2011 IEEE 7th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

Low Cost Electronic Chess Set for Chess

Tournament
Nasrul Humaimi Mahmood1, Che Ku Mohd Salahuddin Che Ku Long, Ismawati Abd Ghani, Rubita Sudirman
Department of Electronics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
1
nasrul@fke.utm.my

Abstract— This paper introduced an electronic chess set which
able to project the games in a computer during the chess
tournament. In a competitive tournament, audiences are not
allowed to watch the game too close with all chess players
because they may disturb players’ concentration. To solve this
problem, a system that can automatically project the chess
players’ game is needed, and this could be done if the game is
projected on a computer screen. With integration between the
chessboard, microcontroller, chess clock and developed software,
the result shows the possibility of having a low cost electronic
chess set compared to the existing electronic chess set, which
would be affordable to the most chess organizer.
In Malaysia, most organizers feel the price is very high,
ranged between RM2000 to RM4000 per chess set. In
competitive tournament, normally up to 100 chess sets need
for different categories. Hence, the aim of this work is to
introduce an affordable low cost electronic chess set mainly to
be used in local tournament. This work is also an
improvement of previous in [2] to overcome such problems,
i.e., contact problem between the chess piece and the
chessboard, the computer interfacing between chess program
and the microcontroller unit and the chess clock is not
available on the chess program.

Keywords— Digital Electronic Chessboard, Electronic Chess Set,

Microcontroller, Chess Clock. II. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
The block diagram of the digital electronic chess set
developed in this work is shown in Figure 2 which are
I. INTRODUCTION consisting a chessboard, controller unit and serial interface
The electronic chessboard set that had been developed by and a computer.
the Digital Game Technology (DGT) project group [1]
generally consist of the electronic chessboard, pieces and the
chess clock. This product is used for tournament presentation
because it can display the chess game on a computer screen as
shown in Figure 1. Thus, it is easy to project the game during
the chess tournament. It also can even broadcast the chess
game all over internet. The number of tournaments that are
able to present their games live on the internet has multiplied
since the introduction of the DGT electronic board. It seems
that this innovated product is really reliable and it is difficult
to find other good products similar like this.

Fig. 2 Block Diagram of Digital Electronic Chess Set.

A chessboard is designed to detect the presence of the chess

Fig. 1 Digital electronic chess set by DGT [1].
piece and accept the control signal from the controlling unit.
Meanwhile, the main controller unit and serial interface are
functioned to receive the input from the sensor unit, to give
the coordinate of the input received, to tend the coordinate to
the interfacing unit, to get the data from controlling unit, to
convert the data format according to RS-232 standard and to
send the data to the serial port of computer through serial
cable (DB9).

978-1-61284-413-8/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 123

2011 IEEE 7th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

A. Chessboard Design input is representing the column of the chessboard. The

The chessboard is attached with Reed Switches [3] for each 74LS251 multiplexer is consisting of three inputs selector.
square. These Reed Switches are use to detect the presence of This three input selector for each multiplexer will connect
chess pieces on the board. When a chess piece with a magnet together become one common input.
is placed on the square of the chessboard, the switch will
change from open to close. Each 8 row which contained eight
squares will connect with data select of multiplexer 8 to 1
(74LS251). The output of the multiplexer will be the input of
the microcontroller (PIC18F452). The concept of how the
Reed Switch works on the chessboard is demonstrated in
Figure 3 and 4.

Fig. 5 Reed Switch Connection

B. Main Controller Unit & Serial Interface

Fig. 3 Reed Switch “OPEN” state.
Figure 3 shows the Reed Switch when it is in ‘OPEN’ state.
The chess piece is attached with the magnet. This is because
the Reed Switch operates when magnet field is applied. In this
work, the Reed Switch is attached under the chessboard
surface. When the chess piece together with magnet is far
from the Reed switch, the contact of Reed Switch is opened.
In main controller unit, the PIC18F452 is use as a brain of
the controlling unit. The basic circuit of the microcontroller to
operate need a power supply and crystal. The typical power
supply required for the PIC18F452 is 5V power supply. In
order to connect a microcontroller to a serial port on a
computer, the level of the voltage signals needed to adjust so
that communicating can take place. The signal level of the
microcontroller is +5V for logic one and 0V for logic zero, an
intermediary stage that will convert the levels is needed. One
chip specially designed for this task is MAX232 [4]. This chip
receives signals fro the -12V to +12V and converts them into
0 and 5V.

