How A Robot Scammed The World For 100 Years

[@XxZarionxX]

Crazy that they used to put humans into the bottoms of machines to cheat against top players then, and now they put machines into the bottoms of humans instead.

[@damienmcgrory9462]

Why is this not the top comment? 😂😂

[@paleposter]

bro...

[@davidrobins1021]

🤣🤣

[@stimpy1278]

Nah seriously how is this not the top comment?

[@albertcastillo9956]

Let's make it top comment

[@digiscream]

Fun fact: when Edgar Allen Poe wrote about the Turk, he stated that a chess-playing automaton must always win. Dude was about 200 years ahead of his time, but he was right in the end.

[@Disfuguredbatman]

That's crazy

[@QuantumHistorian]

​@@Disfuguredbatman Is it? Chess is a deterministic game. An automaton is a deterministic decision-making machine. It follows straight away that a sufficiently good automaton must therefore always win. In fact this reasoning, like Poe's is not only straight forward but also wrong, because chess played perfectly is a draw, not a win for either party (according to current understanding of chess anyway).

[@JooJingleTHISISLEGIT]

@@QuantumHistorian the reasoning is only wrong if you are pitting a perfect automaton against a perfect automaton. human strength has shown itself to be limited far before perfect play. if the reasoning is "a perfect automaton playing against a human will always win", it's not provably true; but it is likely. (edit: that's not to say a single game couldn't be drawn instead of lost for the human, but a sufficiently large series of games played will always result in no losses for the automaton and also at least one win)

[@gaopinghu7332]

​@@QuantumHistorianchess played perfectly is unknown. Only because chess engines always draw eachother it doesn't mean that they'll draw eachother forever.

[@anass8525]

@@QuantumHistorian well, with everything we know now it is straight forward. But don't forget this is 200 years ago. A lot of things that are straight forward right now were definetly not straight forward back then.

[@AlexDings]

1:34 Napoleon was ahead of his time, foreseeing the way our overlord ChatGPT would reinvent the game of chess

[@Kqder]

Underrated

[@the1ofus]

You stole my comment dang it

[@PueSaness]

Also clever because even though he wasn't a good chess player, playing illegal moves is testing how much the automaton "knows" and what it can do. Trying to play illegal moves was probably the most canny play shown, because it's the closest someone comes to testing whether the Turk is actually an automaton rather than simply trying to beat it. After all, even if you beat the Turk, as Cochrane did, that only proves you played better than the Turk in that game, not that the Turk is fraudulent.

[@blantant]

Ai is as disappointing then as it is now. Nothing new

[@davidmendez1836]

No AI will ever top the beautiful games we get to enjoy in GTE

[@neevee_gd]

yea lol

[@themelonoffee3369]

Especially the ones that make it to how to lose at chess

[@tiletapper4ever]

​@@themelonoffee3369 reaching gte is like NM, becoming the best of gte is IM and taking place in how to lose playlist is GM.

[@Will_Cello]

What is gte

[@neevee_gd]

@@Will_Cello guess the elo a serie that is what the name says

[@stopmakingeyesatme1290]

Here's a funny coincidence: John Cochrane, the guy who keeps pushing his pawns in an ultra-classical way, actually unintentionally foreshadowed the whole hypermodern thing. He lived in India and played a bunch of games with Indian players who didn't necessarily believe in occupying the centre with pawns. His games with a guy named Moheschunder Bannerjee are some of the first recorded games that feature hypermodern play, including the first ever recorded Grunfeld Defense (obviously long before it was called that).

[@leonidtimofeev1178]

Well, that's why 1. d4 Nf6 systems are called *Indian* Defense Also, very first recorded Caro-Cann was also played in one of Cochrane's indian games.

[@sapiensoutpost]

Fun fact: the opening 1. e4 e5 2. Qf3 is called the Napoleon Attack.

[@derkommissar4986]

Now we can see why 😅

[@KetamineUser69]

Let me guess: if u defend, it's the fall on Waterloo?

[@jefflittle8913]

Best met with the Russian defense.

[@KetamineUser69]

@@jefflittle8913 wait I thought it's either Russian game or petrovs defense

[@ugandaknuckles5570]

​@@KetamineUser69yeah

[@captainredbeard3682]

Fun fact: Because of this "robot", in the German language the expression "something is turked (getürkt)" still exists today for something that is faked.

[@muctebanesiri]

Interesting

[@Valxx23]

Are you sure its just because of that?

[@258thHiGuy]

Germans will really go “get turkt bro”

[@R2debo_]

levy is slowly on his transformation into a chess newsletter rather than a chess player.

