Finalist (261 teams) · Hack the North · Sep 2025

A real chessboard where the pieces slide across the board by themselves, moved by a magnet underneath. You play against family on the other side of the world, and their moves appear on your board like magic.

Why it won: Under the board a small crane drags an electromagnet around, the same mechanism that moves a 3D printer's nozzle. The hard problem is sync: the wooden board and the digital game must never disagree, even with an ocean between the players. Solve that, and the screen disappears; chess goes back to being something you touch.