How to build your own USB Electronic Chess Board

The idea of owning a full-sized wooden electronic board can seem a pricey one for the most part, but what if we told you you could build your own? Sound impossible or highly improbable? Not so. If you are the type of person who enjoys building models, or challenging projects, Bryan Whitby has created a website called USB Chess Board with step-by-step instructions and plenty of pictures showing you how to build a DIY (do-it-yourself) USB chess board that can be hooked up to Fritz and even played on Playchess.

The idea is to start with a very basic and very cheap USB board available between $8-$25 called quite simply "USB Portable Roll Up Chess Game".

From this, you are given two basic designs as your goal, the first of which is the wooden board, which ultimately looks something like this:

The wooden board is connected via USB to a PC running Fritz 12

or a vinyl board which can look like this:

This is the vinyl board design also connected via USB to a PC running Fritz 12

The reason we say 'can look like' is because the wooden set involves drilling holes into a wooden board of your choice, and likewise, the vinyl board will mean buying a providing a board of your choice to place over. Note that the design of the vynil set is completed with a wooden frame around it, giving it a classier look.

Building the board

We won't kid you, if you are the type of person who finds remote controls intimidating and confusing, this project is not for you, but if you feel you are up to it, consider the level of bragging rights you will acquire:

Friend to you: "Nice electronic chess board."

You: "Yeah, I built it myself."

Bryan gives detailed instructions and many pictures to take you through the steps, from the basic material aspects. To give you an idea of some of the steps involved, here are a few you will face when building the wooden set.

First you will start by drilling small holes into a wooden board

You will need to cut up the pegs to insert into the holes

So your pieces can stay over the pegs without tipping, and still be able to pressure
them, a thin layer of foam is added to the bottom.

The pegs are not going to send the moves by magic, so momentary switches must
be added to the bottom of the board.

Once the unit is done, he provides instructions to get the machine working with Fritz

If you actually do go through with the project, be sure to send Bryan pictures and he will post them in the gallery.

Here is an example of the final product in action, connected to a Tablet PC