Unless you wrote that on your mom's phone, you already have a computer.
What you need is a program or engine. You could conceivably write your own program.
How to make your own chess computer
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@notmtwain: yes, i have a computer. and i have a couple of chess softwares installed there too. but if you have not understood what i meant here, let me simplify a bit: i need an electronic chess computer like novag citrine or saitek mephisto, or just something like what @Gomer_Pyle mentioned here. Thank you Gomer_Pyle! Many thanks!
I think ifekali would be someone you might want to talk to, as he's been working on chessbots...
http://www.bestchessmenever.com/blog/files/tag-chessbots.html
Today you probably should not use an electronic device for a chess computer.
Take your computer, a cheap usb camera, open source image recognition software (OpenCV) and write a little software to play chess with you on your real world chess board. (let the computer read out the moves or if you have a video projector available to spice it up, use it to project the computer moves on your real chessboard.
(or use your mobile phone for the same effect)
@Gomoto:
What are you saying!! That's a revelation! Tell me more, please. If possible, give me a link!
Also,
I can't write a software programme, but I have lots of friends who can do that. Can't I use free softwares like Stockfish etc.?
@FrankHelwig : Thanks brother, I will get in touch with ifekali.
Okay, I checked the videos. His board is already a USB enabled board. Can't get that in India. If I had that, I would have happily plugged it with my computer and play. But yes, I will talk to Ifekali soon. Thank you for your help!
It is not too difficult with OpenCV and you do not have to recognize the pieces, just face the camera at the board and use the geometry of the squares to detect which squares change (from occupied to empty and from empty to occupied).
I implemented a test (proof of concept) for the game of go in the past and only used the change in brightness of the pixels to detect the stones. Worked well enough (even on a raspberry pi computer), but I do not have the time and motivation to do a full project.
For the engine you can use an opensource one, although it is quite fun to try to develop your own ;-)
I need to leave that fun part :P
But seriously, I am going to try the OpenCV at home now. Will let you know how it went.
Hi guys,
I have tried but failed to procure a chess computer in India, the ones like Novag Citrine or Mephisto. So I have decided to make my own chess computer. It may sound foolish, afterall the companies are there for a reason, but I want to give a serious try. Can someone, any good soul, help me understanding if it can be done, or if it can be done at all.
But if there is an iota of chance, I will put my everything behind it. Please help!