Our story

A board worth living with.

Zugboard started with a simple frustration: the boards that connect to the internet feel like accessories, and the boards that feel right don't connect. We wanted both.

I'm Roman. I've been playing chess since I was eight and writing software for half my life. Every digital chess board I tried felt like a phone wearing a costume. Backlit screens. Notifications. App updates. The soul of the game lost behind a glow.

E-ink changed how books feel. We think it can change how chess feels at home.

Zugboard is a real wood board with tournament-weight pieces and a Carta-grade e-ink panel under the squares. The board sees the position. The screen shows what you choose — your opponent's online move, the line you're studying, Stockfish's quiet suggestion.

It runs without an internet connection. The engines live on the device. There's no app you have to keep updated to play. There are no notifications. There is no glow.

We're a small team. We won't pretend otherwise. The first wave is reservations only — every deposit is what funds the tooling. We'll ship to United States addresses first because we want to get warranty and support right before we expand.

If you're here, you probably already get it. Reserve one. We'll keep you in the loop every quarter. And we'll never ship a board you'd be embarrassed to have on a coffee table.

— Roman Rakhlin, founder