What an online match looks like on a physical chessboard

We played an online game at the November 4 meetup without putting a screen between the player and the chessboard. The club tried a Chessnut Move. The person at the table moved their pieces by hand, and the remote moves played out on the same board.

Photo by Prominent Chess Club, November 4, 2026.

What it looks like from the table

The Move can move a piece physically when the opponent plays online. For people standing around the board, that means the position changes in front of them and everyone can follow the game from the same place.

What one game left us wondering

A regular setup brings more questions than a single demo. Is the board easy to see from both sides of a crowded table? How long does it take to connect to the service you use? Who gets the game moving again if the connection drops? Those are the things we’d want to try over several games before deciding where it fits at a meetup.