C. Chess Program
The Microsoft Visual Basic [5] is used to convert the data
input from the movement of the chess piece on the chessboard
to the picture of chess piece and chessboard on the computer
screen through the graphical user interface (GUI) as shown in
Figure 6. In addition, it also displays the movement history in
the screen in the text format and displays the game clock.
Detail on chess program design is in the flowchart as shown in
Figure 7.
Fig. 4 Reed Switch “CLOSE” state.

Figure 4 shows the Reed Switch when it is in ‘CLOSE’

state. When the chess piece together with magnet is close to
the Reed switch, the contact of the Reed Switch is closed. The
illustration of the Reed Switch that connected to the circuit is
shown in Figure 5. From this circuit, the output will give 0V
value (logic ‘0’) when the Reed Switch is opened. And the
output will give 5V value (logic ‘1’) when the Reed Switch is
closed. In a chessboard, 64 of the Reed Switches are needed
for each of the chessboard square, which mean there are 64 of
the inputs needed to connect to the microcontroller. Since
there are too many inputs need to connect to the
microcontroller, eight data select multiplexer 8 to 1(74LS251)
is added in the chessboard design. It will reduce the input to
the microcontroller from 64 inputs to eight inputs only. Each Fig. 6 The GUI of Chess Program.

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2011 IEEE 7th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications

Reset

Initialize chess image notation Paste image from following

coordinate

Select serial port COM

Write history in the Richbox
according Standard Algebraic
Notation (SAN)
NO
Connected?

YES
NO If third coordinate
received?
NO
Start button click?
YES

YES

NO Second coordinate = third

Back
Timer start counting coordinate

YES
Chess piece been captured.
NO If first coordinate Paste image with following
Back
received? coordinate.

YES
Replace the history with captured
SAN
Move image from following
coordinate

NO

If button chess clock push?

NO
If second coordinate
received?
YES
YES

Toggle timer chess clock

Back

Fig.7 Flow chart of the chess program.

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2011 IEEE 7th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Currently, the Reed Switches circuit is successfully
designed, which capable of demonstrate and recognize
different chess pieces on the chess program. After the chess
program is opened, the users need to select the serial port
COM (as shown in Figure 8), where the chessboard hardware
connects to the computer. Once the ‘Connect’ button is
clicked, the chess program will display “connected” on the
screen to show that chessboard hardware is successful
connected with the computer.
Fig. 8 Selection of Serial Port COM.
To start playing chess program, firstly, the users need to enter
the player name and then click the “Start” button and the
timing of the White player clock will start counting. Once the
players move their chess piece, the history of the movement
immediately display on the screen. Sample of chess players’
clock and their history movement appeared on the screen is
shown in Figure 9.
Fig. 9 Chess clock and movement history.
The users can also save the history of the movement as
portable game notable (PGN) format by clicking the “Save”
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button. One of the special features in this program is the users
can choose whether they want to trigger the chess clock
manually or automatically as shown in Figure 10. If they
choose “manual trigger”, the users need to use the external
switch button at the chessboard hardware to switch the clock.
And if they choose “Auto trigger”, the chess clock in the chess
program switch automatically when the players finish their
move. The default of the chess clock is manually triggered.
Fig. 10 Chess Clock Option.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The design of electronic chess board prototype is
successfully built, which is able to recognize chess pieces and
its position on the chessboard. Some improvements from [2],
have been done such as adding the digital chess clock
interfacing and using another conductive material to improve
the contact between chessboard and chess pieces. It is also
capable to display the move of chess pieces history on the
chess program. The move can be saved for future reference.
This chess program still needs an improvement in terms of
connecting to the real digital chess clock instead of using a
prototype of chess clock. The cost of this prototype is roughly
about RM500 which is considered cheaper than the one in the
existing market.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors would like to express their gratitude to Faculty of
Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, for
supporting this research by providing electronic components
and electrical equipments.
REFERENCES
[1] DGT Project Group, “Catalog of electronic boards”, October 2009.
[2] N.H.Mahmood, I. Abd Ghani, R. Sudirman, S. Wong, "Preliminary
result of low cost digital electronic chess set for chess tournament ",
World Engineering Congress 2010, pp. 528-532. August 2010.
[3] A. Hala, “Permanent magnets using for reed switches control”,
International Conf. On Applied Electronics, pp. 51-54, 2006.
[4] Spasov and Peter, “Microcontroller technology, the 68HC11”, Upper
Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 2002.
[5] Petroutsos and Evangelos, “Mastering Microsoft Visual Basic 2008”,
New York: Wiley, 2008.