"Maelzel's Chess Player" (1836) is an

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

exposing a fraudulent

automaton An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player called The Turk, which had become famous in

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and the

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and toured widely. The fake automaton was invented by Wolfgang von Kempelen in 1769 and was brought to the U.S. in 1825 by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel after von Kempelen's death.

Background

In his essay, Poe asserts that a mechanical chess player would play perfectly, but Maelzel's "machine" occasionally errs, and is therefore suspect. Although it is the most famous essay on the Turk, many of Poe's hypotheses were incorrect. He also may or may not have been aware of earlier articles written in the '' Baltimore Gazette'' where two youths were reported to have seen chess player William Schlumberger climbing out of the machine. He did, however, borrow heavily from

David Brewster Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...

's ''Letters on Natural Magic''. Other essays and articles had been written and published prior to Poe's in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

—cities in which Poe had lived or visited before writing his essay. Poe's essay was originally published in the April 1836 issue of the '' Southern Literary Messenger.'' Poe's essay asserts that Maelzel's troupe of automata had made at least one previous visit to

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, "some years ago", at which time they were exhibited "in the house now occupied by M. Bossieux as a dancing academy". Yet, very oddly, Poe gives no precise date or location for his own more recent encounter with Maelzel's Chess-Player, apart from stating that it was exhibited in Richmond "a few weeks ago". No known 19th- or 20th-century biography of Poe discloses when or where in Richmond he witnessed the performance of the Automaton Chess-Player.

Importance

The essay is important in that it predicts some general motifs of modern

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

. Poe also was beginning to create an analytic method that would eventually be used in his "tales of ratiocination", the earliest form of a detective story, " The Gold-Bug" and " The Murders in the Rue Morgue". This point is furthered in that Poe particularly emphasized that a ''mind'' was operating the machine. Response at the time of its publication was strong. It elicited responses from the ''Norfolk Herald'', ''Baltimore Gazette'', ''Baltimore Patriot'', ''United States Gazette'', ''Charleston Courier'', ''Winchester Virginian'', and ''New Yorker'' (the last of which suggested the article's only fault was its excessive length).Wimsatt, W.K. "Poe and the Chess Automaton" in ''On Poe: The Best of "American Literature"''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993: 78. Poe's "Maelzel's Chess Player" was the inspiration for the television short ''El jugador de ajedrez'' aka ''Le joueur d'échecs de Maelzel'' (1981), directed by Juan Luis Buñuel and shown as part of the Poe-series ''Histoires extraordinaires''. The essay is cited without name by

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

in the first of his "Theses on the Philosophy of History". The essay is referenced by Jean Cocteau in "Barbette" (1928).

References

External links

Timeline of publications
at th
Edgar Allan Poe Society online
* {{Edgar Allan Poe Essays by Edgar Allan Poe 1836 essays Works originally published in the Southern Literary Messenger Chess automatons 1836 in chess Essays about chess