The Turk, Chess Automation

Booknews

Presenting new facts turned up by recent research, chess expert Gerald M. Levitt offers an account of "The Turk," Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen's amazing but fraudulent Chess Automaton that astounded the world for 85 years beginning in 1770. In three parts, he sets out the complete history of the amazing Chess Automaton, uncovers the mystery of the illusion and the theories advanced to explain it, and offers a collection of original material written about the Turk, including a sizable collection of games played by individuals who served as the Turk's hidden manipulators. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

From The Critics

From 1770 to 1855, the European chess communities were held spellbound with Baron Wolfgang von Kemplene's amazing automaton popularly known as "The Turk". It was ostensibly an automatic chess playing machine, but was in reality one of the most successful hoaxes perpetrated on the public. The Turk was manipulated by a man housed in a hot box (working by candlelight). In addition to playing a good game of chess within an hour's time, the hidden director had to keep track of the position, move the pieces with the pantograph arm apparatus, nod the head, roll the eyes, cover up sneezes and coughs, and work the mechanism that spoke the word "Echeck!". Gerald Levitt's superbly researched, written, and presented history of this amazing hoax includes an extensive analysis of how it operated, a collection of published games played by the Turk (several unknown for 200 years), and numerous other games known to have been played by the Turk's hidden directors. The Turk, Chess Automaton is "must" reading for all chess history enthusiasts and students of 18th century hoaxes and popular culture.