Photo: Square Off
I did run into a few issues here and there, the board wouldn’t register some of my moves and asked me to redo the moves until it registered. This can be frustrating when you’re at work because all online matches are timed, but this only happened a few times. The board is usually very responsive, beeping when you make a move you don’t allow (such as when you move a pawn without realizing your king is checked). You can play just looking at the board, or you can keep the app open during the game to view the virtual board and details of your opponents (and even send them messages).
End Game
I won a game on Square Off Pro, and then things went downhill. But that doesn’t matter – I’m having a great time. Granted, no player sat directly across from me, but that didn’t stop my partner from hearing me swearing and yelling frantically, “No, no, no, no, no, no!” When I failed, I had nothing but admiration . It was awesome to see how other people played the game and the moves they used to outwit me.
I imagine that just like writing notes at school helps memory, physically moving pieces helps me learn the game better, but I can’t say for sure. I just find it a lot more fun than clicking a mouse or tapping my finger on a screen.
Square Off Pro isn’t just about playing games, either. You can recreate matches from the current tournament and see how they performed on the board, and even analyze your own matches. Hooray, I can see all the stupid mistakes I made that lead to my death. I’m not salty, I swear.
It’s more portable than Square Off’s original chess set, but I wish it came with a more travel-friendly kit. Now you roll up the board, put it in the cylindrical cloth case, and store the pieces in two separate mesh bags. If only I could fit everything in one kit.
Other than that, it’s hard to find too many negatives about Square Off Pro. This has increased my chess play a lot lately, which is exactly what I wanted.
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