Ajeeb says, "Checkmate, bitch!"

As hoaxes go, Ajeeb, an “automaton” expert at checkers and chess, was a ridiculously simple scam. Ajeeb was one of several alleged machines–the Turk and Mephisto were a couple of others–during the late 1800s and early 1900s that were supposedly capable of defeating humans at board games.

Ajeeb, created in 1868 by cabinetmaker Charles Hooper, was not actually a machine at all. The elaborate-looking 10-foot-tall contraption attired in Turkish clothes hid inside of it a rotating collection of some of the best chess players in the world. Thousands came to see Ajeeb match moves with disbelieving opponents (including Houdini, Teddy Roosevelt and Sarah Berhnardt) on both sides of the Atlantic.

There is intrigue surrounding Ajeeb that supposedly involved theft and murder and more. Eventually technology caught up to imagination and today computers need no help to defeat us.