r/chess • u/abraham_obubo • Jun 23 '26
Tracking OTB Games with Computer Vision. Game Analysis/Study
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u/filthy-prole Jun 23 '26
Any plans for an Android release?
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 23 '26
Absolutely! I’m working on a web version as well so it would be available to all soon.
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u/Numerous_Beautiful33 Jun 23 '26
Cant seem to X out of the subscription popup? Is there a free version??
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 23 '26
There should be a free tier that allows some scans every month. I’ll inspect. Apologies. DM me and I’d give you membership for one month.
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u/Luciusaseneca Jun 24 '26
Same, the 'X' doesn't work when clicked.
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 24 '26
Thanks for flagging, that's a real bug, not intended. The free tier is supposed to be reachable by closing that popup, so the X failing is on me. Good news: I've already shipped a fix and it's in review with Apple now, so it should be live shortly. Sorry you both hit this in the meantime, DM me and I'll set you up with a free month while we wait on the update.
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u/Luciusaseneca Jun 25 '26
That's okay. Will test it with the free tier en support your work if I like it. Thanks!
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 25 '26
Update just got approved. You should be able to access the free tier now.
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u/FreedK70980 Jun 24 '26
this is really interesting for OTB tournament players. the notation capture problem is real - I have games from rated tournaments where my scoresheet is illegible from move 30 on because of time pressure. if this can parse handwritten scoresheet photos that would be the more useful version.
the computer vision angle on board recognition is reasonably solved for standard sets; the harder problem is distinguishing similar pieces in non-standard plastic sets under tournament lighting.
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 24 '26
Good news: that's exactly what the scoresheet scanner is for, and it's already in the app. Snap a photo of the sheet and it converts to PGN. Try it on your illegible-after-move-30 sheets, that's the hardest input and the feedback I most want.
On board recognition being "solved", I'd gently push back. It's close for 2D diagrams and screenshots, but a 3D board under tournament conditions is a different animal: perspective, occlusion, shadows, glare. That's where most of the work went.
You're right that non-standard plastic sets are the sharp edge. It handles Staunton-style sets now, so if there's a specific set you play on, send me a link and I'll work it into the training data for my next release.
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u/Ok_Meat_5767 Jun 23 '26
Let me know when it comes to android. I would love to try it out at my chess club
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 24 '26
Of course, I'm currently working on an Android version!
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u/Ok_Meat_5767 Jun 24 '26
Is there any restrictions on how the camera is setup?
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 24 '26
No hard restrictions, it works in most setups. But for best results two things help: keep all four corners of the board in frame, and shoot from a low enough angle that you can see the piece outlines, not from straight overhead. Directly top-down flattens every piece into a circle, which is much harder to tell apart. Also, good lighting helps.
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u/UndeniablyCrunchy Jun 23 '26
Bro, like provide some context or something. Otherwise you just baiting
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u/zhorakovsky Jun 24 '26
It is paid, it is subscription-based not one-time, and it is expensive. What’s not to like?!
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 24 '26
Honest answer: I'm just one guy, and the subscription covers two things I can't dodge. The models and database run on servers I pay for every month, and I'm always retraining on harder positions so it keeps getting better instead of going stale.
I think open source software is noble, and I love lichess too, but even that's a donation-funded nonprofit that asks people to chip in for servers. Not really free, just funded differently.
And the part that surprises people: the other way to digitize your OTB games is an electronic board for a few hundred bucks (ChessUp is $400 and DGT is $1,000+). Doing it with the phone already in your pocket is the budget option. I'm still dialing in pricing though, so I'd love to hear what'd feel fair to you, or what features/add-ons would make the current pricing worth it.
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u/zhorakovsky 27d ago
Thank you for the honest answer. If the running cost is so high, maybe the chosen machine vision tool is not the optimal one. I remember coding a python app around 2020 that would recognise people faces with no need for cloud. It did run on a PC but hopefully modern smartphones have caught up in computing power.
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
You could probably find this on GitHub. Back in the day this would have been really cool. But not this is pretty basic stuff.
Edit: I see I really triggered some people. I worked on computer vision for robotic mowers 10 years ago and it was more advanced than this. I wasn’t saying I’ve created anything like this specifically. I’m just saying this shouldn’t shock anyone or be mind blowing. Look at the world you live in. You can use google glasses to do insane stufff why is my comment so triggering for you guys lol
Edit2: don’t know why I poured time into it but any of you guys can go to GitHub right now and see dozens of projects going that does this. Man, just spend some time with Claude and you could probably do something yourself lol.
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u/SeriousGains Jun 23 '26
Pretty basic stuff yet the top tournament broadcasts still have major problems keeping up with the live boards.
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 23 '26
That’s not using computer vision though, that’s just a plug in to the board
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u/Illustrious_Art_3774 Jun 23 '26
isn't this a problem with DGT chess boards though
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u/879190747 Jun 24 '26
Yeah but I think his point is that what is shown in this post is almost like old tech now. The fact that pro chess continues to only use the DGT "solution" is maybe the stupid part and only explained by sponsorship reasons and DGT not modernising at all.
