300 dollars doesn’t go far in the modern world, but it still seems quite a lot for a chess set. That said, the GoChess Lite Modern is more than just an ordinary set. This is an attractive, well made set at competition size, with attractive black and white pieces in a modern, weighted plastic design. Even then, you’re missing out on the real party trick — which is the GoChess AI powered app that accompanies it.
GoChess Lite Modern can be used as a completely regular chess set. It comes beautifully packaged in a box that folds out rather like a 1980’s Lamborghini, with flaps, to protect the pieces, that open outward in an extravagant way. The box contains the board and pieces, as well as little soft bags to store them in when you don’t want to leave the set on display. There’s also a (short) cable with which to charge the board, but I needed to buy a longer one — at a negligible cost — from everyone’s (least) favourite planet-destroying online retailer in order to charge it respectfully.
If you do play the ‘manual’ way, you’ll almost certainly enjoy the experience. The pieces are plastic, but feel of a pretty high standard and each one is weighted with at least one magnet that presumably aids the board in understanding which piece has been placed there when using one of the smart modes. The board is a sort of rough plastic finish that isn’t quite as nice as the pieces, but to be honest the design is nice and the build quality flawless across the, erm, board… So, I have no complaints.
Where the GoChess Lite Modern really gets interesting is when you use it in accompaniment to the GoChess app. Pairing the board is simple enough and took me a matter of mere seconds to achieve once I’d managed to charge it. Signing up to GoChess and logging in was a little more fiddly, and I will admit that since the first few games I played, I’ve started to simply use the “login as guest” option.
On the app itself, you’ll find a range of straightforward — and, dare I say it, perhaps overly simplistic — options. You can choose to play either solo against the AI, or with a friend — with either or both of you receiving assistance from the AI at variable skill levels between 1 and 30 that directly correlate with a real-life ELO rating. Features as include options for the board to highlight legal moves, recommended moves and even blunders.
The board represents what the app wants it to do by use of clear, bright LED lights, which highlight the piece it wants to move, as well as the location it wants you to move that piece too. When you do so, the app (which must be kept open at all times) will show that it has recognised the move and the lights on the board will fade. About 25% of the time, the board fails to recognise the move you’ve just made and you’ll need to reseat the piece — clearly re-engaging the magnetic connection between board and piece. This is annoying, but to be honest, it’s nothing much to complain about.
As a solo player with a lifetime high ELO of about 1300, it’s hard for me to tell you how much of the opponent I am playing against is AI versus a classic chess computer. It’s also tough for me to tell you how accurate the ELO rankings of each skill level are, as it would take thousands of games across all levels for me to build up a profile of how the GoChess Lite Modern plays. What I will say is this: When I played against levels above about 1200 ELO, I found myself challenged, whilst at levels below 1000, I experienced a lot of wins and also saw the AI make the same occasional blunders that I’d expect a human player to make.
One of my favourite ways to use the GoChess Lite Modern is with my children, because I can set one side to receive recommended moves at a certain ELO (and protection from blunders) whilst I can turn my own assistance off completely. This mode of play means that a novice player (like my own kids) can see moves that are both legal and recommended, but also overrule them if need be.
Whilst the GoChess Lite Modern never promised that it would offer a teaching aid, I can’t help but think that it might have been a nice feature to have some way of getting feedback from the app about performance. For example if it could offer the logic of a certain move, or even if there were a tutorial mode that provided audio feedback and helped completely new players to learn the game. That, to me, would perhaps be a more visible and valid use of the claimed AI technology than what we get — opaque as it actually is.
Overall, the GoChess Lite Modern is a great product and it has already replaced my classic chess set on the lounge coffee table. The kids enjoy playing with the GoChess Lite Modern thanks to the app being installed on their tablets without the need for a login, and when I am there, I love to play with them using the assistance features I’ve already mentioned. Chess sets need to be both ornamental and functional, and GoChess Lite Modern does 99% of the job of a classic, beautiful set in terms of its appearance, but far more in terms of its function. The occasional need to reseat pieces is a drawback, but it’s minor and only ever a problem if you’re using the technical features.
The GoChess Lite Modern is available now, you can find more information out from its manufacturer’s website.
