one, is that the LCD font is not bold as I would expect from such a large display area. The font itself is thin, a little odd, and takes some getting used to. UPDATE (5 years later) Wow! A lot has happened in the past 5 years with chess computers! I've gotten several new ones from different of different brands and I love all of them. The price of this DGT Pi has come down a lot!!!! I started playing on my Pi again this week and after 5 years it still holds up well against the new kids on the block! I love playing against it very much and it always responds beautifully with no issues. I love the design and don't regret the purchase at all. For just $210 you'd be silly not to grab this for your e-board! Not having to link up to a laptop is wonderful....very nice and compact unit! In my original review, I complained a bit about the display - but after playing with it so much now it's not an issue at all. It's a unique unit and would be a welcome addition to any chess computer collector's collection.

"Become a better chess player" is the main line to convince the consumer or chess enthusiast to have the DGT Pi as sparring partner. Although the available functionalities are user friendly and easy to use, the concept misses basic functionalities, that should be standard @ each software, whatever the purpose is. If "Become a better chess player" meet the requirements, then at least the user must have the possibility to analyze his/her game after having it played, that is the primary goal of a Chess Computer. These missing functionalities are based on the fundamental principle of data management: create, read and modify: 1. A chess finished game cannot be replayed. 2. A finished (or unfinished) chess game cannot be saved. 3. Navigating through the moves history is impossible. 4. A finished game cannot be exported from Pi for profound analysis. 5. An unfinished game cannot be resumed later on. 6. There is no notation and/or scoresheet available on display to have an overview of let's say the last couple of moves played (writing it down manually is better!). As a result, the answer on the question how to "Become a better chess player" without analyzing your chess game with Pi is hard to find. Probably there are updates scheduled to improve the scope of functionalities, but despite improvements on the way, there is no way to have your game analyzed, saved, resumed and/or available at the end in a user friendly manner. Real case: I played against DGT Pi, and I lost the game eventually, after 2 hours of play. I'd like to learn from my mistakes. How can I review and analyze this finished chess game with DGT Pi later on (or even just after having it played)? Finally, I do not want to judge, I'm sure that the concept of DGT Pi is based on a well done study in advance, but it gives a kind of feeling that the functionalities are both analyzed and developed by developers only with minimal input from chessplayers and analysts. Whatever the reason is, I expect better game analysis features from this expensive Chess Computer.

Bought this at a bargin price. Really glad I did, cause now they're sold out. Works great & has 8 super great chess engines built in to challenge beqinner to Grandmasters! You must have a dgt e-board or dgts lesser costly Smartboard. Also need dgt electronic chess pieces. Another neat feature is this can be used as a stand alone chess clock for playing w/o the e-boards.

This product doesn’t work it did at the beginning but quit doing it