[@Dark-do8my]

😂😂

[@story_funn]

Here Before This Blows Up

[@Tanqr2.0.]

@@story_funnbruh

[@m-a-s-e-y]

Here before this gets ramous

[@sokotroko5488]

Here before the pin of shame

[@schizoidforjesus]

"fake human" >looks inside >real human

[@srinidhikabra5317]

I love how Levy just casually roasts Napolean lmao

[@pappaflammyboi5799]

Well, technically, the Turk wasn't cheating... it was just lying about the wizard behind the "curtain."

[@DM_Curtis]

Yes, it's not like the man in the box had an even smaller chess computer with him...

[@llamaelitista]

That's what i was thinking, he even corrected real cheating like Napoleon's one lol

[@DjVortex-w]

The first actual "chess computer" was a purely mechanical device that had a board with just a KR vs K setup, where the mechanism would move the king and the rook to always checkmate the other king. It always made the same mechanical moves in each possible position, but technically speaking it was the kind of first ever genuine "chess computer", even if a completely mechanical one. Of course it took the advent of actual electronic computers before an actual chess computer using all pieces was possible.

[@niklasschrimpf8236]

Fun fact: in german exists the word "getürkt" to describe things that should be fair (like a dice) but actually are disadvantageous towards you (like a dice with a tendency for one side). It is believed the word originates from the turk, but also other theories exist.

[@Jemchwastaken]

Yeah lol and if you pronounce it in english it sounds like "get turked"

[@Musement1hz9oj]

DougDoug predicted the future of Gotham videos by having an entire video where Napoleon Bonaparte could cheat

[@swagmanjay.]

was looking for this comment aha

[@RogerLackman]

Yes! Lol

[@_Sporkz_]

1800s: Checking the "AI's Box" for a human 2020s: Checking the Human prison pocket for an AI

[@MistaOppritunity]

What confuses me is that the bot was damned near undefeated against people who were presumably good players. You would think that a regular old guy just playing chess would lose occasionally, no matter how strong they are. It's not like Paul Morphy was in the box... I think.

[@blacktigershearthstoneadve6905]

Paul Morphy is almost 100 years miss, he was a teen when The Turk was destroyed. The best player of that time was François-André Philidor and he actually played against The Turk in Paris and won. But people who operated it still all were well known top-tier players. Authors of early chess books, innovators, chess tutors and such. Among the best of its time.

[@MistaOppritunity]

@@blacktigershearthstoneadve6905 ok well I double think that Paul Morphy wasn't in the box now.

[@nobody7817]

I think that people were a bit curious about trying to figure out the mechanics of the device, prove it was fraud, or whatever, and they were off of their game just from the start.

[@blacktigershearthstoneadve6905]

@@nobody7817 It certainly was a factor too. But as I said both The Turk owners were very serious about this unbeatable AI narrative and only approached best of the best with this business proposition.

[@striker8961]

I think the situation probably unsettled players and got them off their game.

[@CucuChessNerd]

It has been scientifically proven that Levy is also an AI.

[@BadWithie]

True

[@muffntheB]

abrasive + immature ?

[@alem358]

an ai coded to simp magnus

[@joe_myc]

@@alem358 lmao his tone on magnus is so casual while magnus might never heard of him

[@dunmeroverlord]

​@@joe_mycmagnus knows who he is

[@Kamamura2]

Levy's initial struggle with poetry: "There is a fork, but it doesn't quite work."

[@ellispiper6313]

These histrocial chess videos are some of my favorite of the whole channel. Would love a series of interesting/intense/funny chess matches or incidents

[@TSpoon823]

"This is the dumbest AI I've ever seen in my life." And Martin took the personally.

[@notyourdad]

Imagine being so good at chess you pretend to be a computer.

[@bobbynygaardchrisitansen6874]

Magnus and Hikaru is two of the few that could do it today. In 1809 I guess even a 1500 could pretend to be a computer.

[@b1gturtle]

The funniest part is a century later the son of the owner confessed that the Turk was just a chess master hidden in a box.

[@Lucas-DX]

Bro

[@KhorneBrzrkr]

A century later? A century after what? How would his son still be alive a century after... just about anything having to do with that machine?

[@rusty9060]

@@KhorneBrzrkr it changed owners throughout those years, so the son who confessed was indeed the son of the last owner

[@oilflanker]

2:25 holy shit thats why its called the Napoleon attack.

[@gilolaes4725]

Levy knew *exactly* what he was doing by finding a game with an AI and Napoleon Bonaparte. Well played. EDIT: THIS NAPOLEON CHEATED TOO?!?!?

