Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, ‘El Ajedrecista’, died in prison in the United States on 31 May. The Colombian drug lord, a leader of the Cali cartel in the 1990s, acquired his splendid nickname, which translates as ‘the Chess Player’, on account of his ability to stay a step ahead of his rivals and pursuers.
Curiosity sent me hunting for more information, and in doing so I stumbled into an unexpected rabbit hole. For it turns out that ‘El Ajedrecista’ was also the name given to a primitive chess-playing automaton, designed by a Spanish engineer, Leonardo Torres y Quevedo, and unveiled at the University of Paris in 1914.
The ‘automaton’ label is closely associated with the ‘Mechanical Turk’, an attraction from the 1700s which appeared to play chess unaided, but actually contained a small but skilful human operator inside the large cabinet.
But ‘El Ajedrecista’ was the real deal, with electrical circuits and magnets and arms to move the pieces.
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