About The Mechanical Turk: Chess Bot
Hello everyone : ) this is JJMarner again back for another blog post about yet another chess bot
(I only have motivation for this after listening to many songs like sing for the moment and Bad Habit and Numb)
As last blog post about mittens I will talk all about the chess bot and a few other things, as this was a real chess bot from 1770-1854 (kind of as new ones were made past 1854) I will also show you how to beat it as sadly last time my strat I used to get 2-3 stars on it in 2 seconds has been patched (funny that I found a chess.com glitch and no one really knows about it) I also will give my ideas of its rating and its secret occupant
First thing is what is the "Turk" On both chess.com and in real life
"The Mechanical Turk, also known as the Automaton Chess Player or simply The Turk, was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in 1770, which appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. For 84 years, it was exhibited on tours by various owners as an automaton. The machine survived and continued giving occasional exhibitions until 1854, when a fire swept through the museum where it was kept, destroying the machine. Afterwards, articles were published by a son of the machine's owner revealing its secrets to the public: that it was an elaborate hoax, suspected by some, but never proven in public while it still existed." - Wikipedia
The entire contraption was a scam made by Wolfgang Von Kempelen (1734-1804) The basic workings of it was explained as a robot which at the time no one really knew what it was so alot of people belived it actually was a robot working by its self and in some way they were right. The robot did work in a sort of robot form as it moved with out having someone hold it and move it, inside the box there were levers and so forth that moved it, as explained below
"The interior also contained a pegboard chess board connected to a pantograph-style series of levers that controlled the model's left arm. The metal pointer on the pantograph moved over the interior chessboard, and would simultaneously move the arm of the Turk over the chessboard on the cabinet. The range of motion allowed the operator to move the Turk's arm up and down, and turning the lever would open and close the Turk's hand, allowing it to grasp the pieces on the board. All of this was made visible to the operator by using a simple candle, which had a ventilation system through the model. Other parts of the machinery allowed for a clockwork-type sound to be played when the Turk made a move, further adding to the machinery illusion, and for the Turk to make various facial expressions. A voice box was added following the Turk's acquisition by Mälzel, allowing the machine to say "Échec!" (French for "check") during matches." - Wikipedia
The inner workings of the Turk were for a while not known until it was said that there was a chess master inside that would control it as said above. The chess player that was hidden inside would move around on a slideable seat so no one would see them and there were doors that would open in certain orders to show certain parts in diffrent ways so it all looked like gears, grease, things no one one new and empty space. The chess player would see the players moves by either looking at the upside down of the chess board that had magnets that moved to show the other players moves or looking through a concealed opening in the Turks body.
And now the people that the Turk played are as follows:
Famous people from then like Napolean Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Others like Sir Robert Murray Keith a Scotish Noble and others, Then it lost its first match to Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne and then lost a second time to Francois-Andre Danican Philidor (sorry for having no accents of the name as I could not get them on my keyboard) AT the time of the Turk playing in Versailles it lost against a few lower class chess players like a Lawyer named Mr. Benard and also someone named Verdoni. There are also countless other players that it lost to that arent named or unknown.
Of the opperators that the Turk had are Johann Allgaier, Boncourt, Aaron Alexandre, William Lewis, Jacques Mouret, and William Schlumberger, but the operators within the mechanism during Kempelen's original tour remain unknown. - Wikipedia
For its secret rating and its player here are my guesses
Rating Guesses With Explanations
All Turk chess player Birth and Death dates:
1763-1823
1765-1840
1768-1850
1787-1870
1780-1837
1799-1838
Turk Creators:
1734-1801
1772-1838
Years it was sold:
1804
1838
When it was made:
1770
With all this info any of the dates could be a good guess but I will take every date and figure out the mean number of it and also find the mean of each set of numbers and the mean of the two different rows in the first set of numbers.
Mean of all numbers:
1763+1823+1765+1840+1768+1850+1787+1870+1780+1837+1799+1838+1734+1801+1772+1838+1804+1838+1770/19 = 1804.05263158 or rounded to 1804
Mean of each set of numbers:
First set: 1763+1823+1765+1840+1768+1850+1787+1870+1780+1837+1799+1838/12 = 1810
Second set: 1734+1801+1772+1838/4 = 1786.25 or rounded to 1786
Third set: 1804+1838/2 = 1812
Fourth set: 1770 (there is no mean as there is only one number)
Mean of each row downwards in the first set
Row 1: 1763+1765+1768+1787+1780+1799/6 = 1777
Row 2: 1823+1840+1850+1870+1837+1838/6 = 1843
Now for last guess I will take each mean number I found and find the mean of every single one
Mean of all means: 1804+1810+1786+1812+1770+1777+1843/7 = 1800.28571429 or 1800
Here are all of my mean guesses in order:
1804
1810
1786
1812
1770
1777
1843
1800
The last number 1800 is my best guess that or 1770 as for the first number chess.com's bots have numbers like that that have perfect 100 numbers like 1000 or 100 or 1100 so that and 1770 as that was the year it came out to the public so thats a good guess and I have seen other people on chess.com with 1770 as there guess.
For its chess player my only guesses are the people I listed above as its chess players and one last guess . . . Mittens, from what I remember of playing against mittens they had same playing style, making weird moves like not taking a peice but moving next to it in some modes, Plus other things that show that are that both were monthly bots and the only 2 that I know of that did not show its elo (if I am wrong about that please tell me below)
Two last things about the rating are, When I looked at my previous blog post about Mittens I looked at the rating which is 3500 and realized this chess bot can play like mittens while I do want to say that I think its rating could also be 2500 as thats 1000 under Mittens, As of dedication to this and I have nothing else to do as I cant play fortnite right now I played 10 games against The Turk 5 of which will be in challange mode and 5 in Custom using the settings all off but having Hints and Bot Chat on so I will have 2 stars (that is the best way to get 2 stars on it with the least cheating as assisted mode lets you use more cheats) And I will count of the ten games which one I win and count how many moves each match was.
Here are the results:
1: Lost 20 moves
2: Lost 5 moves (I sold so hard I forgot to open space for my king)
3: Lost 24 moves (I saw a certian pattern with the bots moves)
4: Lost 14 moves (another pattern of moves found)
5: Lost 30 moves (pattern checked and I think I found something)
6: Won 29 moves (strange win statment for the bot)
7: Win 67 moves
8: Win 35 moves
9: Win 57 oves
10: Win 26 moves
From those games I discovered that I am very bad at chess lol. But I also discovered that when playing on any mode that is 1 or 2 stars the bot moves really close to the peice but does not capture it while on 3 stars it does. It also moves its knight around alot which could be a hint to someting the actual bot could do called the knights tour which is just moving your knight to every square on the chess board once.
For now thats all, thanks for reading have a great day : ) - JJMarner
