Items related to The Turk, Chess Automaton
Synopsis
With all-new research and facts unknown for two centuries, this is a richly detailed and comprehensive account of "The Turk," Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen's amazing but fraudulent Chess Automaton that held the world spellbound more than fifty years beginning in 1770. In actuality, the Turk was manipulated by a man housed in a hot box, working by candlelight-but the secret was kept for decades. Besides playing a good game of chess within an hour's time, the manipulator had to keep track of the moves, work the pantograph arm apparatus, nod the head, roll the eyes, cover up sneezes and coughs, and work the sound mechanism. This work contains a detailed discussion of the literature surrounding the Turk along with an analysis of its hidden operation. The complete collection of published games played by the Turk, many, again, unknown for 200 years, is also included.
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About the Author
Gerald M. Levitt has been playing postal and over-the-board chess for many years. He has authored numerous articles for Chess Life and Florida Chess, written a chess column, and made live radio appearances as a chess expert. A retired doctor of podiatric medicine, he lives in Naples, Florida.
Reviews
It was an impressive showpiece: a fierce-looking, turbaned puppet seated at a cabinet bearing a chessboard. Its successive owners from 1770 to 1854 would open the cabinet to display to an audience an array of gears and springs and then would invite a spectator to play a game of chess with the Turk, as the turbaned figure came to be known. The Turk usually won. Audiences and chess players were impressed. But it was a grand hoax. Jammed uncomfortably into the cabinet, kept from the audience's view by legerdemain, was a "director," a human chess player who observed by candlelight the moves made by the opponent and operated the pantograph that executed the Turk's responses.
EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
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Stock Image
THE TURK, CHESS AUTOMATON.
Published by
Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2000., 2000
ISBN 10: 0786407786
ISBN 13: 9780786407781
Used
Hardcover
Seller: David Hallinan, Bookseller, Columbus, MS, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Ex-public library copy. x, 258 pages. Hardcover: H 28.5cm x L 22cm. No dust jacket (likely as issued). Boards rubbed with no exterior library markings; spine heel chipped and scuffed; slight bumping and wear at board corners. Front free endpaper removed (first leaf present is front fly). Library ink stamp and pencil shelf notations on title page; no other library markings readily apparent upon a quick perusal and interior pages remain quite clean. Binding is firm. ISBN 0786407786. Seller Inventory # PXZP-17093
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
The Turk, Chess Automaton
Published by
McFarland and Company, 2000
ISBN 10: 0786407786
ISBN 13: 9780786407781
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Bookworks, Chicago, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: No dust jacket as issued. 1st Edition. First Edition, 2000. Fine contents and binding. No DJ as issued. International shipping may require additional postage charges. Seller Inventory # 147623
Quantity: 1 available
Seller Image
The Turk, Chess Automaton
Seller: The Topsham Bookshop, EXETER, DEVON, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Near Fine. Glossy board cover, mild bumping damage on the corners and spine. Minimal staining on the edge of the free front edge-paper. All other pages clean and clear. Text contains several printed monochrome illustrations, photographs and diagrams. 286mm x 221mm. 258pp. Seller Inventory # 004029
Quantity: 1 available