Amiibo and Skylanders detect the pieces with NFC. Wiring up the whole board/ terrain with NFC readers would probably be difficult, though.
The other classic approach has been a single camera under the table, but that conflicts with terrain use. mmWave radar is probably good enough for to localization at this point, and cheap, but distinguishing pieces is hard.
The other classic approach has been a single camera under the table, but that conflicts with terrain use. mmWave radar is probably good enough for to localization at this point, and cheap, but distinguishing pieces is hard.