[@PueSaness]

Tbh it makes sense to cheat if you think about how it was supposedly an automaton. By trying to play illegal moves, you're testing how much the automaton "knows" and what it can do. Napoleon wasn't a good chess player, but trying to play illegal moves was probably the best play of any of the players shown in the video in the grand scheme of things, because it's the closest anybody in the video comes to testing whether the Turk is actually an automaton rather than simply trying to beat it.

[@fckoln-tr3rr]

To be fair, this game never happened. Its a legend.

[@mikmik2ification]

Hey Levy so glad to see these chess history videos again! They're my favorite videos of yours to rewatch, and I look forward to more.

[@fabiosantucci6628]

I really like this kind of historical video, maybe you could do it for the world champs of the past or even guys like: Philodor, Andersenn, Steiniz, Lasker... It would be very entertaining I think

[@Gearhead966]

I think what’s also amazing is that whoever was inside that machine was on the level of the best Chess Players of that era. And had a consistent win streak. Who the heck was that guy playing those games?

[@coryfice1881]

It would of been multiple people of equal skill.

[@DanielRogers]

Stockfish evaluations are just Magnus watching all of our games simultaneously and providing the odds.

[@Gothem_Sub]

Even Napoleon can’t escape Levy’s critique

[@chessguy047]

plot twist: every AI is actually a human in a box

[@rickardedman8836]

Yeah, but who's sitting in the stockfish box trolling everyone?

[@sixproleague6307]

@@rickardedman8836Magnus, obviously 😅

[@chessguy047]

@@rickardedman8836 Magnus Carlsen

[@doomslayerclout]

​@@sixproleague6307before magnus, it was Bobby Fischer

[@lukew6725]

Plot twist: Every human is actually an AI in a box.

[@biharek7595]

Props to Napoleon for playing the Napoleon attack opening

[@Nollosss]

i'm french and i like the way levy pronounces french words, he puts way more effort than most english speakers and it is often a very accurate pronunciation

[@Blopi_bloop]

Ptdr oui

[@iitstudy-e3b]

damn i really thought that was a baguette on that dogs head after reading im french

[@QuantumHistorian]

Just the mechanical systems that enabled the human to control the turk such that it could move pieces is already very impressive for 1770!

[@preciousplayz9582]

Now I see why Qf3 is called Napolean Attack.....

[@annayosh]

In those days one cheated in chess by claiming it was a machine playing when it is actually a human. Nowadays one cheats in chess by claiming it is a human playing when it is actually a machine.

[@prod.lvciien9700]

The secret of the Mechanical Turk was kept for over 50 years the machine was an elaborate illusion, and contained an ingeniously hidden compartment that housed a human operator. This hidden chess master could observe the position on the chessboard above, and manipulate the movements of the Turk.

[@jacobnunya808]

I was thinking there was no way the robot was actually playing

[@rand504]

Whoa spoilers I haven’t finished the video yet 😢

[@fresshwater]

thats what he said in the video

[@asuri8751]

usually people watch then comment xD@@rand504

[@jenm1]

Is this comment ai generated?

[@ElitheSnowFox]

Todays stare was kind of scared perhaps this is a lore mention that Gotham is still kidnapped? This is very interesting 10/10

[@YourAverageAmerican345]

Hi

[@story_funn]

Here Before This Blows Up

[@mooik1_88]

he is posing in an exact replica of his apartment

[@vanancio]

Very intriguing, the ARG gets more vast with every upload.

[@m-a-s-e-y]

Here before this gets ramous

[@soldierboi946]

Fun fact: First ever created machine was a robot to assist in ablution made by Cezeri which is kind of a Turk (his story is complicated) he made that machine look like a human (which I think that is a robot instead of a machine) in 1206 but historians don’t think its a robot because its not working with electricity but literally water.

[@D0BR0VECE]

Non electrical robots are called automatons. The Turk is one of the most famous examples.

[@ahmed.abdelaleem]

ironically, creating objects in the shape of a living creature is haram in islam, thats why drawing and carving is mostly forbidden(unless u draw ir carve a non living thing like a head) which is absolute bs

[@soldierboi946]

@@ahmed.abdelaleem Well you can search about Cezeri my friend. Also you should learn more about islam. Carving and drawing are not forbidden if you aren’t gonna pray them.

[@pomonoli]

@@ahmed.abdelaleem What about pictures?

[@TONAL03]

Fun fact: The word robot was not existed at that time. It was first used to denote a fictional humanoid in 1920 by Czech painter and writer Josef Čapek.

