A chess board scanner reads a photo of a real board—a club game paused at the critical moment, a position left on the table after a lesson—and turns it into a FEN (Forsyth-Edwards Notation) string. Instead of setting up 32 pieces again on an analysis board, you photograph the board, the vision model identifies each piece and which side sits at the bottom, and the position loads onto a board on screen, ready for engine analysis. On ScanChess the board scanner costs 1 credit per photo.
Working from a screenshot or a book diagram instead? Chess board image to FEN covers flat images, and a screenshot dropped into the free best-move finder is read in your browser without spending a credit. For a board on a web page, the ScanChess browser extension reads it where it is, with no screenshot to save.
Looking at other tools? Read our chessvision ai alternative comparison.
Board Photo to FEN: Real-World Recognition
Take or upload one clear photo (JPG, PNG, or WebP, up to 15 MB; HEIC is not accepted) at the board scanner. The vision model detects square boundaries, determines whether White or Black is seated at the bottom, and extracts the piece placement into a standard six-field FEN string. Photos of physical sets are the main difference from diagram readers; Chessvision.ai vs ScanChess compares the two approaches.
For example, scanning a typical middlegame board returns:
r2q1rk1/pbp2pbp/1pn1pnp1/3p4/4P3/1PNP1NP1/PBP2PBP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 12
This compact notation records piece locations rank by rank from 8 to 1 (with empty squares counted as digits), active color (w), castling availability (-), en passant target (-), halfmove clock (0), and fullmove number (12). For a detailed guide to each field, see What is FEN?.
Lighting, Angle, and Pieces
A photo of a real board has problems a screenshot never has: perspective, glare, shadows, and pieces standing in front of each other. What helps most:
- Shoot from directly above: Hold the phone over the center of the board with all 64 squares and the four corners in frame. From a low, oblique angle, tall pieces (queens, kings, rooks) hide the pawns on the squares behind them. If the board's edges or corners cannot be found, recognition stops with a
NO_BOARD_FOUNDstatus and your credit is refunded automatically. - Use soft, even light: A lacquered wooden board under a bright overhead lamp throws reflections that wash out dark squares and piece bases. Daylight from the side, or a lamp that is not directly overhead, gives cleaner results. Watch for the shadow of your own phone and arm across the board.
- Pieces that stand out from the squares: Standard Staunton pieces on contrasting squares (dark wood on maple, or black and cream pieces on a green-and-buff vinyl board) read reliably. Ornate or themed sets, and pieces close in color to the squares they stand on, are harder; check the highlighted squares more carefully.
- A clear board edge: Move hands, captured pieces, clocks, and scoresheets off the edge squares before you shoot. Tournament DGT boards with standard pieces read like ordinary wooden sets, as long as cables and clock housings do not cover the edge squares (a1, h1, a8, h8).
If you set the position up yourself, from a lesson or a book, check the board is the right way round before you shoot, with a light square in each player's right-hand corner; how to set up a chess board has the full layout.
