In a panicked scene, a chess match between a child and a robot turned into a disaster, due to the robot’s “sudden” attack on the child gifted with the game of chess.
Russian media sources reported that a chess-playing robot grabbed and broke the finger of a 7-year-old boy during a match at the Moscow Open last week.
The robot broke the child’s finger, Sergey Lazarev, head of the Moscow Chess Federation, told TASS news agency after the accident, adding that the machine had played many previous chess matches without similar problems.
Jesus… A robot broke kid‘s finger at Chess Tournament in Moscow @elonmusk @MagnusCarlsen
There is no violence in chess, they said.
Come and play, they said. https://t.co/W7sgnxAFCi pic.twitter.com/OVBGCv2R9H
— Russian Market (@runews) July 21, 2022
A video clip of the accident, which occurred a few days ago, shows the boy’s finger pinching from the robotic arm for several seconds, before three men rush to free the boy from the grip of the machine.
Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, said the little boy “broke” the rules because he did not wait for the robot to finish moving in the game, which caused the machine to behave strangely.
Officials confirmed that the child, who is considered among the 30 best Russian chess players under 10 years old, returned to participate in the competition the next day.