Luxe Cabinet Accessory for Millennium Exclusive

I don't really do reviews but this one was cool. Treated myself. Got it and a Chess Volt for my King Performance . Great set up. Certainly adds to just the board. As always, shipped professional by Chess House . (when I read that it sounds canned. Just a dude who likes chess. It makes a nice set up with the Performance)

Once I had gotten the Chessvolt battery for my King Performance, I immediately ordered the Luxe Cabinet. I love it and the setup sits very handsomely on my coffee table without a power wire running across the floor or a battery sitting out beside it. I ended up using velcro to reposition the board from initial foam positions, which had left the board uncentered, front-to-back. The wooden cabinet is very classy and raises the board to a nice playing height above the table. Like some other users, I installed a drawer-pull on the player's side to make opening the drawer much easier than reaching around to the back and pushing it forward. The tray easily holds my larger chess pieces inside as well. Overall, very happy with the cabinet and glad I have it.

After setting up the cabinet I used velcro to keep the chess board and cabinet together. This way it was easier to move outside when I wanted to play chess on line with my chess link! I like having all the components together in one neat package! I also like the on off button and the ability to charge the chess volt without taking the battery out of the cabinet! A really nice package!

Really well made. At first I thought it was upside down. Wished they had a finished polished board on the top as well as the bottom. Just would look better. Cabinet holds all the electronics perfectly and runs like a charm. The on off button is clever. The cable coming out the drawer could be a little less visible. I added a drawer pull knob to allow easier opening.

For a chess company as innovative as Millennium, this is a painfully poor design. The cable management coming out of the drawer is clumsy, the drawer is almost impossible to open when closed (how about some kind of a handle or u shaped cut out you can stick your fingers in?) I have to take the board off to wedge my fingers in the drawer to yank it open in order to store the pieces. If the entire point of the product is that its' a drawer to hide stuff, at least make the drawer easy to open? Sheesh.

Also, the components barely fit inside. I now have marks on top of the Chess Link where the drawer rubs against it.

As for the system for holding the board onto the top of the drawer unit: there isn't one. Sure, Millennium provides you with a paper template and some foam stickers, but then the board free floats up on top of the drawer unit.

Of course, I could be missing something in assembling this, which would not surprise me because the directions are all but completely useless. In the 21st Century there is no longer any excuse for English language directions from a German company to be so terrible. A bit more thought, please.

At the end of the day, it does a barely sufficient job in that it does hide all the components and the on/off switch works well, and I really have no other choice but to keep this if I want to hide all the external components I need to use this board.

I am going to have to hack a way to keep this board in place, probably with velcro dots or something.

This is NO reflection on Chess House. Their service remains second to none, really superb service, and I have no doubt that if I sent this back it would be painless.

I have two Millennium boards: The King Performance and this Exclusive. I love, love, love playing chess on both of them. But this drawer product needed more time on the development board.

I give this two stars. And that's generous. If you have the Exclusive chess board and are tired of all the accessories lying around, this unit may be for you, but count on having to modify it to your liking and living with the annoying prospect of yanking the drawer unit open every time you need to store the pieces or set up the board.