Are College Students Making Cheating At Chess Easier?
Are college students working to change how the game of chess can be played… and make cheating easier? Move over cellphones. No need for vibrating beads. What about eyeglasses that analyze the board and quietly tell the best move to the wearer?
Glasses Tell Best Move
A student at Purdue University, home to the oldest computer science program in the United States, has announced on his LinkedIn page that he has developed a pair of glasses that “can look at any chessboard and tell you the best move to make.”
Inspired By Niemann-Carlsen Controversy
The student is Cael Fitch, a mechanical engineering student at Purdue. He has been working on the project for much of his time at the university. On Instagram, he writes that he was “inspired by the Hans [Niemann] vs. Magnus [Carlsen] controversy; I figured I could probably do better than that."
I figured I could probably do better than that.
—Cael Fitch
Artificial Intelligence Uses Stockfish Chess Engine
How does it work? He explains: “The AI [artificial intelligence] runs on Roboflow computer vision and uses the Stockfish chess engine for recommending moves. This is then delivered via audio through built-in bone conduction headphones that no one other than the user can hear.”
Fitch said that he was motivated to build “a proof of concept that rivaled other chess cheating techniques seen in the media.” He has completed version 1.0 of what he calls the “chess move analyzer/detector” (he’s still determining the best name.) About his project, he said, “I designed and built this wireless, fully functioning prototype using drone parts and over 400 lines of Python code.”
Rudimentary Prototype
On Instagram, he writes: “Though this was a rudimentary prototype, it has been a fun project to work on and I have so many plans for a 2.0 version.” He adds: “I will make the project open source after I refine the glasses further in a 2.0 version.” In the following video, Fitch demonstrates the glasses and how they work:
Fitch has been involved in several amazing projects at Purdue, which had the largest undergraduate engineering enrollment in the country for half a century. He has led a team of the Purdue Autonomous Robotics Club in designing a robotic arm capable of playing chess against a human opponent. He said, “Using computer-aided design, 3D printing manufacturing, and physics simulations, our team is optimizing the robotic arm structure to maneuver with fast pace and high precision.”
Incidentally, Fitch spent last summer as an intern with SpaceX where he designed improvements in the Starlink Satellite battery production line.
What do you think? Can the development and use of “chess glasses” with such a powerful potential be a positive change?
Ray Linville’s high point as a chess player occurred when he swiped the queen of GM Hikaru Nakamura in a 60-second bullet game in 2021. This game was reported in a “My Best Move” column of the Chess Life magazine, published by the U.S. Chess Federation.
At Chess.com, he has been an editor (part-time) since 2019 and has edited news articles and tournament reports—including those of the Candidates and World Championship Tournaments and other major events—by titled players and noted chess writers as well as Game of the Day annotations by leading grandmasters. He has also been a contributing writer of chess terms, e-books, and general interest articles for ChessKid.com.
He enjoys “top blogger” status at Chess.com. His blog has won the award for Best Chess Blog from the Chess Journalists of America for several years. In addition, he has also been the recipient of first-place CJA awards for feature article, humorous contribution, online review, and educational lesson as well as honorable mention in the categories of personal narrative and historical article.