Tracing the history of chess is an interesting exercise. From origins in India to a journey east along the Silk Route before gaining popularity in the Middle East and eventually Europe, the evolution of the game is peppered with stories. One such was of a device named The Turk, built by Hungarian inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen in the 18th century. The machine, then believed to be an automaton that was capable of defeating some of the best players of the time, was later revealed to be a hoax, as it contained within it an operator who controlled the pieces using magnets.
Two centuries later, at a time when the game has — like so many of its counterparts — migrated to smartphone screens, a small team of Indian entrepreneurs is bringing it back to the board, with a concept not too different from the one Kempelen used.
Board game of the future
It is called Square Off, and the company behind it — Mumbai-based InfiVention Technologies — calls it the world’s smartest chessboard. A clean slab with a section of the surface devoted to the 64 squares, the board contains a Bluetooth radio and a robotic arm, capable of magnetically moving the pieces. Owners can pair it to a companion smartphone app and play with other players across the world, with the kicker being that the opponent’s moves are reflected on the physical board, like wizard’s chess from Harry Potter.
The brains behind the idea are Aatur Mehta (23) and Bhavya Gohil (22), who began work on this concept in 2013, following a discussion with the chairperson of the National Association for the Blind (NAB) about making a chessboard for the visually-impaired. Funds were a problem, so they participated in paper presentations and competitions to earn prize money. The efforts finally paid off and they were incubated at Research Innovation Incubation Design Labs (RiiDL), with the resources to take the project forward.
Two prototypes later, the team found some success in their original goal. “We had the chairperson play a game on one of our prototypes, and once we have sufficient resources, we intend to develop it further to make it easier for the visually-impaired,” says Gohil. This prototype was displayed at Maker Faire Rome in 2014, and the response it received was what convinced its makers that an Internet-connected chessboard was something the world needed.
The team made a couple more prototypes, experimenting with LED screens, Bluetooth connectivity and rosewood bodies. Once they figured out the combination that worked best, they turned to crowdfunding, putting their project up on Kickstarter. “We used crowdfunding because it was an opportunity for us to validate the market, as this is a one-of-a-kind product. We also wanted to understand what the global reception for Square Off was like,” Gohil explains.
The reception was positive, to say the least. Square Off hit its funding goal six hours into the start of the campaign in November 2016. By the end of the 24-day campaign period, they had achieved 625% of the intended target.
The company’s other big play lies in live streaming matches and Artificial Intelligence (AI). While the final version of Square Off was taking shape in early 2016, Google’s AlphaGo, an AI developed for the purpose of playing the complicated Chinese strategy game Go, was trouncing South Korean 9-dan rank Go player Lee Sedol in a highly-publicised match-up that gained international attention. InfiVention is looking to build on the chess enthusiast community by giving board owners the choice of selecting an international match and watching the moves play out on their board.
Gohil explains that the Square Off board can also tap into AI and let users play against it to polish their strategy skills. “The user gets to choose the AI’s difficulty and can adjust the AI personality to a beginner, enthusiast level or even a grandmaster.” Interesting as this is believes that the ability to remotely play with others, and not AI, would be the key element in connected board games. “While AI is the future, chess is a very personal game and I don’t see that personal aspect disappearing entirely.”
The board is estimated to start shipping to Kickstarter backers by April this year, and now the focus is on building a community. For online play, the board is constantly connected to the companion app via Bluetooth, with the software keeping track of game status. InfiVention has also enabled cross-platform play between players using the board and others using the app, and is now at work integrating the platform with online chess gaming communities for board owners to take on.
Kickstarter campaigns are always perilous affairs. The Pebble Smartwatch was born on the platform, and enjoyed global appeal before eventually fizzling out and falling into the hands of fitness wearables manufacturer Fitbit. The Coolest Cooler, one of the most successful campaigns on the platform, struggled to ship even to backers. With Square Off, the team seems to have learnt their lessons from multiple iterations and four years of work. As Gohil talks about how the mechanism used in the board can be replicated across other board games, it is hard not to feel a cautious optimism.