[@electriclegend6390]

It's quite funny to see napoleon try the scholar's mate. Here in Egypt the scholar's mate is known among locals as the napoleon. What a coincidence actually

[@ahmed.abdelaleem]

first thing i thought about lol

[@larry1816]

That's uh...that's not a coincidence. But I get you.

[@kevinkaram6527]

fun fact: Napoleon Bonaparte is the one who literally CREATED scholars mate in chess, in arabic his name is the name of that strategy named "Napoleon's chess plan" in literal translation!!!

[@disco.newton]

This 4-move checkmate was originally named and described in a 1656 text by Francis Beale titled The Royall Game of Chesse-Play

[@kristofbaumann8180]

Fun fact: Wolfgang von Kempelen was actually born in historical Hungary and was thus Hungarian, and we know him as Kempelen Farkas (the Hungarian equivalent of his name) and we have a school named after him, he has a well known name here. He also was the inventor of several other machines, I recommend reading his wikipedia article, he was a cool guy!

[@A7B_YT]

I am technically better than Napoleon when playing chess.

[@PPanos1968]

In 4:36 the best move is actually not Qg5 but Nf3+. If white takes the night then there is a mate in 2 with the Queen.

[@kestrelynn]

After watching dougdoug seeing a game napolean actually played and HE ACTUALLY TRIED TO CHEAT is crazy

[@minimumeffort133]

after successfully recreating almost if not all blunders from gotham's GTE in my own games I've decided imma save up and buy this man's course because my IQ is lowering with every game atm.

[@Spiros-e4z]

Napoleon when lost from the turk: "Theres nothing we can do".

[@firerook]

John Cochrane was a strong player of his time, he's credited for the Cochrane defense in the engame Rook vs Rook +bishop

[@nathanieldellapenta8200]

Back then, they accused engines of using humans. Today, we accuse humans of using engines. We are not the same

[@ttysm729]

Imagine future chess players (hundreds of years in the future) saying “back then they didn’t really know how to play chess back then”

[@shaansingh85]

Imagine people insulting magnus and stock fish in 2223

[@dominiklehmann7227]

To be fair, the guy did more with his life than build this chess contraption :) "Kempelen also created a manually operated speaking machine.[4] An early version (possibly an original) can still be seen in the Musical Instruments section of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In 1789, he published a book containing his nearly twenty years of speech research, Mechanismus Der Menschlichen Sprache Nebst Beschreibung Seiner Sprechenden Maschine.[5] He constructed steam-engines, waterpumps, a pontoon bridge in Pressburg (1770), patented a steam turbine for mills (1788/89) and a typewriter for Mozart's friend a blind Viennese pianist Maria Theresia von Paradis (1779), and built a theatre house in Buda (inaugurated 25 October 1790) (now Budapest) and the famous fountains at Schönbrunn in Vienna (1780). He was also a talented artist and etcher, wrote poems and epigrams, and composed a singspiel, Andromeda and Perseus, performed in Vienna." (Wikipedia) So he's quite similar to you Levy 😅mainly known for your entertaining chess content but also a talented singer and music producer. 😂 We're excited to find out what you'll add next to your legacy. 😉

[@connor7272]

13:50 “This is the dumbest AI I’ve ever seen in my life…” Martin: 😢

[@Jack-hv3uj]

I suppose why they loved pushing their pawns Into the centre so much in the 1600 / 1700s is because chess represented a battlefield on a board, and the pawns were like foot soldiers on the front lines? So like in a real army (of the day) these will be at the forefront of a battle, it sort of resembles battles formations of strategies games I played based in the 1700s Edit: and so maybe it seemed logical to pre-computer analytic type thinking culture that if these structures work so effectively on the battlefield, then so too they must on the chess board,

[@SebShirley]

btw the opening that napoleon bonaparte played is called "the napoleon attack" i wonder why...

[@jmarkellos]

We've considered certain devices vibrating inside of various orifices to relay moves to players, but maybe Hans Niemann just has a stronger chess player up his butt.

[@Sou1lessFTP]

A big hand of applause for our new history teacher

[@wizuwizu]

Thank you Levy for the red circle in your thumbnail! I really had a difficult finding the AI in it as I was too distracted by your beautiful eyes.

[@ad61video]

It would be nice to do items from time to time about Grandmasters of the past and how they played. From Morphy to Capablanca.

