The default way to run the software is to download the source code and install Python and the necessary packages. However, if you are on Windows, there is also an executable version which you can download under the releases section (Look for Assets).
I've tried this in the past and it's pretty buggy unfortunately, even with slower movements. I've tried for quite some time to get it to work but it never held up beyond a few moves. Beyond that, I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to simply write PGNs to a file instead of playing online - this would be great for a chess club that wants to automatically notate top boards without buying an electronic DGT board.
@alperkarayaman How do I do that? I don't understand
Can we use it to record and broadcast an OTB chess game on lichess?
Really interesting concept - cant get it working on windows 11 though, I get FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'constants.bin'
[12224] Failed to execute script 'main' due to unhandled exception!
[12224] Failed to execute script 'main' due to unhandled exception!
@kyleboddy said in #12:
> I've tried this in the past and it's pretty buggy unfortunately, even with slower movements. I've tried for quite some time to get it to work but it never held up beyond a few moves. Beyond that, I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to simply write PGNs to a file instead of playing online - this would be great for a chess club that wants to automatically notate top boards without buying an electronic DGT board.
You couln't have explained it better. This is my very same experience, a bit frustrating.
> I've tried this in the past and it's pretty buggy unfortunately, even with slower movements. I've tried for quite some time to get it to work but it never held up beyond a few moves. Beyond that, I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to simply write PGNs to a file instead of playing online - this would be great for a chess club that wants to automatically notate top boards without buying an electronic DGT board.
You couln't have explained it better. This is my very same experience, a bit frustrating.
DGT will be horrified.
@RandiraPeiris2011 Yes, I was able to download it; I downloaded the zip file from that git page and went from there. The latest 2 errors I was getting was that clicking the board calibration button was looking for the board_calibration.py was looking in my system32 folder and getting 'not found'. So clicking on the python file itself got past that.
But I tried to play a few games against Maia9 once I got the board calibrated, and the program never realized that the game had started or anything like that. I was following the Usage instructions down on the page here:
github.com/karayaman/Play-online-chess-with-real-chess-board
... and the program never said, "game started". I was using the API access token from LiChess, too. My making a move didn't register with it, either.
But I tried to play a few games against Maia9 once I got the board calibrated, and the program never realized that the game had started or anything like that. I was following the Usage instructions down on the page here:
github.com/karayaman/Play-online-chess-with-real-chess-board
... and the program never said, "game started". I was using the API access token from LiChess, too. My making a move didn't register with it, either.
@kyleboddy said in #12:
> I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to simply write PGNs to a file instead of playing online - this would be great for a chess club that wants to automatically notate top boards without buying an electronic DGT board.
That would be super cool
> I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to simply write PGNs to a file instead of playing online - this would be great for a chess club that wants to automatically notate top boards without buying an electronic DGT board.
That would be super cool
I tried to test this / make it work today on stream : www.twitch.tv/videos/1726117302 (the camera is laggy, but with the sound you can understand when the integration does work and when it doesn't )
To summarise:
- Easy to download and install (on Windows at least using the .zip file, very straightforward instructions on the readme)
- The camera you are using must be (almost) directly above the chessboard, else it can't recognise the board. This can be inconvenient but I guess there is no other way to do it.
-There is a significant delay between the time you make the move and the time it recongises it, which means it's unsuitable for any time control faster than increment rapid or classical. Also, a lot of people abort when the opponent takes too long on the first move, so you will probably be as frustrated as I was trying to play against the pool with this app:) It works better against friends or bots.
- Unfortunately there seem to still be some bugs. For me, at multiple times the app made a move Rh1-g1 or Rg1-f1 for me, even though I didn't touch the kingside rook or anything near it :( Also the time you hear "Please redo your move" in my 2 hour stream should be about 200. LOL
Overall: Really nice idea but it still needs some tidying up to be really usable. It's good that it's open source so we just waid for someone kind enough to put in the work to improve upon it :) Also a different direction this technology could go is what someone said to generate a PGN from putting the game in a board, this could be really useful for various reasons.
To summarise:
- Easy to download and install (on Windows at least using the .zip file, very straightforward instructions on the readme)
- The camera you are using must be (almost) directly above the chessboard, else it can't recognise the board. This can be inconvenient but I guess there is no other way to do it.
-There is a significant delay between the time you make the move and the time it recongises it, which means it's unsuitable for any time control faster than increment rapid or classical. Also, a lot of people abort when the opponent takes too long on the first move, so you will probably be as frustrated as I was trying to play against the pool with this app:) It works better against friends or bots.
- Unfortunately there seem to still be some bugs. For me, at multiple times the app made a move Rh1-g1 or Rg1-f1 for me, even though I didn't touch the kingside rook or anything near it :( Also the time you hear "Please redo your move" in my 2 hour stream should be about 200. LOL
Overall: Really nice idea but it still needs some tidying up to be really usable. It's good that it's open source so we just waid for someone kind enough to put in the work to improve upon it :) Also a different direction this technology could go is what someone said to generate a PGN from putting the game in a board, this could be really useful for various reasons.