By Ethan Tait
The Automaton Chess Player
Vienna, 1770.
At the court of Maria Theresa of Austria in the Schönbrunn palace, François Pelletier was demonstrating an illusion with magnets. A middle aged Wolfgang von Kempelen was observing the illusion. After an exchange with Pelletier, Kempelen declared that he will present an invention that will top Pelletier’s illusion. 6 months later, keeping true to his word, Kempelen unveiled The Turk, the automaton chess player. There was ecstasy floating among the audience. A few people tried to beat it, but alas, failed. News spread around about how the robot was able to beat every willing player. Suddenly, Europe had even heard about the automaton. After a few more exhibitions, it made its way all the way to the Americas.
But would you believe if me if I told you that it was all a hoax? In order to understand how it was done, we first need to look at the Turk, which is in fact not automated.
The Hoax Explained
Inside of the machine, there are a multitude of different compartments. Specifically, one drawer reveals a red and white ivory chess set. The other doors reveal the machinery behind it as well as a section where there is a seat with different levers and mechanisms.
In a nutshell, a person goes inside of the table and sits in the seat where there are a variety of levers and mechanisms that can be controlled. The levers control the automaton to perform different commands. The people who operated The Turk are chess masters including Boncourt, Aaron Alexander, and William Lewis. However, it is unknown who operated The Turk on its first tour. Apart from beating people in chess, The Turk can also solve the Knight’s Tour, a chess puzzle that requires you to find a way for your knight to move across every single square in any chess board only once.
On a standard 8×8 chess board, there are several solutions:
The Fate of The Turk
Unfortunately, it got destroyed in a fire in 1854 in the Peale Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was meant to go on a tour in Cuba, but William Schlumberger, the operator of it at the time, died of yellow fever. Dejected, Kempelen left Cuba and died on sea, leaving the machine with the captain of the ship. But, in 1984, a replica was unveiled with the original chess set, which was stored in a separate place at the time of the fire, and able to be preserved. But this time around, The Turk was run by a computer program.
So, how famous did it get? Well, it has been the inspiration for several books and movies. As well as various successors like the Ajeeb. Furthermore, many distinguished figures have lost to the machine, including Napoleon the first, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick the great, François-André Philidor, and more who played against it. Edgar Allan Poe even wrote an essay on it.