During a match at the Moscow Open chess tournament, a chess-playing robot apparently grabbed and broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent.
"This is of course bad," said Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation.
Of course.
From The Guardian:
Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, told [the Baza Telegram channel] 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, he said.
"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.
Lazarev had a different account, saying the child had "made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him". Either way, he said, the robot's suppliers were "going to have to think again".
The boy reportedly return to play the next day, his finger in a plaster cast.
