ChessUp featured on ABC's Shark Tank

ChessUp, the smart, AI powered revolutionary chess board was featured Friday, December 9th on ABC's Shark Tank.

ChessUp is on sale now on the company's website.

Founders Jeff Wigh and Adam Roush jumped into the shark tank and pitched the chessboard to a welcoming audience.

The Sharks were particularly impressed by how the board is able to teach newcomers to play chess quickly and how experienced players can play rapid-fire chess games such as bullet and blitz chess. The app also interested them as they could access puzzles and lessons to help improve their skills. Playing with other chess enthusiasts over the internet also piqued their interest.

But the main draw was how the boards squared would light up according to the strength of a potential move - lights that are activated by simply touching a piece!

Sharks expected a laggy experience, but were blown away by how fast and responsive the board was.

Jeff and Adam have over 30 patents to their name and helped build multiple billion dollar products. They came up with the concept of ChessUp when trying to teach their kids chess and coming up against the limitations of traditional teaching methods.

Jeff also happens to be an advanced chess player and was frustrated by how hard it is to improve his chess skills.

After working on their product concept, they were able to raise a significant amount of money on Kickstarter, which enabled them to start manufacturing the product.

ChessUp solves both the teaching and skill improvement issues. ChessUp can be purchased either as a standalone board or as a bundle with several premium accessories.

A carry bag for the board is highly recommended as it allows you to store the board and carry it with you in a very well protected way.

A phone stand and piece bags allow the player to conveniently place their phone in a way that is easy to read when playing online. The piece bags come in a set of two, one for each color of chess piece.

Another really cool feature of the ChessUp board is that is can also play checkers! The patented Touchsense checkers pieces can be purchased for use with the ChessUp board. 

The accessories can be purchased separately or as a bundle.

At the end of their pitch Jeff and Adam received a lot of interest from Lori, that made them an offer. After some back and forth, both sides came to an agreement!