I’ve always delighted in the act of physically moving pieces on a chess board, yet when I was learning the game, I found it difficult to visualize all the squares a knight could move to. The displays of digital programs are much more intuitive for learning when and where the pieces can move, but lack the satisfying tactile feedback. My mission was to combine these two interfaces into a chessboard that features tangible interactivity and digital assistance.

 

The chessboard functions using 64 magnet sensors embedded beneath the Neopixel grids that facilitate its illumination. Each chess piece has a magnet, and their positions are tracked using an Arduino MEGA coded with the rules of the game. The wooden frame is modular in its design, allowing for easy access to the electronics embedded below. While this is simply a prototype, I hope to one day manufacture copies of this board to allow everyone to learn chess in a more tactically satisfying way.

 

Now it is possible to experience the loss of a chess game due to bad strategy, rather than a lack of good memory.