While the subject of chess using large computers can be dealt with in short order (the computer always wins), this project is intended to rekindle interest in user-programmed computer chess by making the task more challenging. The result is a chess computer based on the Elektor Electronics Flash Micro Board described in the December 2001 issue.People have been fascinated by machines and computers that can play chess since the time of Maezel’s chess robots. Many people have already attempted to create something that exceeds their own capabilities, occasionally venturing down very interesting paths in the process. For instance, just before the first computer came into existence, the mathematician Alan Turing developed a chess program on index cards — and ‘ran’ this program using himself as the processor.