Book Title:  The Chess Machine (fiction)

Author:  Robert Lohr; translated from the German by Anthea Bell

Publishing Company:  The Penguin Press

Year:  2007

# of Pages: 344

ISBN #:  978-1-59420-125-4

$31.00 Canada

$24.95 USA 

4 Stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

In 1770, Austrian-Hungarian Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen presented his invention, a chess-playing automaton known as “The Turk” in the court of Empress Maria Theresia in Vienna.  The Turk featured a life-sized man's head and torso, clothed in a caftan and turban.  Its left hand held a long, Turkish pipe.  Its right hand rested on a large cabinet, upon which lay a chessboard.  Kempelen began his demonstration by opening a series of doors in the front and back of the cabinet, displaying complicated-looking clockwork mechanisms.  Then, facing a challenger, the Turk uncannily played a game of chess, winning against nearly every opponent.  Kempelen toured Europe with his amazing automaton in an age where the lines between science and entertainment were indistinct.  The Turk continually awed its spectators, baffled scientists and frightened the religious who feared it was controlled by some evil spirit.   

But it was all a hoax.  Concealed within the cabinet, a human operated the Turk's movements.  A sliding seat allowed the operator to move back and forth within the cabinet as Kempelen opened the doors, always keeping the human hidden from view.  A series of magnets concealed beneath the chessboard allowed the human player to see the moves made by his opponent.  The human operator controlled the movement of the Turk's hand, allowing the machine to make its own chess moves. 

Historical accounts of the Turk have inspired Robert Lohr's first novel, The Chess Machine (originally published in Germany in 2005 as Der Schachautomat; published in the United Kingdom as The Secrets of the Chess Machine).  The story is largely of Lohr's imagination, resting within the framework of Kempelen's invention and his travels, a point clearly made in the Author's Notes.  Lohr also provides references for those readers whose curiosity about the real Turk requires further study. 

Accepting the distortions from history allows enjoyment of a fascinating tale.  Lohr has drawn his characters richly:  Baron von Kempelen, a bureaucrat hoping to win the favor of the Empress with his new automaton and launch a career of building more inventions; Jakob, Kempelen's Jewish assistant, a skilled cabinet maker and clockwork designer, equally skilled at keeping secrets; and Tibor, a marvelous chess-playing dwarf whose size allows a perfect fit within the concealed cabinet.  The viewpoints shift among the characters, though in an artful manner, allowing development of each. 

Lohr's story demonstrates the tangled web woven of deception when a charming countess (and Kempelen's former mistress) gets too close to the Turk.  Unable to resist her charms, the dwarf inside raises a hand to touch her, leading to an unfortunate accident and the death of the countess.  Kempelen, Tibor and Jakob become entwined in a snarl of guilt and intrigue, even more complicated by a beautiful spy, Elise, commissioned by another scientist to determine the secret of the automaton. 

For a first-time novelist, Lohr excels at characterization and description.  He tells his story vividly and creates such real characters it is a disappointment to read the author's notes and learn of the ones who are only from imagination.  The one shortcoming of the book is the insertion of historical information in segments that break up the story rather than weave into its flow.  Fortunately, there are not many of these instances, allowing the tale to proceed at top speed.  This is an exciting page-turner, a fine accomplishment in a first novel. 

Born in Berlin, Lohr worked as a journalist for several newspapers, then began writing for screen, television and theater.  He works part time as an actor, director and puppeteer.