Blog GilaChess

Chess is boring when it comes to attracting the general public interest. That is why even though live viewership is depressingly low (5-15 viewers per session) for a typical live local DGT broadcast game, it is still  attractive to organisers to be able to project the on going games on screens. It's a novelty and attracts attention even from non chess playing public. Perhaps that's the reason we see a boom in live DGT broadcast in and around Malaysia.

A live DGT tournament certainly adds some "prestige" to a tournament. At the very least it let's non chess enthusiast think "Oh so this is how a REAL chess tournament looks like" :)

I know I blogged about this before but for some reason cannot find that post. So for posterity sake I am blogging this again.

DGT chess boards are too expensive for the average chess player and we only see it in "special" tournaments where the organisers are willing to pay for live broadcast from services such as AI Chess and Kedai Catur.

This technology is not new. Programmers have already written visual recognition software like this one by Vietnamese Vinh Le over 7 years ago :




Unfortunately, the programmer lost her source code to a hard disk crash :(

Fortunately today there is an app that use similiar ideas and even implemented it in some strong tournament. It's also called Chess Vision.








I like technology like Chess Vision where simple gadgets such as a phone and a phone holder is enough to record and broadcast any game of chess. It's cheap and makes it easy for just anybody to record live chess games.






P/S: the coding is nothing special and if Chess Vision subscription app (USD 4.99) is too expensive, some other programmer can easily write similiar chess board recognition software.

I have a DGT board but I always liked the idea of cheaper alternatives because of the high cost of the boards.The technology is definitely already here such as image recognition and the raising processing powers of gadgets such as tablets and phones further makes it even more achievable.


Hats off the Hairul Hamid for spotting this first. Using a phone and an app to recognize moves made over any ordinary chess boards is certainly a big step and I look forward for the day when mass board automatic recording and live broadcast is made cheaper and easier. Currently, the app developers still charge USD 4.99 per month for use of the app.

Related link:
https://worldchess.com/2016/11/22/a-new-vision-for-recording-games/

I got mine last year in May, 2014 for about RM 2700. It's the Bluetooth version and at that time local price was RM 5000 with the chess clock so what I got was definitely a good bargain. This was possible because of timing. Someone I knew was coming back from the US and I took advantage by getting it then.

The opportunity has come around once again and I may have someone else to do the same. Then instead of just one, I can broadcast 2 live chess boards!!

However reality sets in and I've forgotten about how bad our currency has become. Even the cheaper non-bluetooth DGT board will cost me RM 3, 923 today with the best bargains I can get online.

My own bluetooth DGT model price is now RM 4,800 best online price (not including delivery) with today's exchange rate.

Maybe next year then, if the economy improves... :(