Chess System Tal Retro - ESP32 released

[chrisw]

Chess System Tal Retro - esp32

A chess computer in the spirit of the 1980s table-top machines — but with a neural-network evaluation, running entirely on an ESP32-S3 colour touch-screen board. Tap or drag your pieces, set the clocks, take moves back. No PC, no phone, no Wi-Fi: the whole engine, its opening book and its network live on the board.

Install it on your board
Source on GitHub
Use for play or links via USB and UCI to PC for autoplay, tournaments or rating list testers

https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-chess

[AdminX]

Thanks Chris, I look forward to setting this up.

[chrisw]

Thanks Chris, I look forward to setting this up.

That's really great, I'm very pleased this has triggered at least one brave person! Make sure you get at least an S3, screen size is not too critical if you buy a proper stylus (5 euros or so), else fat finger disease would render playing on, say an M5 at one inch, all but impossible.
And let us know how you get on

[Alexander Schmidt]

Thanks for sharing this, right now I am busy moving house but I'll for sure take a look at it

Maybe it's possible to implement the support of external boards, Chess System Tal as stand alone unit with a wooden board would be a great thing to play against.

[chrisw]

Thanks for sharing this, right now I am busy moving house but I'll for sure take a look at it

Maybe it's possible to implement the support of external boards, Chess System Tal as stand alone unit with a wooden board would be a great thing to play against.

Esp32 is perfect for a stand-alone project
I have fantasies of building a camera device that tracks moves on a 3D real board, checks what it sees is valid and kibitzes using an engine and text to voice converter - ideal for when back at the chess cafe

[Tibono]

+1 "brave person" ... I just ordered an ESP32-S3 7inch Display Development Board with touch option (waveshare link).
Thanks a lot for this nice project and sharing, will be a nice addition to my chess computers collection... and I am keen on playing games using your CST program!
Warm regards,
Eric

[chrisw]

+1 "brave person" ... I just ordered an ESP32-S3 7inch Display Development Board with touch option (waveshare link).
Thanks a lot for this nice project and sharing, will be a nice addition to my chess computers collection... and I am keen on playing games using your CST program!
Warm regards,
Eric

Courage mon brave! let us know how you get on, should be more or less a shoe in, using the same 7" board. Did I document the PC side of the UCI link enough(?), let us know if you try that.
Additions, if you want, maybe add a little speaker to bleep on moving, there's spare ports on the card - I never tried sound any any of my projects yet, but suspect hanging a speaker onto an esp32 output pin might be asking too much, so it would probably require a little amplifier board (3 for 10 euros, same cost as speakers). Another addition would be a rechargeable battery and a recharging power card, right now all power comes down the USB.
RAM is tight, but a few more standard search components would probably fit.

[chrisw]

Two more touch screen sizes supported.

Release v0.1.5: published, with all four boards' files:
cst-retro-0.1.4-ws7.bin (7" Waveshare)
cst-retro-0.1.5-ws4.bin (4" Waveshare)
cst-retro-0.1.5-e32r40t.bin (4" ESP32-32E)
cst-retro-0.1.4-cores3.bin (M5Stack CoreS3)

NB the ESP32-32E is at the limits of viability for this project, it's an older ESP32 with less RAM, but cheaper, about 23 euros

https://whittingtonchess.com/retro-chess

[Alexander Schmidt]

I have fantasies of building a camera device that tracks moves on a 3D real board, checks what it sees is valid and kibitzes using an engine and text to voice converter - ideal for when back at the chess cafe

I didn't take a look at it so far but here is a similar project: https://github.com/karayaman/Play-onlin ... hess-board

[Tibono]

Courage mon brave! let us know how you get on, should be more or less a shoe in, using the same 7" board. Did I document the PC side of the UCI link enough(?), let us know if you try that.

Hi Chris,

I received my ESP32-S3 7" with touch option early afternoon today, since 4:30PM all is working fine!

First step, I set a 3D printed backplate up using the M3 mount points, not only protecting the PCB but also enabling the device to stand up (image).

Second step, I struggled with the connection to my PC, as I initially spared few euros re-using an USB-C cable that later proved to be power connection only. My bad. Then I struggled starting up my motorbike I didn't use for months, after sweating a lot (maybe 150 or so kick blows to get it alive) I could go and purchase a correct data cable - but that's another story

Once USB connection fine (the Windows usual two tones rang), install occured readily. Final reset on the device and lo & behold, CST appears instead of the factory demo page!

About UCI on USB feature: I did it rather easily (side note: I am a retired IT guy, that helps). I didn't rely on your webpage, I think not much is currently detailed about; while awaiting the shipping delivery I had downloaded the project source from GitHub to have a look into it; found out the several .md help files and also browsed the uci_bridge Python script, and the cstretro-usb batch file in tools directory. There are useful comments top of these files, that is kind of you, hence I pretty well knew what to do. Providing the COM number as an argument to the Python script revealed mandatory, and I had to search a bit to find this number (Win tip: run command start devmgmt.msc displays the device manager, then expand Ports (COM & LPT).

Here are pictures of the device front view while running UCI on USB, and a screencopy of the GUI. Little guy is currently in analysis mode...

A huge thank you Chris for sharing your nice project!
Warm regards,
Eric