In today’s society, chess still proves to be quite an enjoyable game that stimulates our minds and improves our overall mental health. However, it can be difficult to find someone to play, and even if we can find someone it is unlikely they will be of a similar skill level.
Electronic chess boards can serve several purposes:
- The board can act as an opponent with a built-in chess computer
- It can create a more enjoyable playing experience by adjusting its own difficulty level
- You can learn from the electronic chess board with analysis tools or puzzles
- Some boards can also connect to your computer and allow you to play online matches against real people over the chess board
However, not all electronic chess boards have all these features. All boards will have a built in computer that you can play against, most can adjust their own difficulty level, some have analysis and learning features, and a few have online capabilities.
For under $100, you won’t be able to find a board with online capability. So unless you’re ready to shell out several hundred more, you should cross that off your wish list. But you can find boards which will allow you to play against a computer of similar skill level to you.
Table of Contents
Best Electronic Chess Board under $100 – Top 1 Chess Electronic Chess Set
- Built-in chess computer
- Skill level of computer can be set
- Chess tutor and exercises included
- Has vocal feedback for you (but it can be muted)
- Includes a few other games
- No online capabilities
- Batteries required
This board has about all the features you can reasonably expect for a board under $100. It’s primary purpose to to help players learn the game of chess through a computer with adjustable difficulty, a tutor program and various chess exercises.
Here’s a video I found of this board in action (it’s the same board with different branding).
The board talks to you and also has a screen display. Like any electronic chess set there will be a bit of a learning curve in order to use the software effectively, but this board has very simple controls and shouldn’t take long to learn. So if you’re looking for a board for your kids, then you may have to spend some time helping them learn the controls, but they should be able to take over and use it on their own.
Additional Highlighted Features
- Dimensions: 12.91 x 8.86 x 1.73 inches
- Item Weight: 1.74 pounds
- Voice System for chess tutorials
- Playable with a friend or AI
- Multiple skill level available
- Large LCD
- Sensory Chess Board
- It also includes other games like checkers, Reversi, Fox and Geese, Northcott’s Game, Nim, 4 In-a-Row, and Halma.
- Includes pieces for other games
- Includes 100 preset exercises for chess practice
- It needs only 4 AA batteries.
- Money-back guarantee for unsatisfied customers
Summary
This board is essentially the maximum value you can get for an electronic chess board below $100. More expenses boards will have more capabilities, features and options, but this board is about all you could want for a single player e-chess set.
Best Electronic Chess Experience – DGT Centaur (over $100)
- Over $100
- Much more appealing design
- Smart computer that adjusts difficulty during games (makes it feel more like playing a human)
- Can set up time controlled games
- Computer will analyze games and show which side has an advantage
- No online capabilities
Digital Game Technology (DGT) is a chess company that makes their own chess products. I think of them kind of like the Apple of chess. Their products tend to be very simple and beautiful, but also quite powerful. DGT products are used at many international chess events.
The Centaur’s primary goal is to make the electronic chess experience feel more natural and human. Because the board uses visual sensors (doesn’t require you to press the pieces into the board), has time controls, and it has an adaptive computer, the Centaur does a great job of achieving this goal.
This board skips some of the features found even in the Top 1 Electronic Chess Set like tutoring and puzzles, but this is intentional. If your primary goal is to experience a live game of chess, but you lack a proper opponent, then the Centaur is the best value on the market.
Additional Highlighted Features
- Dimension: 17.52 x 15.75 x 0.47 inches
- Weight: 4.71 pounds
- Batteries: 1 Lithium Polymer battery
- It easily adapts to your chess skill level.
- Beautiful chess pieces
- Sensor Board
- LED Lights to indicate movement of pieces
- The internal battery is rechargeable.
- Chess pieces are compatible with other DGT electronic chess boards.
- It comes in other languages.
- E-Paper display of every move, position, and hint
- 2-year warranty
Summary
Compared to other electronic chess boards, the DGT Centaur is quite simple in terms of features. Nevertheless, it does one thing better than any other board: it really feels like you are playing a live game of chess with another human.
Comparison Table of Electronic Chess Boards under $100
How to choose the Best Electronic Chess Board under $100?
On this review list, the high-quality electronic chess sets have the features that will allow you to control your progress in real-time and develop your chess skills at a faster rate, whether you play against an enemy, a computer, or on your own. You’re in for a surprise if you’ve never played on an interactive chessboard before. With their extensive functionality and various skills, they are opening up a whole new world of chess. We have discussed what electronic chess boards are, but now we are moving towards choosing the best electronic chess board under $100!
What is an Electronic Chess Board?
Electronic chess boards are, basically, much like the standard chess sets. The only distinction is that there is a computer-operated mechanism behind your board that helps you play chess against it. Without someone else, they have built-in power to play with you and even come with different helpful features to help you improve as a chess player!
