10 Interesting Stories From The World Of Chess

Long before the advent of super-computers or neural networks teaching themselves the game, there was what is believed to have been the first "automatic" chess machine. Named "The Turk", it toured widely from 1770 and beat most of the human opponents it encountered.

The Turk in question was a full-sized model of a man sat behind a board and prior to play, the machine owner would open panels and doors to demonstrate that there was nothing more sinister than complicated looking machinery underneath the board. The Turk moved his hand to make his moves, could perform rudimentary facial expressions and even declared "check" when appropriate.

Of course, given the time that this was occurring, all was not as it seemed. The Turk was controlled by a strong human chess player who was hidden within the machine and controlled the model's hand and moves. Most at the time seemed to be entirely convinced by the trick and The Turk even claimed some famous scalps such as when he beat Napoleon.

Sadly, the machine itself was lost to fire in 1854, before any definitive explanation of the elaborate hoax had been published or officially accepted.