the turk, also known as the mechanical turk or automaton chess player was a trick chess-playing machine. first put on show in 1770, the machine was in use until it was destroyed in a fire in 1854. it was later found to be a hoax. it was built in 1770 by wolfgang von kempelen to impress the empress maria theresa of austria. the machine could play chess against a human. it could also perform the knight's tour, a puzzle where a player moves a knight to every square of a chessboard exactly once.