Throughout every moment of the game, thousands of people love to play chess and develop their skill sets. As you have already observed, the demand is more than generous when it comes to chess boards. You will certainly invest in the right product if adequately informed!
Price Range
Although our topic clearly says that we are discussing the chess boards under $100, we would recommend you to set your price range first. You can see the list below to know how much an excellent electronic chess board costs, and you can even surf Amazon to get a rough idea. Once you have decided how much you are willing to spend, it is now time to get to the next step.
Functionality
Know about what kind of functions you want in your electronic chessboard. There are hundreds of different models out there. Each with special design and functionality, so you have a lot to choose from. You can either be specific or go with the flow. We have mentioned a list of the best electronic chess boards in the market; take a close look and choose the one you like the most!
Languages
Another thing that you should keep in mind is the languages that your electronic chess board supports. You can either choose one in your native language or one in English. Some even support more than one language and up to around five languages.
Live Broadcast
You might think you are proficient in playing this game or have been playing this game for such a long time and know almost every move? Then go on and stream your talent to the world. YouTube and Twitch are considered the top streaming platforms for gaming, so what if your board could stream directly to these platforms so that you could show off your skills to others and teach them how to become a pro in this game.
ELO Ratings
In zero-sum games, for instance, chess, the ELO ranking system is a tool for measuring players’ relative skill levels. It is named after its founder, a Hungarian-American professor of physics, Arpad Elo. The ELO system was initially invented as an advanced chess-scoring system over the Harkness system traditionally used but is now used as a multiplayer gameplay scoring system in a variety of computer games for esports, association football, American football, basketball, Major League Baseball, table tennis, board games such as Scrabble and Diplomacy, and other games. Before choosing your favorites electronic chess board, focus on the ELO rating as well.
After learning what to consider before purchasing the electronic chessboard, let me get familiar with our top 6 picks. Let’s have a closer look at the comparison table for getting a basic idea. It will help you to differentiate which chess board suits your requirement.
Buyer’s Guide for the Best Electronic Chess Board under $100
About everything in our lives has made an impression since the introduction of technology, and similar is how we play Chess. Back in the 80s, electronic chess sets began arriving on the markets, and new and updated versions have continued to be launched since then.
An electronic chess set is a computer-operated machine that you can play against or even use in real-time face to face or over the internet to play against another player. With the addition of today’s incredible computer technology, electronic chess games have the same classic look as the chessboard and chess pieces. You can change the difficulty level, whether novice or intermediate, according to your level.
Skill Level
Are you a newbie only starting with Chess and wanting to learn how to get to know Chess’s rules and make the necessary moves? You might require an entry-level chess machine, such as any one of the chess boards on our list of the best electronic chess boards under $100. When you make your moves against the device, it is an economical option that will send you hints.
If you want to expose children to Chess, plenty of apps use enjoyable and immersive metaphors to do just that. Two good examples of this are Fritz & Chesster and Dinosaur Chess.
Playing against robust electronic chess machines or online opponents offers the ideal option for more experienced players looking to master a particular strategy or merely progress to a higher ELO level.
Portability
Think of anything better to play Chess anytime, anywhere you want, and against an adversary who is always there for you, willing to challenge you at any level of difficulty you want. Electronic chess sets, especially hand-held ones with a rechargeable battery that provide several hours of playing time, make this possible.
Needs
Are you looking for a compact alternative to take around anytime you like to practice? Perhaps a hand-held electronic chess set is all you need. Are you looking for some casual chess time with family and friends to buy something for your home? The path to go is an entry-level tabletop interactive chess set.
There are full-sized electronic chess sets that arrive with an AC power supply or rechargeable batteries and standard size magnetic chess boards for a more sophisticated option for a house, college, or party house.
Do you want to train at a high level and learn to plan for regional or international competition with specialized chess tactics and techniques? Your best choice is a full-fledged electronic chess station attached to a PC with all the requisite nuts and bolts of advanced chess learning techniques.
You might go wrong with a quality product, whether you’re looking for an electronic chess game for yourself or as a treat for a loved one. Choose the one that suits your needs, available in different budgets, technical specs, colors, and with the requisite accessories, and take your chess game to a whole new level!
What are the Benefits of an Electronic Chess Board?
Electronic chess boards are, basically, much like the standard chess sets. The only distinction is that there is a computer-operated mechanism behind your board that helps you play chess against it. Without someone else, they have built-in power to play with you and even come with different helpful features to improve as a chess player, so what exactly does it have to offer? Here are the reasons why an electronic chessboard is essential for you.
- An Amazing Way to Learn
- Keep Track of Progress
- Lots of Ways to Play
- Different Technological Features
Due to how they teach you to play, these types of chess boards have become very popular. You don’t need anyone with you, you can only start playing with your machine, and it can show you how to smartly open moves and what to do to get yourself out of the tricky checkmates. Electronic chess boards have numerous features that you can use, including saving your games and recalling them. It lets you keep track of success as it does this, so you can go back to it and see if you can work on it.
