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| Jan-06-09 | | ILikeFruits: hoo is...
d turk...
certainly...
is nawt...
mee... |
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| Jan-19-09 | | ILikeCheese: why eat...
d turkey...
when u ...
can eat...
cheese... |
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| Mar-21-09 | | Dredge Rivers: This guy plays like a robot!
Are you sure he wasn't Topalov? :) |
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| Apr-02-09 | | WhiteRook48: Automatons don't die! |
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| Apr-02-09 | | SBC: . I've written/transcribed a series of 26 long articles on Automatons, including 17 on the Turk alone, on my chess blog at chess.com - http://blog.chess.com/batgirl/chess... I don't know if you need to be a member to view them (I don't think you do, but if so , joining is simple and free.) . |
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| Apr-30-09 | | WhiteRook48: Edgar Allan Poe on <The Turk:>
"But if these machines were ingenious, what shall we think of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage?"
"The Turk plays with his left hand."
"The machine does not invariably win the game. Were it a pure machine, it would always win." |
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Aug-05-09
 | | GrahamClayton: German author Robert Lohr wrote a fiction novel in 2006 based on the Turk called "Secrets of the Chess Machine". Here are a couple of reviews: http://thebookmarque.blogspot.com/2... http://adairjones.wordpress.com/boo... I am halfway through the book, which has been an interesting read. |
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Apr-17-10
 | | BishopBerkeley: Well, I see that Amazon.com has their own internal homage to the Turk: "Amazon Mechanical Turk" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon...
=== begin quoted text ===
The Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is one of the suites of Amazon Web Services, a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables computer programmers (known as Requesters) who are located in America to co-ordinate the use of human intelligence to perform tasks which computers are unable to do. The Requesters are able to pose tasks known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), such as choosing the best among several photographs of a store-front, writing product descriptions, or identifying performers on music CDs. Workers (called Providers in Mechanical Turk's Terms of Service) can then browse among existing tasks and complete them for a monetary payment set by the Requester. To place HITs, the requesting programs use an open Application Programming Interface, or the more limited Mturk Requester site... ... The name Mechanical Turk comes from "The Turk," a chess-playing automaton of the 18th century, which was made by Wolfgang von Kempelen. It toured Europe beating the likes of Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. It was later revealed that this "machine" was not an automaton at all but was in fact a chess master hidden in a special compartment controlling its operations. Likewise, the Mechanical Turk web service allows humans to help the machines of today to perform tasks they aren't suited for.... === end quoted text ===
An apt name....
Wikipedia's main article on the Turk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk
(:  Bishop Berkeley :) |
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| Nov-25-10 | | TheTamale: I get it. The Turk is chosen as player of the day on Thanksgiving because anyone who loses to a machine feels like quite the jive turkey. |
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| Nov-25-10 | | rapidcitychess: THE TURK (AUTOMATON)
(born 1769, died 1854) Hungary
Any one wondered exactly how the Turk died? Here's how... Scene: Hungary, 1854. Thanksgiving day.
The guys next door wouldn't share. The master glanced at the Turk. He thought "I'm hungry, we're in Hungary, that things name is the Turk, and it's meat is something I'm thankful for...." The Turk: BZZT! NO!! PAWN IN FRONT OF THE KING GOES 4 SQUARES! BZZT! NOOOOOO!!! ............. |
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| Nov-25-10 | | rapidcitychess: The fire was actually what he used to cook it.
It's true! Maybe!
Never mind. |
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| Nov-25-10 | | goodevans: As a teenager I was for a while interested in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It was then that I first became familiar with The Turk: "But if these machines were ingenious, what shall we think of the calculating machine of Mr. Babbage? What shall we think of an engine of wood and metal which can not only compute astronomical and navigation tables to any given extent, but render the exactitude of its operations mathematically certain through its power of correcting its possible errors? What shall we think of a machine which can not only accomplish all this, but actually print off its elaborate results, when obtained, without the slightest intervention of the intellect of man? It will, perhaps, be said, in reply, that a machine such as we have described is altogether above comparison with <the Chess-Player of Maelzel>. By no means — it is altogether beneath it ..." from Edgar Allan Poe, "Maelzel's Chess-Player", Southern Literary Messenger, April 1836 Like other examples of his non-fictional essays (e.g. Eureka) this one is a mixture of stunning insight and flawed logic. All quite interesting nevertheless. |
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Nov-25-10
 | | David2009: The Turk (Automaton) has been a true inspiration to me. <TheTamale:> So for one day only <CG> becomes a turkey? |
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| Nov-25-10 | | Xeroxx: Are the exact date of the birth and death of for the turk unknown!? |
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| Nov-25-10 | | SU1989: The biography suggests that the Turk was in America at some point. Is this true? |
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| Dec-28-10 | | SBC: The Turk was indeed in the United States - for about 12 years. It premiered on April 13, 1826 at the National Hotel, 112 Broadway, NY. with a french woman director (as the hidden operator was called) playing endgames only. William Schlumberger, who had contracted to be the director hadn't yet arrived. After Schlumber took over, the Turk played in various place in America over the years. In November of 1837, Maelzel took his act to Cuba. April of the next year Schlumberger contracted yellow fever and died. Maelzel, returning to the United States, caught the same disease and and died off the coast of Charleston on July 21, 1838.
