A chess-playing robot reportedly broke a seven-year-old’s finger Thursday during the international chess forum Moscow Chess Open.
A video posted on the Baza Telegram channel captures the movement when the robot grabbed the child’s finger as well as observers attempting to get the robot to release the child’s finger.
The Baza Telegram channel identified the child as Christopher, one of the 30 best chess players in the Russian capital in the under-nines category, according to The Guardian. (RELATED: The Media’s Female African Chess ‘Prodigy’ Is Actually Nothing Of The Sort)
Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, said that “The child made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried, the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot,” according to the TASS news agency.
“The people around rushed to help and pulled out the finger of the young player, but the fracture could not be avoided,” the video’s caption read, adding that it was unknown whether the robot would be “put to sleep” after the incident.
Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation told The Guardian that the boy had violated “certain safety rules,” not realizing he had to wait before making his next move. “This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall,” he told The Guardian.
Russian grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin, said that the incident was due to “some kind of software error or something,” and said he believes this to be the first time this had occurred. “There are such accidents. I wish the boy good health,” he told The Guardian.
The child’s parents have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor’s office. “We will communicate, figure it out and try to help in any way we can,” Lazarev said, The Guardian reported.