Bethanie Fentiman is an 18 year old who, faced with delivering some A-level coursework, thought that she’d take inspiration from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorceror’s Stone and create a real-life version of Wizard Chess!
First of all, she used an Instructable to get her started. Then, she gathered together her materials: motors, wood, gears, an electromagnet, a chess set, a relay board and, of course, a Raspberry Pi. You can read more about the project here and you can see it in action below. Other videos are also available. It’s a tremendous achievement and Bethanie intends to carry on with it to get it to eventually play a full game!
Interesting, but rather slow ( the video was in real time)
How does the knight get moved if it has pawns – or other pieces – in front of it? And Castling?
Castling is programmed into the Raspberry Pi. Currently you have to physically move any pieces which are in the way out of the way as moving around pieces is still in development.