Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. Reviews

Square Off: Our first take

Wizard's Chess? Square Off moves pieces by itself with magnets

By

Chess hasn’t changed for 1,500 years, but Square Off offers a unique and simple way for people to continue playing in this ever-connected world. 

Wizards in the Harry Potter universe don’t need to move their chess pieces with their hands, and we’re edging closer to parity with the wizarding world thanks to Infivention’s chess board, Square Off.

Recommended Videos

At first glance, Square Off looks like an abnormally large chess board. What sets it apart is its ability to play and move pieces without any help. That’s right — the pieces slide across the board as though your opponent is invisible.

AI and magnets

The mechanics are relatively simple — mechanized arms and magnets inside the board allow pieces to move to their designated places — but it’s artificial intelligence, which decides where the pieces go, that makes Square Off feel like magic. There are 20 modes of difficulty, and that’s because playing against AI is really just to train yourself.

The board’s killer feature is its ability to connect with chess players around the world. Instead of playing against AI, you can play against another person, who makes his or her moves through the Square Off app. The moves they make on their phone will translate to real-life, physical moves on your board.

There’s something unique about playing chess online with a physical board. While self-moving pieces aren’t new, the option to see moves of another, human player on your board — when they aren’t even close to you — feels special.

There a couple of quirks to the system; you need to press down gently on the board when you choose a piece, and do it again when you place it on your desired tile. This makes sure the mechanical arm and AI underneath understands where you’re moving. It takes a few seconds to get used to, but it’s not an issue.

What’s more, Square Off can live-stream games played at international grand-master tournaments. You can re-create games in real-time, in case you’re throwing a chess viewing party.

An age-old game, improved by tech

Chess has been around for 1,500 years, but there has hardly been any improvement to the physical game. Square Off seems like an excellent option for people looking to play in the ever-connected world — and while it’s price is a little on the high end at $250, it’s still a solid option for chess enthusiasts and hardcore players.

Square Off was successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign from November 2016, and it received our Best Cool Tech Award at CES 2017.

It’s not quite as whimsical as Wizard’s Chess, but it isn’t like Harry Potter could play with people around the world.

Highs

  • Pieces move on their own
  • AI lets you train on various levels of difficulty
  • You can see your opponents’ movements on the board, even if they only have the app
  • Live-stream tournaments to your board

Lows

  • Bulky and hard to take out of the house.
  • Pricey
Topics
Julian Chokkattu
Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
EV sales surge could continue as Trump delays ending federal rebates, report says
Second-Gen Rivian R1S on a road

A surge in sales of electric vehicles in the final months of last year could continue well into 2025, as consumers continue to take advantage of federal tax incentives while they last, according to a report by the Associated Press.
On the day of his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy”, which says the government is “considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies.”
During his campaign, Trump’s team said it was planning to end the Biden administration’s $7,500 tax credit on the purchase or lease of an EV, although it did not provide a timeline for doing so.
Americans rushed to take advantage of the incentive, helping fuel a surge of more than 15% in EV sales in the fourth quarter, according to Cox Automotive.
Recent surveys show that incentives have played a major role in fueling EV sales over the past few years, and that a majority of Americans are in favor of government incentives to help with the purchase of an EV.
Meanwhile, the wording in Trump’s executive order, which says his administration is still 'considering' its options, leaves room for ambiguity about the timing of its application.
“Temporarily, sales of EVs could skyrocket as car-buyers rush to take advantage of existing tax credits,” the report by the Associated Press says.
In order to repeal the EV tax credit, the Trump administration will need to obtain the approval of congress. The process will likely take place as part of broader negotiations on extending Trump’s first-term tax cuts, which are due to expire near the end of 2025.
It’s also not entirely clear if the Trump administration will seek to end the whole of the $7,500 EV tax incentive. In order to obtain the incentive for the purchase of an EV, restrictions apply for high-income households and for EVs with non-U.S. made batteries. But those restrictions don’t apply to leasing an EV.
According to Cox Automotive, members of the Trump administration are particularly keen on ending “this leasing loophole, which was created partly to appease Korean and Japanese automakers, who have invested billions in U.S. EV manufacturing.”
Ending rebates and other subsidies for EVs is also likely to meet challenges, be they legal or political, from different actors.
The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA), a trade group whose members include the likes of Tesla, Waymo, Rivian, and Uber, has come out in support of incentives for both the production and the sale of EVs.
ZETA says the incentives for both EV and battery-makers have led to enormous investments and job gains in Republican-dominated states like Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and Georgia.

Read more
Seeing food in VR games? This sensor will put the real taste in your mouth
A person’s lips holding the e-Taste sensor kit.

Over the past few years, researchers have tried to make virtual reality (VR) experiences even more immersive and personal. For example, back in 2022, the experts over at Stockholm University created a machine called olfactometer, which let users smell what they were seeing in a game while wearing a VR headset.

But smell is only half the picture. What if you could actually deliver a real taste on the tongue? A team from the Ohio State University have created a sensing system called e-Taste that can replicate the taste of a real food items and drinks, and deliver it straight to another person’s tongue living hundreds of miles away.

Read more
Tiny magnetic robot rolls inside the gut to look for signs of cancer
The kit for oloid magnetic endoscope (OME).

In the field of medical science, non-invasive monitoring is often considered the most promising — and challenging — avenue for healthcare. For example, Apple is exploring non-invasive blood glucose monitoring on the wrist, while Samsung has already implemented smartwatch-based blood pressure monitoring.
But when it comes to serious problems such as cancer, a visit to the clinic is required, entailing expensive scans and complex diagnosis processes. Take for example the diagnosis of gut cancer. To check for cancerous growth, endoscopy or colonoscopy is the preferred method, which involves pushing a pipe inside the body with a camera attached to it for taking scans.

The future of cancer biopsy?
What if the gut scanning could be done from within the body, using a non-invasive tool that is about the same size as a penny? That’s exactly what experts at the University of Leeds have achieved by creating a tiny magnetic robot equipped with a small ultrasound sensor that can one day eliminate the need for physical biopsy.

Read more