Connecticut State Chess Association
a 501(c)(7) nonprofit corporation




























DGT smartboards install

As of November 2021, CSCA began using DGT smartboards to broadcast live games over the Internet. For CSCA equipment staff and other users, this page will describe the set-up required for this purpose. Other purposes and corresponding configurations are described in the DGT documentation. Your own PC is used to collect moves from all the boards and transmit those, plus other game information, to the DGT- internet-server. The DGT-internet-server (livechesscloud.com) makes the games available via the world wide web.

DGT is a Dutch company represented in the USA by its exclusive distributor DGT North America.

First board

  • Insert the blue USB plug into a USB port on your PC.
  • Connect the power plug to an outlet (clocks have their own battery, everything else is powered through this).
  • Turn the clock on (there are no other on/off switches). Select a time control as usual.

The roll of gray cable is not essential. It can be removed. It can be replaced by a longer one. Its purpose is to allow more distance between the TD's PC and the players.

The gray cable in the top left of the image runs to the 2nd board.

Extension cable

One cable plus one Telecom network splitter is all it takes to lengthen the distance between either TD and board 1, or between boards.

Following boards

The gray cable is the connection from the previous board.
The remaining opening in the Telecom network splitter (see the green oval) can be used to connect the next board.
In total 12 boards can be connected this way.

Software

Three types of software are involved:
  • Drivers: an extension of the operating system of the PC enabling the TD's computer to communicate through the USB port with the smartboards. These drivers run in the background invisible to the TD.
    These need to be installed on the TD's PC once.
  • DGT LiveChess: a computer program that the TD needs to maintain tournament info regarding players, pairings, results, etc.
    This is not a web-based service. This is a program that needs to be installed on the TD's PC once.
  • livechesscloud.com: a web-based service.

Software: Drivers

Use the Support menu item on the website of DGT https://digitalgametechnology.com/ to download and install the required drivers. It is as simple as download and run (see the lightblue oval):

Click on the area in the purple oval above to start the next step to install DGT LiveChess

Software: install DGT LiveChess

See the area in the green oval for different versions of LiveChess. Click on the one appropriate for your PC.

Software: run DGT LiveChess

Start with [Window - User Manual]

Use [Serial Ports] to activate a COM port (Windows only).

Use [eBoards] to check connections to the boards.

Use [Tournaments] to run your event:

  • [Tournament]: define tournament including number of rounds
  • [Players]: define the players
  • [Rounds]: enter the pairings per round
  • [eBoards]: to link board #1 in the software to a specific smartboard (the one that momentarily has the white king on e4) - repeat for other boards
  • [Output]: instruct DGT LiveChess to send output (the games) to the livechesscloud.com web-service.
  • use [Start Recording] to activate games
  • ask the players with black to start the clocks
  • when game is over use [Stop Recording] and enter the result
More menu options appear when one clicks in the right lower corner (see brown arrow)

Software: livechesscloud.com

All game data ends up in this web service automatically.
From here it is distributed over the world wide web.
The [Tournament-Output] tab generates a URL. This is the URL needed to make a connection and show the games in a browser.
A web-developer can call this URL in an HTML-IFRAME. Board and names/moves/clock-info/results appear automatically.