Most casual fans could spend their entire lives studying a library’s worth of chess theory, only to still be routinely humiliated by competitive players. If the mental strain that comes with learning chess isn’t enough, will some actual, physical pain do the trick? Building a functional, reliable, and less-than-lethal electrified chessboard proved surprisingly more complex than its creator anticipated. He even lost every game against the chess hustlers playing at the park near his home. That said, he did seem to make progress on at least one major component to an electrified chessboard.