
Adam Gopnik: The Joy of Getting Good at Something Hard
Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda
The Turk and the Mystery of Performance
The Turk was a robotic figure of a Turk dressed in Ottoman clothes, who sat above a chessboard. It seemed to be mechanically playing chess like a chess computer. People were confused, fascinated. Now the answer is it was just a magician's illusion. There was a chess player inside the beneath the chessboard who was cleverly concealed.
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