No Strings Attached

If, as they say, there's no money in chess, how do you account for Regium? 'What's Regium?' you ask. My introduction to the product was via a message on Chess.com.

21 February 2020: Join the chess revolution. • REGIUM is the world's most advanced automatic chess e-board. Now, REGIUM is the presenting partner of the Speed Chess Championship Final between Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, taking place this Friday, February 21 at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Chess.com/TV.

REGIUM is developed by chess lovers, highly qualified engineers with more than 20 years of experience in Hi-Tech developments. They dreamed of the perfect automatic chess board since childhood, but nobody made it. For this reason, they have decided to do it themselves and develop the board of their dreams that they would like to have. Now they want you to have it too!

A few days later, in Update On REGIUM Chess (chess.com), the world's no.1 chess company issued a second opinion:-

23 February 2020: Chess.com is a company founded by chess lovers. Like you, we get excited at the prospect of bold, revolutionary innovations that will help chess evolve. Recently, Chess.com was approached by REGIUM Chess who wished to sponsor one of our events, the Speed Chess Championship Final. With that sponsorship came a mailer which many of you received just three days ago. [...]

After completing the process of due diligence that is required when partnering with a third-party product, we have continued our research and interactions with REGIUM and have not been able to verify some of the claims made by the company.

Want to see the product in action? This video gives the general idea: Regium Chess Scam, Video slowed down (youtube.com).

Never underestimate the ingenuity of chess fans. Youtube channel 'Matt P' published a working model based on an a more down-to-earth technology...

SCHEMEIUM · Automatic Chess e-Board - REGIUM Chess Scam Parody (2:43) • '[Published on] Feb 24, 2020'

...That Chess.com 'Update' mentioned above included an even later update:-

2 March 2020: The REGIUM Kickstarter campaign has been suspended.

All's well that ends well? For another angle on the story, see How a kickstarter scam shook up the chess business (perlenvombodensee.de; 'das Schachmagazin'), subtitled, 'DGT about to develop what Regium has announced':-

27 February 2020: The Regium wonderboard will remain a dream. But while the Regium campaign, a scam most likely, is going down the drain, inventors are actually working on a wonderboard elsewhere. DGT wants to develop what Regium has announced. In principle, at least.

Let's add this story to the ongoing series based on The Sociology of Chess (November 2016).