It can indeed be very hard to defeat a robot at chess, even for the smartest grandmasters out there. But unfortunately, a recent event reminds us that our mechanical friends can also make mistakes, and even very painful ones.
During an international chess tournament held in Moscow a few days ago, a seven-year-old boy was competing against a robot. The machine had mistaken the child’s finger for a chess piece and broke it. Despite this incident, the child was able to continue to play in the tournament.
You can see the disturbing footage of the event below:
The reason of the incident seems to be that the boy somehow rushed the robot.
Sergey Lazarev stated, as CNN quotes:
A robot broke a child’s finger — this is, of course, bad,
The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places by specialists for a long time. Apparently, the operators overlooked some flaws. The child made a move, and after that it is necessary to give time for the robot to respond, but the boy hurried, the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot.
Sergey Smagin, who is vice president of the Moscow Chess Federation, said for RIA Novosti that some safety procedures would be evaluated. Surprisingly, he says that the robot will not be banned. He stated as USA TODAY’s YouTube channel quotes in the description of the above video:
It happens – a coincidence. It is necessary, apparently, to warn the children additionally. It is extremely strange that this happened, but it happened, it happens.
It will be necessary to analyze why this happened. The robot has a very talented inventor. It may be necessary to install an additional protection system.
Luckily enough, the bystanders didn’t hesitate to help the child out. But even so, the little boy remained with a fracture.