<h1 class="story-header"></h1> <div class="caption full-width"> <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66561000/jpg/_66561240_turk624rexfeatures.jpg" alt="The Turk, engraving from 1789" height="481" width="624"> </div> <div class="embedded-hyper"> <a class="hidden" href="#story_continues_1">Continue reading the main story</a> <div class="drop-down"> <!-- Non specific version --> <ul> <li> <a class="story" rel="published-1363367756399" href="/news/magazine-21802843">Crowd-sourcing comets (LJ)</a> </li> <li> <a class="story" rel="published-1362765379720" href="/news/magazine-21713163">Mary queen of maths (Lisa Jardine)</a> </li> <li> <a class="story" rel="published-1362159166850" href="/news/magazine-21602042">The art of collecting (LJ)</a> </li> <li> <a class="story" rel="published-1361671983753" href="/news/magazine-21532311">The winter queen (LJ)</a> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1">An 18th Century automaton that could beat human chess opponents seemingly marked the arrival of artificial intelligence. But what turned out to be an elaborate hoax had its own sense of genius, says Adam Gopnik.</p>