2012/13 Season Matches

The Turk

'The Turk', was a chess-playing machine built by the Hungarian Wolfgang von Kempelen and unveiled in 1770 at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna to impress Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria. From the late 18th century it was exhibited around Eurpoe and the Americas as an automaton until it was exposed as a fraud in the 1820's. The machine actually owed its chess playing prowess to the human player hidden inside the cabinet.Although the original machine was destroyed by a fire in Philadelphia 1854 its fame inspired a number a number of similar devices, notably 'The Egyptian' that was presented to US President Grover Cleveland in 1885. The Turk has also featured in the Arts notably in the essay 'Maelzel's Chess Player' by Edgar Allen Poe.