DGT E-Board Questions

[jrueschhoff]

I just celebrated my 51st birthday and my wife surprised me with a DGT e-board with bluetooth.

With apologies to the other married men on the forum, yes, I do have the best wife ever!

However, I’ve found that it is not fully intuitive to use, so I have a few questions for those who might have a DGT e-board yourself.

1. I link to LiveChess very easily. However, linking the Fritz14 software to the board seems to be problematic. When it opens up the Rabbit Plugin, it has fits. Advice?

2. What I really think I want to use the board for is to record the OTB games I play. I still take notation, but it would be great to have it saved digitally to help reconstruct my notation errors.

2a. Should I turn the board off after each game and turn it back on when the pieces are reset? This way it doesn’t waste memory recording each piece being moved back to its initial position.

2b. Related to the above question, I know that the board is supposed to recognize a new game whenever the pieces are returned to their original squares. Does this work reliably?

3. I had read that to signal the winner of each game, you place the two kings on specific squares in the center of the board. If white won, both kings would go on the white squares, the two black squares if Black won and on opposing squares if it was a draw. Is this to signal the software the winner of each game if it was not a checkmate? Or is it to signal whoever is reviewing the PGN if there was a resignation or draw?

4. Any beginner tips that anyone might have to get the most out of my DGT board?

Thanks!

[ChessSpawn]

@jrueschhoff

I just celebrated my 51st birthday and my wife surprised me with a DGT e-board with bluetooth.

With apologies to the other married men on the forum, yes, I do have the best wife ever!

However, I’ve found that it is not fully intuitive to use, so I have a few questions for those who might have a DGT e-board yourself.

1. I link to LiveChess very easily. However, linking the Fritz14 software to the board seems to be problematic. When it opens up the Rabbit Plugin, it has fits. Advice?

2. What I really think I want to use the board for is to record the OTB games I play. I still take notation, but it would be great to have it saved digitally to help reconstruct my notation errors.

2a. Should I turn the board off after each game and turn it back on when the pieces are reset? This way it doesn’t waste memory recording each piece being moved back to its initial position.

2b. Related to the above question, I know that the board is supposed to recognize a new game whenever the pieces are returned to their original squares. Does this work reliably?

3. I had read that to signal the winner of each game, you place the two kings on specific squares in the center of the board. If white won, both kings would go on the white squares, the two black squares if Black won and on opposing squares if it was a draw. Is this to signal the software the winner of each game if it was not a checkmate? Or is it to signal whoever is reviewing the PGN if there was a resignation or draw?

4. Any beginner tips that anyone might have to get the most out of my DGT board?

Thanks!

Oh, yes. It’s non-intuitive and a poorly documented pain in the rear. I can give you a lot of advice and get you through its oddities. PM me and I’ll give you my phone number. Best to chat live on this one. I will say that dgt about a year ago did a major software upgrade that eliminated many problems.