Mephisto was the name given to a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

-playing "pseudo-automaton" built in 1876. Unlike The Turk

The Turk

The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player , was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was exposed in the early 1820s as an...

 and Ajeeb

Ajeeb

Ajeeb was a chess-playing "automaton", created by Charles Hooper , first presented at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in 1868...

 it had no hidden operator, instead being remotely controlled by electromechanical means.

Constructed by Charles Godfrey Gumpel (c.1835 - 1921), an Alsatian

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 manufacturer of artificial limbs, it took some 6 or 7 years to build and was first shown in 1878 at Gumpel's home in Leicester Square

Leicester Square

Leicester Square is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. The Square lies within an area bound by Lisle Street, to the north; Charing Cross Road, to the east; Orange Street, to the south; and Whitcomb Street, to the west...

, London. Mephisto was mainly operated by chess master Isidor Gunsberg

Isidor Gunsberg

Isidor Arthur Gunsberg began his career as the player operating the remote-controlled chess automaton Mephisto, but later became a chess professional....

.

Description

Mephisto consisted of a life-size figure of an elegant devil, dressed in red velvet and seated in an armchair in front of an ordinary table, where the chessboard was sited. The chessboard had indentations on each square to hold the bases of the chessmen to prevent them from moving. The figure was bolted to the table to enable its arm to reach across the board.

History

It was the first automaton to win a Chess tournament when it was entered in the Counties Chess Association in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1878 and at one time had its own chess club. In 1879 Mephisto, with Gunsberg, went on tour, defeating every male player. When playing ladies, however, Mephisto would first obtain a winning position before losing the game then courteously offer to shake their hand afterwards.

When Mephisto was shown at the Paris Exposition of 1889

Exposition Universelle (1889)

The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a World's Fair held in Paris, France from 6 May to 31 October 1889.It was held during the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event traditionally considered as the symbol for the beginning of the French Revolution...

 it was operated by Jean Taubenhaus

Jean Taubenhaus

Jean Taubenhaus was a Polish–born French chess master.-Biography:Taubenhaus was a foremost Warsaw chess player in late 70s of 19th century. In 1880, he settled in Paris. In the 4th international Congress of the German Chess Association at Hamburg in July 1885, he took 14th place...

. After 1889 it was dismantled and its subsequent whereabouts are unknown.

Mephisto

Mephisto (chess computer)

Mephisto was a line of chess computers sold by Hegener & Glaser '. In addition to integrated travel and sensory computers, they also sold a line of modular electronic autosensory boards which could accept different program, processor, and display modules.Its strongest software was written by...

was later used as the name of a top-line dedicated chess computer which won the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in the years 1985-1990. The name is now used by the consumer electronics company Saitek

Saitek

Saitek is a designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics founded in 1979 by Swiss technologist Eric Winkler. They are best known for their PC gaming controllers, mice, keyboards especially the Eclipse series of back-lit keyboards, and their Flight Yoke System.- History :Saitek was founded in...

 on its line of standalone chess computers.

See also

• The Turk
  The Turk
  The Turk, also known as the Mechanical Turk or Automaton Chess Player , was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was exposed in the early 1820s as an...
  
   hoax of 1769 to 1854, destroyed in fire
• Ajeeb
  Ajeeb
  Ajeeb was a chess-playing "automaton", created by Charles Hooper , first presented at the Royal Polytechnical Institute in 1868...
  
   hoax of 1868 to 1929, destroyed in fire
• El Ajedrecista
  El Ajedrecista
  El Ajedrecista was an automaton built in 1912 by Leonardo Torres y Quevedo. El Ajedrecista made a public debut during the Paris World Fair of 1914, creating great excitement at the time. It was first widely mentioned in Scientific American as "Torres and His Remarkable Automatic Devices" on...
  
  actual electromechanical machine of 1912 that is extant