Chess-playing automaton amazes the court in Vienna

VIENNA, 1770 - A machine that can play chess, and quite well at that, has been presented at the imperial court in Vienna. The Hungarian court councillor and engineer Wolfgang von Kempelen built the machine to entertain Empress Maria Theresa. According to those present, it is one of the most remarkable inventions of this century.

A Turk behind a wooden cabinet

The automaton consists of a life-size figure in Turkish dress, with a turban and a long pipe. The figure sits behind a wooden cabinet with a chessboard on top. Before the game begins, Von Kempelen opens the little doors of the cabinet one by one. Visitors see a jumble of gears, cylinders and levers. He then closes the doors, winds up the mechanism, and the Turk begins to move pieces with his left arm.

According to eyewitnesses, the machine plays strongly. The Turk nods when he gives check and shakes his head when an opponent makes an illegal move. Members of the court who took on the Turk lost most of their games.

Ingenuity or deception?

Von Kempelen does not say how the automaton works. That feeds the suspicion that there is more behind it than clockwork. Sceptics point out that the inventor stays near the cabinet during a game and now and then seems to look into a small box. Others think magnets are involved.

Von Kempelen himself is modest about his invention. He calls it a toy and says he is more interested in more useful machines.

Looking back from 2026

The chess automaton was a deception: a strong chess player was hidden inside the cabinet. Using a clever system of sliding panels, he stayed out of sight when the doors were opened. The Turk toured Europe and America for decades and played, among others, against Napoleon. In 1854 it was lost in a fire in Philadelphia. It is no coincidence that Amazon's service in which people do small jobs behind the scenes for 'smart' systems is called Mechanical Turk.