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It had to be a trick, didn't it? Surely no one could build a mechanical man capable not only of playing chess, but of winning the majority of games it played, regardless of the strength of the competition. It had to be a trick --- especially since it debuted in 1770.
Tom Standage presents the remarkable story --- both fact and fiction --- of the chess-playing marvel in THE TURK. Tracing the history of the invention of Wolfgang von Kempelen from its first performance to its destruction in a fire 85 years later, Standage's book tells a fascinating story in an engaging style.
In the course of "the Turk's" career, it was challenged by a host of famous figures to a game of chess --- figures running the gamut from Benjamin Franklin to Napoleon Bonaparte --- and was reputed, in a number of apocryphal tales, to have engaged quite a few more. Even without these latter tales, the Turk's real-life adventures were remarkable and influenced a variety of innovations, ranging from the mechanical to the literary.
Indeed, the stories of the Turk's influence on the likes of Charles Babbage, a key figure in the history of the computer, and Edgar Allen Poe, "inventor" of the detective novel, are the highlights of the book. Surprising though this may be given the mysterious nature of the Turk itself, it is the Turk's effect on the lives of others, rather than the mystery, which mesmerizes the reader. In fact, the chapter in which the Turk's secrets are revealed is perhaps the dullest in the book, and certainly the most disappointing in that once the secret is finally told, the thrilling mystery dissipates.
This, of course, is hardly Standage's fault, but he nevertheless seeks a remedy for the problem with a wonderful final chapter entitled "The Turk Versus Deep Blue" in which he considers the closest thing to a modern version of the Turk --- the first computer to beat the world chess champion. Unlike the Turk, Deep Blue was unarguably a computer, but as Standage shows, that didn't end the debate or the controversy surrounding chess-playing machines, a controversy hardly lessened by the fact that Deep Blue's designers accepted rematches until the computer won --- and then refused to play again once victory had been achieved.
A compelling look at history as distilled through a single curiosity, THE TURK is a fascinating study of the mechanical wonders --- both genuine and faux --- made possible by human ingenuity.
--- Reviewed by Rob Cline (RJBCline@aol.com)
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