Given how many things it is possible to do with a Raspberry Pi, you probably won’t be too surprised to know that you can play chess with it. Still, you might not have realized that you don’t have to settle for seeing the chessboard and pieces only as on-screen graphics.
These days, you can build an entire mechanical chess machine around a Raspberry Pi. If you do go down this route, here are several features that have been proven to be viable with this kind of project.
A Wooden Chessboard
Yes, you really can include one made out of wood. For inspiration, you could look at the Wizard Chess project highlighted by The MagPi Magazine.
In words shared with the publication, Max Dobres — the creator of Wizard Chess — explained that it “tries to recreate the old-fashioned idea of playing real games with wooden pieces.”
He elaborated that “with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, we can build our own piece-sensing board out of wood and play Magnus Carlsen in our own living room.”
Wooden Pieces
Again, you can take inspiration from Wizard Chess if you love the idea of being able to move wooden pieces — including the king, queen, and all — around a chessboard rather than just see those pieces in pixelated form shifting around a screen in response to user commands.
With Wizard Chess, LED lights flash to show the chess player the exact places on the board where certain pieces can be placed.
A Robot Chess Competitor
Fancy playing a game of chess against an intelligent robot? No, it’s not strictly an occurrence that you can only expect to see in a sci-fi film.
It could potentially happen to you if you build a chess-playing robot like the Raspberry Turk, which was made by developer Joey Meyer and named after the mechanical Turk, an 18th-century contraption itself presented as a chess-playing robot but later revealed to be a fake.
The Verge hails the Raspberry Turk as “the real deal, able to identify pieces on the board, pick them up to move them, and play an actual real-world game of chess.”
Online Multiplayer Gaming
Tom’s Hardware points out: “Maker Lewis from DIY Machines has created a smart chessboard with the help of a Raspberry Pi.” Furthermore, the option to play chess online against friends is part of the enticing overall package.
This project can be replicated with any of the various Raspberry Pi models. Nonetheless, a Raspberry Pi Zero W unit — available from an online retailer like The Pi Hut — is recommended if you want to include the online multiplayer gaming functionality.
Backlit Chessboard Squares
If you routinely use a keyboard that has backlit keys, you could already be able to confidently attest to the impressive visual effect. Now, imagine being able to achieve something similar with a Raspberry Pi-powered chessboard.
The good news is that you can achieve it — by integrating a series of NeoPixel lights, which you might be able to buy from the same online store where you source the Raspberry Pi.