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Online Chess With Physical Pieces On a Chessboard

Posted by Soulskill on from the i'll-take-your-castle-with-my-horse dept.

D4C5CE writes "A chess-playing German tinkerer has contrived (and made a video of) an amazing contraption that plugs real chess pieces into the freechess.org server using a 20W LED projector and an old webcam to read moves on a projected chessboard."

9 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Radio Chess? by Soulshift · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seems very much like the radio chess sets that saw some popularity in the late '80s.

    --
    node-def: a tactical hacking sim. Now in open beta.
  2. Lightning chess by Rockoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most of the games played on freechess.org are 'lightning' games, and usually its the 'fastest' setting of "1 0" which is 1 minute total per player with no time added per move. Some of the players individually have game counts in the hundreds of thousands. Normally these players play 'sets' of games, 10 or more consecutively, against any given opponent.

    Some of the player play a very hucksterish style, with the goal being to simply eat away at their opponents clock with surprise checks, highly dubious sacrifices, and other outright gorilla tactics. Its very fun to watch, and to play.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
    1. Re:Lightning chess by Main+Gauche · · Score: 2, Informative

      Most of the games played on freechess.org are 'lightning' games, and usually its the 'fastest' setting of "1 0"

      Most? I'm logged in right now:

      Lightning games in progress: 24
      Blitz games in progress: 331
      Total in progress: 473

    2. Re:Lightning chess by Vellmont · · Score: 2, Informative

      Heh. Most games are lighting merely because they play a lot of games because of the short length of a game.

      Most PEOPLE are actually NOT playing lightning games, and most games in progress are not lightning games. The percentage of people playing lighting games would tell you a hell of a lot more about the popularity of lighting games than the number of games.

      --
      AccountKiller
  3. Re:Opponent moves? by JWyner · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most of the physical "chess trainers" you could buy 10-15 years ago would move the computer's pieces automatically. I think the point of this article is that there is a DIY system presented that can be easily connected to the existing gaming infrastructure. Sure, you could design a piece of hardware that moves the opponents pieces and links up to the public servers, with wifi, but that would not be an inexpensive DIY project anymore.

    --
    "Owning a computer is like having your very own TV -- with a built in radio!" - Ed Helms
  4. Good hack by cgenman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Give credit where due, people. This isn't impressive because move-sensing chessboards are somehow new. This is impressive because he made his own projector that displays time and opponent move information on the board. Then he used an old, old webcam and custom software to determine the move that he is taking. He made circuit boards, frames, and other equipment. He probably spent 100 hours and a lot of effort in order to make it slightly easier to play chess online.

    If a DIY setup like this doesn't bring at least a little smile to your face, your hacker spirit is dead.

    --
    The ______ Agenda
    1. Re:Good hack by v1 · · Score: 3, Informative

      it kind of looked like he may have been pressing a button on the side of the board when it was time for the next move. His hand always returned to that position and moved a bit. after each move from either side.

      I also saw that "oops" of pushing the pawn too far, obviously there's an undo function there somewhere or he had not yet released the move.

      I thought the adding of the clocks to the board was a very nice touch. But looks like the room was darkened and no place to put one's legs under the table while playing. two minor drawbacks.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  5. Not like Microsoft Surface at all by D4C5CE · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually he says in his project diary (in a forum where they usually take TFTs apart to rebuild them into things like these or even one's own R2D2) that quite contrary to Microsoft's approach, all his web cam looks for are the pieces' shadows on the board cast by ambient light.
    No need to detect more than that, the server knows which chessman comes from a particular square.

  6. Sort of off topic by BigSes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I often wondered why they never gave Deep Blue, or any other chess playing PC, an interner connection. S, if you think youre the tits, you can go online to www.beatdeepblue.com or some shit, and play. You may have to wait in a queue, so it can dedicate all computational power to the art of chess, but why couldnt this be possible? Pipe dream I guess, or vodka dream.