The section was designed so that if the back doors of the cabinet were open at the same time one could see through the machine. When opened on the left, the front doors of the cabinet exposed a number of gears and cogs similar to clockwork. The interior of the machine was very complicated and designed to mislead those who observed it. This is a distorted measurement based on Racknitz's calculations, showing an impossible design in relation to the actual dimensions of the machine. The various parts were directed by a human via interior levers and machinery. The chess masters who secretly operated it included Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators within the mechanism during Kempelen's original tour remain a mystery.Īn illustration of the workings of the model. The device was later purchased in 1804 and exhibited by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine.

Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard exactly once. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854 it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax. 'chess Turk' Hungarian: A Török), was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player ( German: Schachtürke, lit. Racknitz was wrong both about the position of the operator and the dimensions of the automaton. A cross-section of the Turk from Racknitz, showing how he thought the operator sat inside as he played his opponent.

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