This Lynxmotion robotic arm plays chess in our world, not in some sort of digital universe of its own. An unknown chess enthusiast programmed the arm in Python to play chess. Watch the video.
(Robotic arm programmed for chess)
SF fans may recall the automaton chessplayer described in Ambrose Bierce's 1910 short story Moxon's Master:
The play was rapid. Moxon hardly glanced at the board before making his moves, and to my unskilled eye seemed to move the piece most convenient to his hand, his motions in doing so being quick, nervous and lacking in precision. The response of his antagonist, while equally prompt in the inception, was made with a slow, uniform, mechanical and, I thought, somewhat theatrical movement of the arm, that was a sore trial to my patience. There was something unearthly about it all, and I caught myself shuddering...
Two or three times after moving a piece the stranger slightly inclined his head, and each time I observed that Moxon shifted his king. All at once the thought came to me that the man was dumb. And then that he was a machine—an automaton chessplayer!
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