Other than the wire running from the chess board, it looked just like the ones used in a normal chess tournament. The board and the pieces were mounted on a wooden box under which was a lining of electromagnets and sensors, said Bhavya Gohil, the co-founder of Infivention.
Aatur Mehta, the other founder of Infivention, took the pawn in front of the king in his hand, pressed it on the square it was on and then pressed it on the square two spaces in front of its original position where he had left the piece. What happened next was absolute magic. A weird sort of noise erupted from the box and the black piece in front of the black king out of its own accord moved two squares in front.
Aatur and Bhavya had been working for three years on making a chess board in which the pieces move by itself. The two electronics students had no clue about coding or working with electronic boards when they started putting Automated Chess together in their second year of engineering.
“We are tech enthusiasts. We were extremely passionate about this idea. Also we had a lot of support from our business incubator, RiiDL. Many people saw our product and got excited. They promised to buy it for whatever price we quoted,” says Bhavya.
The duo envisioned the product as a useful tool for the visually challenged who couldn’t play chess on a computer. So, they designed this chess board ‘which moves by itself’. While moving, the pieces take the shortest path through two pieces without knocking down any of the other pieces. A knight, which in chess can jump over pieces, neatly moves between the pieces to land in the square it has been asked to go. Using the same combination of electromagnets and sensors, it is possible to design other board games too.
Automated Chess also has an android application through which the board could be operated. There are different modes too — one can play against the computer or against a human sitting in a different part of the planet over the internet. Bhavya and Aatur have travelled to Rome, Paris, Istanbul and Boston with good response from audiences for their novelty. They have four prototypes which they take to festivals like Shaastra where they were displaying the board before City Express caught up with them. Making a successful business model out of Automated Chess is Aatur’s and Bhavya’s next goal.
“We are selling a premium product, so buyers would not haggle too much about price. We are selling an experience that combines technology, but at the same time the physical feel of playing a game is maintained,” Aatur said. They are are planning to launch it in March.
For more, visit infiventio.com or their FB page www.facebook.com/chessautomated.
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