The Robot Chess Player Scam

Have you ever wondered how a mechanical chess-playing robot from the 1700s could defeat the best players of its time?

In this video, we uncover the fascinating story of the Turk, a legendary automaton that mesmerized audiences and confounded experts for almost 90 years. We'll delve into the intricate mechanisms and clever illusions that allowed the Turk to operate, revealing the truth behind its enigmatic moves and lifelike actions.

Join me as we model the Turk to demonstrate its workings and explore the legacy of one of history's greatest hoaxes. Be sure to stick around until the end of this video to learn more about our next giveaway.

Enter the giveaway at the link below:

Short on time? Feel free to skip ahead in this video using the chapter links below.

00:00 Introduction to the Turk
01:20 The Creation of the Turk
02:33 The Turk's European Tour
03:13 Johann Maelzel and the American Tour
05:08 The American Tour Continued
06:51 The Turk's Secrets Revealed

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3D Modeler: Orkun Zengin

Music used in this video:
Old Time Circus - Luella Gren
Last Snow - Hampus Naeselius
The Friendly Ghost - Arthur Benson
The Plan's Working - Cooper Cannell
Eternal Garden - Dan Henig
Für Elise - Traditional
Inspiring Cinematic Asia - Lexin Music
Melting Glass - Eden Avery
See You - Maxzwell

#MechanicalTurk #Chess #HistoricalHoaxes

[chess]

The Turk was a tease for the future, for when machine eventually would pass man.

[unvergebeneid]

Can we for a second admire the fact that the mechanism could grab a chess piece and place it accurately on the board, with very little force required? That's astonishing for the time!

[Chill-Ice]

But that means technically that chess master was in like the top 1% for chess. Crazy

[theodoreolson]

6:55 is the start of the explanation.
In my opinion, the really amazing part is how they recruited so many chess masters to play in the machine and how they managed to keep the secret for so long.

[TheAmazingCowpig]

I don't know what's more impressive, the actual mechanical operation of the whole thing, or the operators/chessmasters inside managing to do their part and never being discovered while also operating the thing correctly.

[shuban]

Despite the fact that it was obvious that it was not a real chess machine, the clever tricks to convince the audience that it was, was really the key to this amazing invention 👏

[GeekIWG]

Fun fact: When Amazon shut down their cashierless stores, it was revealed that it didn't solely run on AI, but heavily relied on outsourced labor, managed by another service which Amazon called "Mechanical Turk"

[boboboz]

im still convinced there's a man hiding inside the ATM machine at all times.

[zubair]

1700-1800s: We got the turk.

2000s: We got stockfish.

[mitchgrove]

As disappointed as I am to find that nobody hundreds of years ago worked out the clockwork to nearly guarantee a win in chess, with a humanoid robot involved, I sure am impressed at the tenacity of the robot's creator in finding so many well-practiced chess-matters to crawl in that box and operate it in such a complex manor!

[notoriousbigmoai]

It's still impressive that the hidden person managed to beat all the good chess players while sitting in a very cramped and stuffy position. This wouldn't be possible without a highly skilled and patient individual.

[adamb]

Imagine being one of those two kids who climbed on the roof, actually DID see someone climb out, you actually DID know how the trick worked...and until the end of your days nobody believes you.

[dmitrytimofeevsky]

Honestly, it is impressive how a chess master would be able to reliably win in such uncomfortable conditions.

[benhonda]

Dang...the board only showed the chess master when pieces had been moved, the chess master had to be able to track which pieces were moved...with only candle light in a cramped space.

[Tkonk]

I definitely would have thought it was controlled by a person but I never would have figured out how they were folded into it. Great visualizations as always.

[FallSkyX]

It's astonishing how none of the chess masters inside the Turk ever made a mistake while switching positions in such a confined space. Although it was evident that something was definitely up, I initially thought it might be remotely controlled by a chess master using some ingenious mechanism. However, upon realizing the Turk was from the 1700s and 1800s, and that the first instance of wireless communication wasn't until 1849, it made sense that wasn't the case. 💀

[cinnamonflavord]

Even though it's not a robot, it's still impressive for the person inside the box to still beat all of those famous people

[cccyanide]

As other commenters pointed out, it was kind of expected that the machine was human-operated. There simply was no way to store this amount of information on physical storage at the time.

[ASlickNamedPimpback]

3:02 why does old art depict kids as just mini adults 😭

[TheeRandomGuy]

My first instinct was a series of mirrors similar to the Peppers Ghost illusion hiding a person. Such a smart workaround with the candlelight through the machine maneuver