Eventually, a group of people tried to restore and preserve the Turk, but it was destroyed in a fire on July 5, 1854 at the Chinese Museum in Philadelphia where it was warehoused. |
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| Jan-13-11 | | Penguincw: I wonder if The Turk's play is more positional or tactical. |
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| May-10-11 | | SBC: . Directors of the Turk - 1769-1854
France and Germany:
Johann Allgaier
Aaron Alexandre
Boncourt
Weyle
England:
Jacques-François Mouret
Peter Unger Williams
William Lewis
W. J. Hunneman
United States:
William Schlumberger
Lloyd Smith |
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May-18-12
 | | whiteshark: Der Gerät |
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Jun-14-12
 | | Phony Benoni: I've just submitted another "game" by the Turk, though it seems a tad fishy to me. The game appears in the <New York Spectator> for January 30, 1827, reprinted from the Philadelphia Gazette. [Event "Exhibition"]
[Site "Philadelphia, Penn."]
[Date "1827.01.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round ""]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Mrs. F"]
[Black "Turk (Automaton)"]
[ECO ""]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
<1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Qf3> Poor Winawer. He played this move in Winawer vs Von Popiel, 1896, and probably felt he had found an innovation. <3...Nf6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Bd6 6.exd5 exd5 7.Nxd5 Nxd5 8.Qxd5 0-0 9.Bb2 Nc6 10.a3 Be6 11.Qe4 g6 12.0-0-0 Qd7 13.h3 Bf5 14.Qf3 Bxd3 15.Qxd3 Rae8 16.Nf3 a6 17.g4 b5 18.c4 bxc4 19.Qxc4 Rb8 20.Kb1 Qb7 21.Qc3 Nd4 22.Nxd4 Be5 23.Qxc5 Bxd4 24.Qxd4 f6 25.Qc4+ Kg7 26.Ka2 Rfc8 27.Qa4 Rc2 28.b4 Qd5+ 29.Qb3> "The hour having passed by Mr. Maelzel politely requested the Lady to continue the game on the following day." (Probably thinking more of Schlumberger's (the operator) endurance than hers.) <29...Qe4 30.Rhe1 Qc6 31.Rc1 Rxc1 32.Rxc1 Qd6 33.Rd1 a5 34.b5 a4 35.Qxa4 Qd5+ 36.Qb3 Qc5 37.d4 Qg5 38.a4 Qf4 39.Qg3 Qe4 40.Qxb8 Qd5+ 41.Ka1> 1-0 "Mr. Maelzel, at this stage of the game, considering it lost, politely thanked Mrs. F. and observed, that he was fairly beaten.... Mr. Maelzel remarked, that the Automaton had been conquered but three times, once in Paris; once in Boston, and by Mrs. F. of Philadelphia." A little showmanship there.
Now, "Mrs. F." played a reasonable game without gross blunders, and showed a strong knowledge of how to threaten checkmate. But I think there's little doubt that the Turk threw the game, partially for the sake of gallantry, but more likely to entice more people into trying their luck. Just look at the first twenty moves or so; the Turk loses a pawn, but demonstrates a better knowledge of how to develop his game. By the time of <21...Nd4?> and <22...Be5??>, he had probably equalized despite being a pawn down. |
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Jun-14-12
| | Phony Benoni: By the way, the newspaper account contained some errors in the score. Within a few days, a reader sent in a correction slip. |
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| Jun-30-12 | | SBC: 10 games by the Turk:
http://blog.chess.com/view/turkish-... |
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| Jul-12-12 | | DanielBryant: Does anybody know how The Turk indicated resignation when "it" lost? |
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Jul-12-12
 | | Shams: <DanielBryant> History records that the Turk, faced with a lost position, would first attempt the old "earthquake" ruse of upsetting the board and pieces in a manner meant to look accidental. |
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| Mar-24-13 | | IndigoViolet: Thinking about the Turk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-... |
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