What is the difference between an Electronic Chessboard and a General Board?
Playing chess from childhood regularly improves children’s behavior, thinking, analytical power, and decision-making capacity. Chess helps the participant to understand how elements of the game and life can be strategized. Moreover, you can also learn the significance of foresight and preparation.
In chess, before making any decision, a person learns to do a thorough analysis, study, and assessment of the situation. Such an exercise provides your mind with mental clarity. For solving problems, analyzing consequences, and formulating future tactics, mental clarity and mental agility are required.
A standard chess board provides you with all the pieces and all the equipment you need to play the original game that we all love, but there are some restrictions and obstacles that you might face while playing on this ordinary board. Firstly, you would need to have a separate timer as it does not come with the board (mostly), and secondly, you need to have a person in front of you to play the game.
On the other hand, while you are playing on an electronic board, you get the original vibe as you have the pieces in hand without facing any of the restrictions mentioned above.
Different Types of Electronic Chess Boards
Hand-Held Chess Computers
There are smaller electronic chess sets with LCD or peg chess pieces available from different brands at a wide variety of prices. They are suitable for being used when traveling as compact chess sets.
The one with LCD comes with a touch screen interface that enables players to make moves effortlessly, and in some models, some of the newer models of hand-held computerized Chess are strong enough to beat 95% of chess players with an ELO rating of up to 2600. They also have the potential to adjust the levels of power to accommodate a beginner as well as more experienced players’ needs.
Table Top Chess Computers
There are full-fledged chess games, with many having chess boards and a typical chessboard of the same scale and design. These come with different ELO scores and costs, much like hand-held chess sets.
Tabletop electronic chess sets can use a USB cable or Bluetooth to connect to a PC. Most of the models have a sensory pressure system that helps players move by pressing down on the piece they choose to move, followed by pushing down on the square they are going to.
Why Buy an Electronic Chess Computer?
Great for Learning
The most significant advantage and the first one of buying an electronic chess set are that it is a great learning tool, especially for beginners. It can be a little hard to find someone at a level slightly above you to practice Chess when you are just starting. It is easily accomplished for electronic chess games, where you can set the difficulty level to your skillset and play for as long as you want. There are also chess sets with built-in voice tutorials that will lead you on every move and offer tips and warnings as you move.
Perfect for Improving Your Skills
Even if you are at a professional playing level, taking your game to the next level can help you with electronic chess sets. A variety of ELO levels can be chosen, and you can practice against a chess engine that matches your level. You can load chess applications from beginner to pro and practice new strategies you are trying to learn by connecting the electronic chess set to your PC.
Online Play
New electronic chess games can connect via a PC to the internet, giving players access to thousands of other chess players from all over the globe. You can play against opponents of different strength levels and even save the games to come back later and resume from the same point.
Portability
What could be better than playing Chess anytime, anywhere you want, and against an adversary who is always there for you, ready to challenge you at any level of difficulty you want. Electronic chess sets, especially hand-held ones with a rechargeable battery that provide several hours of playing time, make this possible.
Read More: Can a Queen Move like a Knight in Chess?
Frequnelty Asked Questions
What is the best electronic chess set?
The high-quality digital chess sets have capabilities that allow you to control your progress in real-time and develop your chess skills at a faster rate, whether you play against an opponent or on your own such as the Lexibook CG1300 on our list.
What is a DGT chessboard?
Electronic DGT chess boards are accurate and fast chess move input devices. The boards register all moves and record the games. They are used for live game transmission, training, online play, computer play, and game analysis.
What is the most expensive chessboard?
DGT Centaur is one of the most expensive chess boards on our list as it has impressive-looking weighted pieces and an onboard lighted display within the squares themselves, and much more! You won’t regret buying this piece!
- Chess computer Centaur is a beautiful chess board that adjusts to your level of play
- Impressive looking weighted pieces and on board lighted display within the squares themselves
- Engage you in a fully contained, highly-tactical chess play experience
- Whether you're a beginner, strong player, home or club player, Centaur will adjust to your level as you play
- Board Size: 17.5 x 15.8" (444.5 x 400.5mm) Square Size: 1.9" (48 x 48mm) King Height: 3 3/8” (86mm)
What is the highest-rated chess computer?
Lexibook CG1300 ChessMan Elite is the highest-rated computerized Chess in the market, and whether you’re a beginner, strong player, home, or club player, Centaur will adjust to your level as you play.
- Complete and progressive: 64 difficulty levels divided into 4 different play games.
- Advanced: Elo 1800 player rating system.
- 16 LED’s (horizontally and vertically) show the moves played.
