One well-known automaton is The Turk. What is the first one and when was it constructed, including fake ones? [1]:
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1Just to be clear: for the purpose of your question, do you count The Turk as a "chess-playing automaton," or do you discount it since it was really a person doing the playing?– ETDAug 29 '12 at 17:02
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3I remember reading that computers were able to win K + R vs K endings as early as 1920s. I tried to google for verification of that, but I couldn't find anything.– AkavallAug 29 '12 at 17:12
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The first chess machine:
"In 1769 the Hungarian engineer Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen built a chess playing machine for the amusement of the Austrian Queen Maria Theresia. It was a purely mechanical device, shaped like a Turk. Naturally its outstanding playing strength was supplied by a chess master cleverly hidden inside the device. The machine was a fake."!
From: A short history of computer chess, by Frederic Friedel
So "the Turk" that you mentioned was the first one.
In 1910 Leonardo Torres developed a machine he called "El Ajedrecista". It was capable of automatically playing K+R vs K endgames without human intervention. It was publicly demonstrated for the first time in 1914.
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Thanks for the answer. I was a little unclear earlier. I'm looking for even fake automatons. But this answer is still useful. +1 Aug 30 '12 at 0:20