Chess robot breaks finger of 7-year-old opponent

Team Udayavani, Jul 26, 2022, 10:20 AM IST

Credit: iStock Photo

During a chess match at the Moscow Open, a chess-playing robot perturbed by the quick responses of a seven-year-old chess player grabbed and broke his finger.

This unexpected turn of events was captured in a video published by the Baza Telegram channel on July 19. The video shows the boy’s finger being pinched by the robotic arm for several seconds before the people rushed in to free him from the robot, The TASS news agency reported.

The vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation told Baza that the child violated some safety rules while playing.

“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait,” Smagin said.

“This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall,” he said.

The president of the Moscow Chess Federation told the TASS News agency reacted to the incident and called the episode bad and said that the machine has played several games without upset.

Lazarev said that the child had “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”. Either way, he said, the robot’s suppliers were “going to have to think again”.

The boy named Christopher is one of the 30 best chess players in the Russian capital in the under nine category, BAZA reported.

Lazarev informed that Christopher was not affected by the attack as he played the very next day and finished his tournament with his finger in a plaster cast.

However, his parents have contacted the public prosecutor’s office.

According to a 2015 study, one person is killed by robots in the US alone. Robots used in medical surgery were also held responsible for the deaths of 144 people between 2008-2014.

DHNS