A chess robot grabs and breaks the finger of a seven-year-old opponent
A chess-playing robot broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent during a match at a tournament in Russia.
The boy was facing off against the robot when it mistakenly grabbed and broke the child’s finger at the Moscow Open last week, according to local Russian outlets.
“The robot broke the child’s finger — this, of course, is bad,” president of the Moscow Chess Federation Sergey Lazarev told TASS Thursday.
The child reportedly made his next move on the chess board before the robot — a large, automated arm powered by artificial intelligence — had time to recalculate and mistook the boy’s finger for a chess piece, according to Lazarev.
“The child made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried, the robot grabbed him,” he told the outlet in Russian.
Footage of the incident published by the Baza Telegram channel shows the mechanical arm latch onto the boy’s finger for several seconds before adults intervene and are able to pry it off his hand.
The young chess player, whose name is Christopher, according to Baza, returned to the tournament the next day and finished his matches with a cast around his finger, Lazarev said.
Christopher is one of the 30 best chess players under 9 years old in Moscow, Baza reported.
The robot — which Lazarev said has been used in many chess tournaments — was rented by the organization for the Moscow Chess Open and has the ability to play multiple matches simultaneously.
“We have nothing to do with the robot,” Lazarev said. “The robot operators, apparently, will have to think about strengthening protection so that this situation does not happen again.”
Sergey Smagin, vice president of the Russian Chess Federation, told Baza that the robot’s misfire is unprecedented, to his knowledge.
“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realize he first had to wait,” Smagin said. “This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall.”
The child’s parents have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor’s office, according to TASS.
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