Chess robot breaks seven-year-old opponent’s finger after malfunction

Russian TV channel Baza reported that the seven-year-old’s name is Christopher and that he’s among the 30 strongest chess players in Moscow aged up to nine years old.

Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation said the boy is doing fine and even completed the tournament the next day. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Technology and artificial intelligence, in general, has their own perks but there are instances when a clash between man and machine, leads to unfavourable circumstances. This is exactly what happened in Moscow when a chess-playing robot grabbed and broke a seven-year-old boy’s finger during a match at the Moscow Open last week.

Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation said, “The robot broke the child’s finger,” to the  TASS news agency after the incident. Vice president of the Chess Federation of Russia, Sergey Smagin later confirmed to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti that the boy’s fingers have been fractured but he is doing fine.

“The boy is all right. They put a plaster cast on the finger to heal faster. Yes, there are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them and, when he made a move, did not notice that he had to wait. This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall,” Smagin was quoted as saying.

Lazarev said that the robot has been involved in many such exhibition matches but has never malfunctioned. He refused to place the complete blame on the robot saying that the boy did not wait after making his move. The robot usually needs time to answer but the boy’s impatience led to the robot grabbing, according to him.

“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 added.

State-tv  Baza reported that the seven-year-old’s name is Christopher and that he’s among the 30 strongest chess players in Moscow aged up to nine years old.

Lazarev informed  TASS that despite the fracture, the incident did not traumatize Christopher excessively. “The child played the very next day, finished the tournament, and volunteers helped to record the moves,” he said.

Christopher’s parents, however, have contacted the public prosecutor’s office and are planning to take legal action. “We will communicate, figure it out and try to help in any way we can,” Lazarev said.

Russian grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin blamed the unfortunate incident on “some kind of software error or something”, adding: “This has never happened before. There are such accidents. I wish the boy good health.”

(with inputs from agencies)