July 25, 2022
According to Russian news agencies, a robot broke the finger of a seven-year-old boy during a chess match in Moscow last week.
Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, confirmed the incident to the Tass news agency. Lazarov explained that the incident happened at the Moscow Chess Open after the boy rushed the robot.
“The robot broke the child’s finger. 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,” Lazarev said.
Lazarev confirmed that the boy was able to continue the competition after his finger was placed in a cast.
“We will coordinate to understand what happened and try to help [the family] 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,” Lazarev said.
A video posted on social media shows the robot taking one of the boy’s pieces. The boy then makes his own move, and the robot grabs his finger. After a brief struggle, several bystanders were able to free the child’s hand and take him away from the table.
The sources for this piece include an article in BBC.
