Video Shows Chess-Playing Robot Seizing, Breaking 7-Year-Old Opponent's Finger

A chess-playing robot last week broke the finger of a 7-year-old opponent during a chess match that was part of the Moscow Open, according to news reports.

“The robot broke the child’s finger,” Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, told the Russian news agency TASS, according to the U.K. Guardian.

“This is, of course, bad,” he said, adding that the robots had played many other competitors without such an incident.

Video of the incident Tuesday shows that the robot had the boy’s finger in its grip for several seconds before nearby adults knew there was a problem. Once they realized what was taking place, they hurried the boy from the robot.

Sergey Smagin, vice president of the Russian Chess Federation, told the Baza Telegram channel that the robot appeared to have been triggered after it took one of the boy’s pieces, according to the Guardian.

The boy appeared to be making his next move too quickly, he said.

“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,” Smagin said, according to The Guardian. “This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall.”