Who actually is the Mechanical Turk?

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Mittens, Summer Martin and...The Mechanical Turk? These are some of the chess bots in chess.com. And what really stood out to me was The Mechanical Turk. Who is he? Continue reading to unravel this mystery...

Also known as the Automaton Chess Player, the Mechanical Turk debuted as the first ever chess engine(aka a chess robot) but...it was FAKE?

How it came to be

In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen wanted to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria by making a machine capable of playing chess against human opponents. In her court, it defeated everyone who played against it. (She was impressed all right)

Going on tour

The machine was brought on tours around the world to be exhibited. It was able to defeat chess masters like Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.

Theories

Many had suspected that the Turk was a fraud, including Edgar Allan Poe. However, no one was able to debunk its mystery.

Some of the theories:

-a chess master wriggled into the Turk's dummy to play

-a child or adult tiny enough was hiding inside

-the machine was controlled by magnetism

Owners And Appearance

It had many owners throughout its good old days but its appearance remained the same: the interior filled with gears, cranks and levels, the outerior showcasing a dummy wearing a turban with a pipe in one hand covered in colourful clothes, giving it the name the; Turk.

Its owners were:

-Wolfgang von Kempelen, the creator

-Johann Maelzel, German inventor and showman (he made the automaton say "Check" by instilling a mechanical voice box)

Its End

Of course, everything has an end. After Maelzel's death, the Turk was sold to enthusiasts willing to uncover the truth. They exhibited the automaton after finally donating to a Chinese Museum. On 5 July 1854, the museum caught fire and the Turk met its end. Thank goodness there was no inside the 'automaton'...Silas Mitchell, the son of one of the enthusiasts, proceeded to write an article about the mechanics of the Turk, thus ending its legacy.

Thanks for reading my blog! If you are interested, chess.com has a bot of the...bot, named the Mechanical Turk. Can you beat it? Let me know in the comments .

Brr..The Naerie Out! 🥶

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