Smart Chess Board

Chess is a game played by people of all ages across the globe. For players to compete with each other and improve their skills, they must practice against an opponent that has equal or greater ability as them. Our project, the Smart Chess Board, gives a chess player a realistic playing experience while they are playing against an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm on a physical chess board. AI chess engines have grown in popularity in previous years, with tournaments consisting of only computers receiving large publicity. To utilize the newest technology in the space, the Smart Chess Board takes advantage of these popular open-source chess engines to provide an opponent for users wanting to improve their skills. To create a realistic user experience, the system automatically moves the physical chess pieces for the AI algorithm, which simulates playing against a human opponent. To round out the experience, users have the option of viewing the current game board, probability of winning, and other statistics on a computer screen. The project used an Arduino Uno, a Raspberry Pi, and numerous sensors to interact with the game board to achieve these goals. A dual-motor pulley system with an electromagnet attached was the main component that was mounted inside the enclosure of our chess board. While designing the Smart Chess Board, there were many constraints that we had to consider. Some of the major constraints were the cost, power, user experience, and precision in moving chess pieces. While the overall cost of the components to build one board exceeded what many may consider reasonable for a chess board, it was considerably cheaper than competing products that are currently on the market that offer the same functionality. Since we used high power motors to control our dual-pulley system, we needed an external power supply to make sure that the power received was sufficient for the system. Overall, the Smart Chess Board was able to provide users with a realistic playing experience while playing against an AI algorithm of varying levels, allowing the user to fine tune his/her chess skills for the competition that is around the world.