- TRAINING mode (improvement) indicating to the player whether the move just played is optimal or allowing the player to attempt a new move.
- Knows the 50-move rule, “pat” and draw by repetition, pawn promotion, “en passant” capture. Solve the mate in 5 moves.
How good are computers at Chess?
They are outstanding, and it is possible to beat these computers, but you may have to play many games with the engine to get your one win, as your chances are slim. If you’re talking about the best chess sets globally, it will come hard as even the world’s most perfect players don’t have a rating even comparable to that of the best engines around. It is why most of the chess ratings are customizable so you can set the difficulty level to suit your needs.
What is the best chess clock?
DGT chess clocks are user-friendly and offer all the features chess players need to have a lot of fun together. You have the choice to choose from a ton of different time controls, from a 1-minute bullet to 5 minutes blitz to 60 minutes’ games and more.
Why Chess sets so expensive?
When you get into something special that only a few people will want, the price goes up. Add in something `fancy` and specialized, and you have a price tag that’s way out there. In other words, it is because it’s such a “pinhole market.”
Is Chess an expensive game?
The physical game is not in any way expensive, but the equipment might look expensive to some eyes.
What is the most robust chess engine in 2020?
Millennium ChessGenius Pro is one of the most robust chess engines and has reserved its spot in our list of the best electronic chess boards worldwide. It has all of the features that you might need at a reasonable price tag.
- CHESSGENIUS PRO ELECTRONIC CHESS BOARD IS FOR BEGINNERS TO EXPERT PLAYERS with an ARM Cortex M4 / 120 MHz processor and 160 KB of RAM, this is the most powerful chess computers of all time
- CHESS COMPUTER PLAYING STRENGTH OF OVER 2200 ELO (International tournament standard), with opening moves library choices: The Classic London Book (approx 57,000 positions) and the Modern Book (more than 100,000 positions), or select no book and the chess computer calculates the move itself.
- MILLENNIUM CHESSGENIUS PRO CHESS COMPUTER HAS A VERSATILE ANALYSIS MODE (text displays and electronic chessboard display), display analysis of positions, main variants and move number. Set up any chess positions easily for play or analysis
- BUILD CONFIDENCE: custom tailor the playing strength, options and exercises to suit virtually any skill level. The chess computer integrated chess trainer also makes it well suited for beginners and novices.
- BATTERIES INCLUDED (No AC Adapter) DISPLAY WITH BACKLIGHT IS 1.5 X 1.75. Actual board size measure 7.9 x 7.9 inches. Multilingual, text based user interace in 7 Languages: German / English / French / Dutch / Spanish / Italian / Russian
What is the oldest chess set in the world?
Over 1,300 years ago, members of an affluent Roman family may have played some of Europe’s oldest chess games in an elaborate palace. And excavating the bottom floor of an AD, Archaeologists have discovered what they claim is the most aged piece of Chess ever found in the 465-era court in Butrint, Albania.
Our Recommendation
After reading this full guide, now you have to make a decision. You can purchase any of the above-reviewed boards as these are the best electronic chess boards under $100 in the market. We picked all these after research a lot and after reading the real customer review. Yet if you are confused and ask for our recommendation we will suggest you buy DGT Centaur- New Revolutionary Chess Computer – Digital Electronic Chess Set.
- Chess computer Centaur is a beautiful chess board that adjusts to your level of play
- Impressive looking weighted pieces and on board lighted display within the squares themselves
- Engage you in a fully contained, highly-tactical chess play experience
- Whether you're a beginner, strong player, home or club player, Centaur will adjust to your level as you play
- Board Size: 17.5 x 15.8" (444.5 x 400.5mm) Square Size: 1.9" (48 x 48mm) King Height: 3 3/8” (86mm)
Last Words
Chess is a fun and stimulating game that everyone can enjoy. However, finding an opponent can be challenging at times. With that said, an electronic chessboard can be an excellent way to hone your chess skills even without a human opponent.
The ones mentioned above are just some of the top electronic chessboards on the market today. Hopefully, our guide could help you find and decide on the best electronic chessboard for you.
Read More:
- Best Lego Chess Set
- Best Lord of the Rings Chess Sets
- Best Harry Potter Chess Set
- Best Star Wars Chess Set
- Best Chess Sets under $100
Veronica is a Green Bay-based freelance writer and editor with extensive experience with board games. When not busy scribbling her thoughts, you might find her in her garden, hiking out in the woods, or exploring new food joints.
Veronica is a die-hard board game and chess hobbyist by night. She likes to try out new games and is always on the lookout to recruit new players for her game night (so beware!). When not playing board games or throwing darts, she is usually busy painting miniatures (or doing other nerdy stuff).
She is the CEO & Content Writer of Indoor Games Zone. She shares her expertise from years of playing chess, board games, and darts.
Last update on 2022-05-12 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
