Echec! by Tim Major

Publisher – Salo Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £5.00 paperback

I’ll show the people a true spectacle.

For years, Schlumberger has operated the chess-playing automaton known as the Mechanical Turk… and it’s killing him. Tonight, trapped together in the backstage area of a Cuban theatre, it’s time for their final game.

As box-cutter-sharp as Ellison and as wickedly deadpan as Douglas Adams at his finest, Tim Major’s Echec! is a true science-fiction masterclass. - Chris Kelso, author of Voidheads

Tim Major’s bold tour de force reanimates Johann Nepomuk Mälzel’s Mechanical Turk for the AI age, with a lightness of touch that we’ve come to expect from the grand master. Checkmate! - Dan Coxon, editor of Writing the Uncanny

Chess has a certain mystique in our world. Its an ancient game; it has a reputation for replicating power and warriors and weirdly also a challenge for technology. When Grand Master plays AI its big news to show can humanity be beaten by the machine. But that is not entirely a recent development. In Tim Major’s fascinating chapbook Echec! We get a short two hander focused on the mysterious Mechanical Turk the first such device rumoured to match the human mind.

In Cuna’s Havana the Mechanical Turk of legend – a highly regarded automaton known for its ability to play chess against humans tours the world via many owners. But the automaton is not quite what it appears and needs an operator within it. Now a man named Schlumberger hides within the machine for each show. However, eventually enough is enough and he wants to rage against the machine, but the machine also has its thoughts on their relationship.

Chapbooks are a great little, short tale and this feels more like a very short play scene where we follow the man who is the genius chess player, but no one knows who he is. That frustration after twelve years boils over – particularly as Schlumberger’s health is poor. But Major then has the Turk here known as the Chess Player start to talk back. It’s an interesting dialogue about fame, invention, partnership and why is this game so highly valued. Are humans better than machines; is partnership the way or does one outweigh the other. What is more genius thought the programme or the programmer? In an age debating AI it is a reminder this debate (and some would say a con-game that too never ends). Major plays with visuals in stage notes and creates something evocative and thoughtful. A fascinating idea using one of the world’s most interesting historical devices.

Two mechanical arm diagrams