[@renerasikh9245]

now I know why napoleon was a bit more burtal against the ottomans

[@BerkoEdits]

But Ottomans were first to defeat him during his egypt conquest

[@DinosauriVesnice]

and the museum sacrificed: the tuuuuurk

[@Leonard0-da-Vinci]

As a man from 1800 I can confirm tuck was a hit

[@dynad00d15]

I knew that story.. very fascinating! BTW, Levy, your french is getting better! Your latest trip to paris seemed to pay off! Le Café de la Régence, not easy at all! :D

[@usibistro]

Fun fact: Napoleon's second move is called the Napoleon attack

[@danieljohnson1951]

Read a novel centered around the Turk ages ago. Never knew how much of it was accurate.

[@tallguyvm]

Only og's remember the time Levy said he will make a video about the mechanical turk on the Gotham Games Channel

[@notyourdad]

Yes because that channel is really OG.

[@sandipanchanda5288]

As an AI language model, i can confirm that ur activities will be successfully monitored by us in the future

[@JonDoe-oy8bt]

Ironic how he cheated by pretending to be a robot using a grandmaster now people cheat pretending to be grandmaster using a robot.

[@kayabban9146]

Why don't they match the turk against stockfish

[@user-ho1bz3ge3g]

Those eyes are looking straight at your blunders.

[@اصيلوتد]

OMG, when I learned chess as a 7 year old the teacher taught us scholar's mate and told us that the name of this mate is Napoleon' plan! The years went and I learned that it is actually called scholar's mate and thaught that the teacher just made the name up. Thank you Gotham for this video❤

[@ChristianHegele]

The Turk would also do a blind knight's tour from a random starting square, which is pretty cool.

[@bobbynygaardchrisitansen6874]

It is impressive that the secret was kept 80 years. Even David Copperfield tricks was revealed by someone who couldn't keep a secret. After that he revealed it himself.

[@maxbailey9164]

Lmao Ben Franklin hiding his loss is so on brand

[@MatthewJoshuaAlvarez-hp2ct]

the first opening quite literally called the Napoleon attack

[@JCVSTLE]

Highly likely Benjamin Franklin threw out that score sheet lmao

[@lombre9149]

"In the 1700s chess ai was a thing of the future but there was one player so good he could be considered ai clean sweep on every opponent and his name was matt turk"

[@minhoquocbao6800]

Old chess player really like to be aggressive even when they are being attacked

[@RandomPenguinz0]

Now it’s turned into a actual chess bot

[@yannilux]

I wonder which player is inside Stockfish

[@osimqn]

We beating stockfish with this one 🔥🔥🔥🔥🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🥶🥶🥶

[@Alcy_One]

Fun fact, there's a reconstruction of the turk in the computer museum HNF in Paderborn, Germany where they hold a yearly international chess tournament in its honor called The Chess Turk Cup

[@gyokeres31]

Exactly!

[@xantiom]

The crazy thing is that for 80 years the guy never coughed or had an accidental sneezing lol

[@PMA65537]

Faraday's electromagnetic induction was from 1831 (generators and motors both depend on this). Static electricity and batteries existed before this but had not a lot of uses.

[@Motivation81576]

The death stares at the beginning of Gotham's videos always send shivers down my spine.

[@thecringekid5744]

The Fact that Napoleon is the greatest general to have ever lived doesn't seem to phase Levy

[@MileMinecrafter]

I like how Napoleon played the Napoleon's atack

[@namishsharma-bj8ge]

11:42 "sounds silician lol"

[@alexcao7502]

Napoleon was bad at chess but he was actually one of the strongest checker players at the time

[@pradyun8674]

Gotham, you should add this to the Chess History Playlist

[@rorschach001]

there's a manga with this exact plot but the mc is transported into the 18th century & helps wolfgang to play against people as the turk.

[@Kullahan]

the turk was actually hiding a person like a master in the contraption

[@ThomasDong-zy4gw]

2:10 So that's why it's called Napoleon attack.

[@BobChess]

That guy in the turk is actually play better than GMs on that time.

[@ad61video]

An American spent $120,000 building his own version of Kempelen's machine over a five-year period from 1984. He used the original board which had survived and replaced the person inside by an actual chess computer.

[@soccpuppet4638]

Gotham talking about how electricity was invented in 1830s Thunderstorms before 1830s:

[@youtubecommentsguy9805]

Thats how chatgpt works nowadays. An elf sitting in a box

[@schizoframia4874]

My favorite videos of Gotham are the historical ones

[@trevor6358]

Napoleon attempting a scholarsmate is way too telling

[@andrew_owens7680]

At that point John Cochrane stood up and exclaimed: "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit!" Nobody know what he was talking about and play continued.

[@dogacakar1412]

Sending a "Turk" to Vienna for impressing an Habsburg Monarch. Appearently history was not his strong suit.