The Turk
publication date: Saturday, July 28, 2007 (part of Round XXX)
category: Hoaxes
clue: In the goo game, it's easy to tell that a human being has beaten you, but in other games two centuries ago, it wasn't so easy.
explanation: The Turk was a famous chess-playing machine in use from 1770 to 1854 that was later revealed to be a hoax; a human operator sat inside. more…
solved by: Russ Wilhelm, Steve West, Denise Sawicki, Matthew Preston, Joanna Woods, Mike Rothstein, Steve Dunn, Amy Austin, David Mitzman, Elliot Farney, Tony Peters, and Scott Horowitz
trivia: This is the second entirely-mechanical celebrity in the goo game, and ironically follows Deep Blue, another chess-playing machine.