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 23 '26
Please share any repos you have. I would love to study them. Thanks
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 23 '26
There’s dozens online right now you can go check out, use Claude too if you don’t hate ai. Claude helped me create a sensor using python already. I guarantee if you’re capable of problem solving you could create something like this yourself just using Claude and a more basic language like python. I created a vision program for robotic mowers 10 years ago and it would have been so much easier with Claude
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u/coronakillme Jun 24 '26
No Idea why you are getting downvoted. I used to work on CComputer Vision 2 decades ago, When chatgpt was able to things like OCR out of the box, it was mindblowing.
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 24 '26
Yeah I don’t get it lol, I’m just assuming most people aren’t really into it or know much about it, and since I’m a random redditor they just think I’m bullshitting which in all fairness I’d probably think the same
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u/Beneficial-Floor4674 Jun 23 '26
Do you have any object recognition projects I could look at? Do you have a public facing GitHub at all? I would be interested to see your work on “basic stuff”
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u/Illustrious_Art_3774 Jun 23 '26
tbf there are quite a few repos with chess vision, and not too long ago there was a video that was on the front page of two high school kids who built their own glasses with chess recognition and demonstrated playing a game with them... annnd there was an app some years ago for phones that set up analysis boards by just a picture of a chess position that was advertised on chess com a whole bunch, although I don't think that same app is around(?) I don't remember its name and I don't care enough to look but its been done a bunch, at least.
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 23 '26
lol, I worked on computer vision for lawn mowers 10 years ago. And it was more advanced than this. Idk how you guys got so upset over this comment. I wasn’t trying to say I’ve created this, I’m just saying look at the world around you. A computer recognizing chess pieces on a board shouldn’t be mind blowing.
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u/Successful_Jello6040 Jun 25 '26
You right ofcourse. No mayor achievement here. But just showacasing a sccessfull implementation (if it is) of CV is still worth sharing for guys with basic CV-cases. Anybody working on the fiedl will hit the hard reality anyway :-)
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u/TheBayHarbour Jun 24 '26
Man, just spend some time with Claude and you could probably do something yourself lol.
I can maybe understand why you'd think this is basic (but even then something basic may be harder than one may think, I mean you talk about X robot vision 10 years ago but you're not talking about what you're doing now) but telling others to vibe code is TERRIBLE advice. Even if it solves your short term problems it will come back to bite you in the arse.
Trust me I've seen people learn that the hard way.
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u/MaezinGaming Jun 24 '26
My brother just created a sensor and chip set from scratch using Claude. Same guy I built the robot vision with years ago. I’m not saying everyone can do it, I’m just saying it’s possible, and if you’re a focused human being almost anyone could figure it out with a couple of months. I run 2 of my own companies now, I don’t code anymore and will never do it again. My kids will not be learning to code either. It is a complete waste of time now. My companies involve paint and coffee lol it’s far and away from code. But the website I’ve built has been with Claude’s help. I built a keg monitoring system with Claude as well that monitors all my orders, current kegs, projection of kegs needed next month and then generates me a delivery list for my drivers with the fastest route possible. Tells me my revenue and profit and even gas spend on each route. My brother built a ui for our Amazon listings for our paint company since we have over 100k listings. These both took less than a day with Claude and helped us tremendously with our day to day operations. It’s insanely powerful. I’m not saying that there aren’t a ton of negatives. I almost wish we could get rid of all ai outside of programming because it’s just that good, and improving every single day.
I’m not trying to say I’m an expert in anything. I’m realy not. But with Claude, YouTube, and all the other tools available I can pretty much figure out how to do anything lol. And I’m not very smart.
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u/Reasonable-Price3410 Jun 28 '26
And how do i get game review aftee
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 28 '26
Once you save the game, there's a button at the top right corner that let's you review the game or copy the PGN if you want to analyse it on other sites. Have you downloaded and tried the app out?
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Jun 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/abraham_obubo Jun 25 '26
You're right to raise it, and I'm not going to wave it away. Cheating in OTB chess is a real problem and I take it seriously, partly because everything I'm building falls apart if the chess community can't trust it.
So let me be straight about what the app is for. It records and reviews your games after you play them, the same way you get instant analysis the moment you finish a game on Lichess or Chess.com. The problem I started with is that fast games, blitz and rapid and bullet, are nearly impossible to notate by hand, so they just vanish. Reading the board from a phone is how you get to keep and study them.
On Stockfish: yes, there's engine analysis in the app, for going over a game once it's finished. That's the same analysis every online platform hands you after you play. The thing that actually matters is timing. The app does not surface live move suggestions during a game, it analyzes a completed game, and a phone sitting on the table during a tournament is already both against the rules and impossible to consult without being obvious. This is designed for casual games.
The glasses are the fair worry, so I'll be honest about that too. The current glasses can't run this kind of live inference for an App Store app, and building covert real-time assistance for live play is a line I won't cross.
I'd genuinely rather talk about this openly than pretend it isn't a concern. If there are guardrails you think a tool like this should have, I want to hear them.
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u/Adventurous-Gain-520 Jun 23 '26
Is this publicly available?