Category talk:Chess automatons

Robotic chess computers
''This was removed from the "Inspiration" section of The Turk, saved here for future reference in case a more appropriate article is found. --IanOsgood 17:23, 9 May 2007 (UTC)''

Chess automatons inspired several high-end robotic chess computers. Several museums had one-off exhibits which coupled an industrial robotic arm with a chess computer. In 1977, Chess 4.7 played a match with David Levy using a custom built robotic arm. The first robotic chess computer for sale to the public was the Novag Robot Adversary in 1981 which had a robotic arm. Later robotic chess computers would eschew an above-board armature which was expensive to produce and prone to mechanical failure for a cartesian coordinate robot which shifts magnets under the board to move magnetic pieces. Such models included Phantom Chess (1983, later sold by Fidelity in 1988 and Mephisto in 1990 ) and the Excalibur Mirage (1997). The market for high-end standalone chess computers has declined in recent years, so there are no robotic models currently available.