During a match at the Moscow Chess Open, a seven-year-old boy who was competing in the tournament had his finger broken. That may seem like a pretty intense reaction from his opponent and it is. But what makes this even more disturbing is that it was a robot that did it.
The robot was created specifically for playing chess. According to the creators, it has artificial intelligence, and can play up to three games at once. Christopher, the young boy, is one of the 30-strongest chess players in Moscow under 9 years old.
The robot had taken one of the boy’s pieces, and Christopher was already making a return move. The robot didn’t like the hurried motion, and grabbed the boy’s index finger, squeezing it hard. The boy had a cast put on his fractured finger, and was able to continue playing the tournament.
Whether or not this was a fluke in the robot’s programming needs to be figured out with vigorous testing. It’s possible this robot will be retired completely.
“The robot broke the child’s finger—this, of course, is bad. The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places, for a long time, with specialists. Apparently, the operators overlooked it. 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,” Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation told TASS.
[This translation is what we could pull from Google, but it seems to be appropriate to the situation.]
The tournament is not taking any responsibility for the actions of the robot. The event claims its not their fault. The parents of the boy however will be contacting legal help.
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