The origins of Chess could probably be traced back to India. But it was the rest of the world that sought to perfect it. While the game is normally played between two living beings, it is a game where a machine could theoretically become the ‘perfect player’.
Today’s chess Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs can beat the world’s greatest players. But the quest to automate chess stretches back to the late eighteenth-century.
In 1809, Napoleon tried and failed to cheat at chess. You can’t blame the Emperor, however, as his curiosity had gotten the better of him. For his opponent was extraordinary for the time.
“The Mechanical Turk” was an automaton, created by the Hungarian engineer Wolfgang von Kempelen. It was a sight to behold; a masterfully crafted Turk (brown-skinned, mustachioed and wearing a Fez) perched before a box roughly four square feet in size, that served as his chess board. His right arm controlled the pieces over the board, and his left held a smoking pipe – elegantly poised as if the Turk couldn’t care less.
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