Chess Robot Breaks Child’s Finger

A chess-playing robot broke a boy’s finger during a match in Russia last week, the president of the Moscow Chess Federation has confirmed to media.

“The robot broke the child’s finger,” Sergey Lazarev told Tass news agency. “This is of course bad.”

“The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places by specialists for a long time. Apparently, the operators overlooked some flaws. The child made a move, and after that it is necessary to give time for the robot to respond, but the boy hurried, the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot.”

The incident took place at the Moscow Chess Open, held in the Russian capital from July 13th to 21st.

Video footage shared to social media shows the robot taking one of the boy’s pieces. When the boy goes to make his own move, the robot grabs his finger.

Four adults rush to boy’s aid, who quickly free his finger from the robot’s grip.

Lazarev confirmed that the boy was able to continue in the competition after receiving medical treatment, and promised a thorough enquiry into what went wrong.

“We will coordinate to understand what happened and try to help in any way we can. And the robot’s operators, apparently, will have to think about strengthening protection so that such a situation does not happen again.”