TASC SmartBoard

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TASC SmartBoard, a wooden tournament board produced by TASC as part of their Chess System and their dedicated computers TASC R30 and TASC R40 in the 90s. The board was suited for use with the TASC programs TascBase and Chessica, but had also driver software for MChess Pro, HIARCS, Chessmaster 5000, Rebel, Fritz, Chess Genius and Kallisto.

=Piece Recognition= The SmartBoard of the TASC Chess System recognizes which chessmen it has on its squares. Below each square there is a coil which, in combination with an electronic part in the bottom of the chessman, forms a so-called resonance ring. =Patent Infringement= In 1994, TASC, and their primary US distributor ICD Corporation were impeached by a New Jersey company, Brehn Corporation, due to patent infringement. According to a New York federal court, TASC took the patented concept of piece recognition for their SmartBoard, invented by Bruce F. Bogner, and used it without permission and despite signing non-disclosure agreements. The judge ordered TASC to pay $581,000 , the affected boards and computers disappeared from the market soon after, and TASC B.V. became practically defunct in the early 2000s.

=See also=
 * DGT Board
 * TASC R30
 * TASC R40

=Forum Posts=
 * Tasc Chess Smartboard by Tim Jenkins, CCC, September 29, 1998
 * Re: Tasc R30 v 2.5? by Robert Hyatt, CCC, September 08, 1999
 * Re: What happened to TASC? by Steven Schwartz, CCC, October 27, 2001

=External Links=
 * TASC R30 (SmartBoard) by Tom Luif
 * TASC PC Smartboard
 * Ismenio's archive of the Tasc Chess System - SmartBoard by Ismenio Sousa
 * SmartBoard from Le Fou numérique by Patrick Buchmann (French)
 * Tasc SmartBoard from Schachcomputer.info Wiki (German)

=References=

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