Chapter 24: The Third Chess Player

Mrs. Farquhar had been designing a third chess player when she died. Crane found this out from a letter Van Cleef brought to London — correspondence between Emmeline and Van Cleef from the last six months of her life, which Van Cleef had not previously shared because it was personal and he had wanted to be certain of Crane's character before giving it to him. The third chess player was different from the first two in conception. Not a record-keeping device or a message transmission mechanism. A teaching device. Her correspondence described it in the precise way she described everything: an automaton designed to play chess at multiple levels of skill, adjusting its play to challenge the specific weaknesses of its opponent without overwhelming them. Not to beat its opponent — to lose in the specific way that would teach its opponent what they needed to learn. 'An automaton that helps you learn by letting you win,' Crane said. 'By letting you win in the specific way that shows you your errors,' Van Cleef said. 'Very different. The first approach is patronizing. The second is instructional.' He looked at the letter. 'She was building it for the Society's education program — she wanted young people to have access to chess analysis at the level usually reserved for paid tutors. The mechanism would have been affordable to produce in quantity.' 'Did she leave schematics?' 'In the workshop. I found them when I completed the second chess player.' He looked at Crane. 'I am going to build the third one. I wanted you to know what it was for.' Crane held the letter for a moment. 'Build it,' he said. 'Let me know when it's done.'