A chess-playing robot broke the finger of its seven-year-old human opponent in Moscow, Russia last week after it was hurried by the boy.
What Happened: A video of the incident shows the robot’s claw grabbing the boy’s index finger for at least 15 seconds as the latter was trying to make a move on the board, reported CNBC.
The boy’s digit had to be pried out of the robotic claw by two bystanders, according to the report.
A video of the incident was shared on social media by Australia’s 9 News network.
“The robot broke the child’s finger — this, of course, is bad,” said Sergey Lazarev, the president of the Moscow Chess Federation.
Former World Chess Champion and political activist Garry Kasparov reacted to the incident on Twitter, saying “I tried to warn you!”
Why It Matters: The child involved in the incident has been identified by the first name, Christopher, and is one of the top 30 chess players in Moscow under the age of 9, noted CNBC.
Lazarev said the child continued to play in the tournament albeit with his finger in a cast, reported CNBC.
The boy’s parents were reported to be keen on contacting the prosecutor’s office, according to the Chess official, who said, “The robot operators, apparently, will have to think about strengthening protection so that such a situation does not happen again”
Kasparov was defeated in a chess match by IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) “Deep Blue” supercomputer in 1997.
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