And the Raspberry Turk — a chess-playing robot from developer Joey Meyer — is a masterwork in that regard, serving as a way to learn everything from machine vision to robotics to AI.

The point-count system taught to chess beginners says that a queen is worth 9 points, a rook 5, and a knight 3, so the side with the queen is nominally ahead by 1 point (which is calibrated to the ...