The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton

[Tord Romstad]

Hi all,

Here's a brief and semi-off-topic greeting from a semi-retired (for the moment, at least) chess programmer.

Today, I received Storeys from the Old Hotel, a short story collection by Gene Wolfe, my favorite living author. I was surprised and delighted to discover that the collection contained a story named The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton, the first computer chess related piece of fiction I have ever seen. Without spoiling anything, the story is set some time in the future, after our current technological civilization has collapsed, and computers are a thing of the past, with a single possible exception: One person claims to have a working, dedicated chess computer.

Great stuff, and highly recommended to all lovers of good literature and computer chess. It isn't Wolfe's best, but even second-rate Wolfe is better than virtually anything else you can find.


Tord

[sje]

I remember that story, I think it appeared in an anthology a few decades ago.

I am reminded of a rather perceptive comment on chess automatons by the late GM Edward Lasker. Back in the late 1950s he was reviewing the then new Bernstein/IBM chess program and said that perhaps it wasn't that much different from the 19th century hoax machines. Lasker wrote that a hoax like the Turk hid a human player behind wooden panels in the same way that a computer hid its programmer behind flashing lights and noisy tape reels.

[Rolf]

Is there any chance to buy the little text online as ebook or such? Or as a copy from the author who's still living?

In amazon I found a nice anthology about chess with all kind of such story's.

Thanks for the mention.

[Tord Romstad]

I remember that story, I think it appeared in an anthology a few decades ago.

According to the information in my book, it was first published in "Universe 7" (sounds like some kind of science fiction anthology) in 1977. Apparently it was not very well received: In the preface to Storeys from the Old Hotel Wolfe writes that the book consists of "stories that I feel are good, but that have received little or no praise". This means that the book probably isn't the best place to start for new Wolfe readers (I would recommend The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories for short story aficionados, Latro of the Mist for those who are interested in ancient history, the classical world and Greek mythology, the Solar Cycle (The Book of the New Sun, The Book of the Long Sun and The Book of the Short Sun) for lovers of science fiction and fantasy, and Peace for those who prefer something a little closer to mainstream fiction), which makes Rolf's question a relevant one:

Is there any chance to buy the little text online as ebook or such? Or as a copy from the author who's still living?

Unfortunately, I have no idea if or where you can find the story or the whole book in digital form. Contacting the author may be difficult: Gene Wolfe does not have a website or a strong presence on the Internet, and is probably not easy to reach.

Tord

[Rolf]

Here is what I could find:

Wolfe, Gene (1977): The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton, in: T.Carr (ed.): Universe 7, Doubleday (dt.: Der wunderbare messingne Schachautomat, in: W. Jeschke (Hrsg.): Science Fiction Story Reader 11, Heyne 06/3627, München 1979).
Zelazny, Roger (1981): Unicorn Variation, in: Isaac Asimov´s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1981 (dt.: Die Einhorn-Variante, in: F. Wahren (Hrsg.): Isaac Asimov´s Science Fiction Magazin - 15.F., Heyne 06/3913, München 1982).

Saberhagen, Fred & Joan (Hrsg.) (1982): Pawn of Infinity, Ace, New York. [enthält: Anderson, Berman, Bierce, Contoski, Gilbert, Leiber, Martin, Russ, Saberhagen, Wolfe, Zelazny)