A cheap-o glass chess set was modified in this project in order to create a concept of illuminating the set by putting colored lights under the board following the checkerboard pattern. The pieces are made to glow as the light shines up through the glass as shown in the image below.

Inside the hollow recesses in the base of each chess piece, 16 blue LEDs and 16 green LEDs are glued. The negative contacts for the LEDs are clipped to be made flush with the rest of the base and wired to copper washers attached to the base of each chess piece are the positive contacts for the LEDs. The image below shows a conductive chessboard made from a sheet of copper. The positive lead from a power transformer is wired to the sheet and the magnets are allowed to pass through from the insulated holes through the center of each square. A negatively wired steel plate underneath to the negative leads from the LEDs is connected and held by the magnets.

The glass chess set has chess pieces that should have a small cavity in the bottom covered by some circular felt stickers as scratch prevention. The neodymium magnets are cylindrical with dimensions of 1/8” tall and 1/16” diameter. The wood used as an insulator and as a structural backing for the copper has the same area as the copper plate. The copper washers have the same size of outer circumference with the outer circumference of the chess pieces base. The steel plate should be exactly the same dimensions as the original chess board. The chess board is powered by a wall wart with a 120V AC input and 3V 300mA DC output. Other materials are copper foil tape, acrylic sheets, Gaffers tape, and glue or epoxy as shown in the images below.

The positive contact for the chess pieces is the copper plate which needs to be polished to become shiny. A checkerboard pattern file is created using Illustrator and the adhesive checkerboard stickers are transferred to the copper plate using a large sheet of transfer paper to get the vinyl sticker pattern squared perfectly with the copper plate.

As shown in the images below, the copper plate is drilled to get holes into the copper board that will allow the negative contact points for the chess pieces to pass through the copper plate. The holes will go through the center of each individual square on the board by marking off the center point of each square. While drilling through the board, the scrap wood will help prevent the copper sheet from bending out of place.

In the making of the board, a wooden backing is added to the copper plate which will provide both structural support and will act as an insulator between the magnets/steel plate and copper plate. After the preparation, the copper and wood are glued together. The wood will be drilled after the glue has dried completely as shown below. The drill diameter should also be the same as the magnet diameter.

During the wiring of the board, the steel plate is prepared and the tape is laid. The plate is wired as well as the copper board and the magnets are put into each square on the copper plate in the image below. The chessboard is protected and housed in the box to cover the base and the wires. The sides of the box are made of 4 even pieces of wood that are taped together.

The box is wired by drilling a hole into the side of the box, soldering the two wires from the copper sheet to the positive wire from the power supply and soldering the two wires from the steel plate to the negative wire from the power supply. Everything to the underside of the steel plate is taped and the wiring can be tested using an LED as shown below.

During the finalization of the box, a ledge is created and the bottom is made and magnetized. The pieces are prepared by removing the felt and testing the depth. The 16 blue LEDs were glued into the clear pieces and the 16 green LEDs into the frosted pieces.