I've always preferred playing OTB. I already spend too much time on my phone and computer for work. With the lockdowns, one of the things I missed the most was 1-1 games. I ordered a squareoff board hoping it would provide a great physical experience, but it doesn't feel great at all. 

My first instinct was to modify the squareoff board and replace the plastic membrane with wood veneer.

Bad idea, the membrane system requires the surface to bend for the pieces to be detected. Not only will real wood not bend, but the inconsistent detection was something I didn't love about the SO in the first place. 

• Must feel as close to an "analog" board as possible
• Wood veneer, large wood weighted pieces :)
• Play against anyone online (Compatible with Lichess, no closed ecosystem)
• Play against the board (Stockfish but maybe some other too, what are your thoughts on this ?)

I'm terrible at anything software but luckily convinced a friend to help me out, he's brilliant so I'm confident we will build a kickass board. 

I’ll be sharing the progress we make over here, but if you are more passionate about this subject and would like a more in depth look or share your ideas, I created a discord server too. This is the link: https://discord.gg/5Am7CDzwUf