A game of chess took a violent turn at the Moscow Open when a chess-playing robot callously grabbed and broke a 7-year-old boy’s finger and fractured it during a match. Chess is known for being one of the games played with calm concentration, patience, and strategic thinking. However, things were not the same there.
About the incident
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According to several Russian media outlets, the artificial intelligence-powered robot was purportedly unsettled by the quick responses of its opponent.
According to the president of the Moscow Chess Federation, Sergey Lazarev, the robot has played several matches earlier without being perturbed. “The robot broke the child’s finger. This is of course bad,” said Sergey Lazarev.
A video of the incident shows how the robotic arm pinched the minor boy’s finger for several seconds. Thereafter, the public came rushing in for help. They freed the 7-year-old and ushered him away.
Calling it an “extremely rare” case, the vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, Sergey Smagin, said that this is one of the first cases that he can recall.
“The robot appeared to pounce after it took one of the boy’s pieces. Rather than waiting for the machine to complete its move, the boy opted for a quick riposte, Sergey Smagin said
The kid is among the 30 best chess players in Moscow in the under-nines category
Smagin added that the boy apparently violated some of the rules. “There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realize he first had to wait,” he stated.
According to a report, the 7-year-old boy is named Christopher. He is among the 30 best chess players in Moscow in the under-nines category.
Due to the incident, the boy’s finger got fractured. However, the child was unfazed by the incident and played a match the very next day of the incident,
“We will communicate, figure it out and try to help in any way we can. The incident was a coincidence and the robot was absolutely safe,” the vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation said.