Chess Robot Breaks Finger Of Child Opponent During Match

A chess robot broke the finger of a child opponent during a match at the Moscow Open last week.

According to Russian media outlets, the chess-playing android was apparently unsettled by the fast moves of a seven-year-old boy during the game on 19 July and ended up grabbing and breaking his finger.

The president of the Moscow Chess Federation, Sergey Lazarev, told the TASS news agency of the incident: “The robot broke the child’s finger. This is of course bad.”

A video of the incident, originally published by the Baza Telegram channel and making the rounds on social media, showed the child’s finger being grabbed by the robot arm for a few seconds before a woman and three men step in and free him from the grasp.

The vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation told the outlet that the robot seemed to make the damaging move after it snatched one of the boy’s pieces.

Sergey Smagin believed the child did not follow ‘certain safety rules’ in waiting for the robot to complete its turn before making his next move.

“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them,” Smagin stated.

“When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait. This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall,” he said.

“It has performed at many opens. Apparently, children need to be warned. It happens,” he added.

Smagin also told RIA Novosti that the incident was ‘a coincidence’ and the robot is ‘absolutely safe’.

Elsewhere, Lazarev had an alternative point of view, explaining how the boy ‘made a move, and after that, we need to give time for the robot to answer’.

“But the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him,” he explained, believing that the robot’s creators ‘are going to have to think again’.

The child has been named as one of the 30 best chess players in the Russian capital in the under-nine age group.

“People rushed to help and pulled out the finger of the young player, but the fracture could not be avoided,” the Baza report said.

Lazarev also told TASS that the boy, whose finger was placed in a plaster cast, did not seem turned away from the game, however.

He said: “The child played the very next day, finished the tournament, and volunteers helped to record the moves.”

His parents have also been said to contact the public prosecutor’s office.

The robot, which can play multiple matches at any one time, had reportedly already played three games on the day it injured the child.

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