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The Turkish chess player

Torres Quevedo Museum

Torres Quevedo Museum
Madrid, Spain

The Turkish was an structure that played chess. It is thought it was an automaton but eventually it was discovered that was not like that. It was built by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1769. It was a wood cubicle with a dummy dressed with tunic and turban sitting over it. This wood box had two doors that could be opened for showing the audience a clockwork mechanism. The Turkish played a chess round against a human player at high level and carried out the knight problem. However, it was a trickery, since a small professional chess player was hidden inside, operating the dummy. This was possible since the eyes of the dummy sent the positions of the pieces to the chess player through some mirrors.

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  • Title: The Turkish chess player
  • Type: Picture
Torres Quevedo Museum

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