The Mechanical Turk, Ajeeb, and Mephisto

 

The chess playing automatons. And hoaxes. Edgar Allan Poe was involved with exposing the Turk, the most famous. Mephisto did not have a human player inside, but was controlled remotely. Eventually a device was built which could actually play chess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/debunking-mechanical-turk-helped-set-edgar-allan-poe-path-mystery-writing-180964059/

https://www.history.com/news/how-a-phony-18th-century-chess-robot-fooled-the-world

Ajeeb the Wonderful - 1886.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajeeb

https://www.economist.com/1843/2016/03/23/robot-chess-with-the-victorians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_(automaton)

http://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2018/03/mephistogunsberg-cdv.html

Second link is auction price for image above. A listing of top chess-related auction prices. Ricky Jay had a bunch of that kind of thing in his collection, and I have his book of Jay's Journal of Anomalies, which has a chapter on the Turk.

The Lewis Chessmen

 

My love for you is like a rock, Berserker. 

My father is reading a book by Peter May and mentioned the Hebrides. Wiki on Hebrides led me to the chessmen. Some of them remind me of Nightmare Before Christmas characters. The rooks are berserkers and are biting their shields in a killing frenzy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_chessmen

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70597/12-berserk-facts-about-lewis-chessmen

https://www.history.com/news/the-enduring-mystery-of-the-lewis-chessmen

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-48494885

Fidelity Electronics Chess

 

1979.

https://www.chessprogramming.org/Fidelity_Electronics

https://thegoldenhornblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/chess-in-fiction-and-film.html