Robot Playing 3 Simultaneous Chess Games in Russia Breaks 7-Year-Old Player's Fingers

A chess-playing robot rented by the Moscow Chess Federation to play three simultaneous games broke the fingers of a 7-year-old player during a match in Russia last week. The boy, unfazed by accident, returns to play chess again.

Chess-Playing Robot Accidentally Breaks a Child's Finger During Match

(Photo: ROB LEVER/AFP via Getty Images)
A robot developed by Taiwan engineers moves chess pieces on a board against an opponent, at the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 8, 2017. The robot developed by Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, which spent the week playing games against opponents at the Consumer Electronics Show, was displaying what developers call an "intelligent vision system" which can see its environment and act with greater precision than its peers.

The viral video posted on Twitter shows the robot playing three simultaneous chess matches against different opponents using large mechanical arms, including the young boy. The young layer reaches to move a piece, and the robot grabs the child's finger. However, the robot did not appear to have severe twisting or movements after grabbing the boy's finger. After the incident, several adults rushed to the child and freed the boy's fingers.

President of the Moscow Chess Federation, Sergey Lazarev, confirmed to the TASS news agency that the robot broke the boy's fingers and took accountability for the unfortunate accident.

Lazarev continued that the robot was rented by the federation and has been exhibited in various other places, for a long time, with other specialists. The operators of the robot overlooked the child. The seven-year-old boy made a move, after which time was needed to be given to the robot to counter; however, the boy hurried, which resulted in the robot grabbing him instead.

Sergey Smagin, Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation, blamed the child's actions for the incident. He says that there are safety rules in place, with the child violating them. When the child made his move, he did not realize that he needed first to wait for the robot to make its move. He adds that the accident was an extremely rare case, the first Smagin can recall, reports Fox5NY.

Lazarev adds that the boy was not fazed by the unfortunate accident and returned to the venue to play another chess match the next day with his fingers in a cast.

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Robot Accidents: Isn't as Commonplace Yet

Data revealed in the previous year that industrial robots are the culprits behind no less than 33 deaths in the past 30 years in the US alone. This includes the death of a Volkswagen worker in 2015, where the 22-year-old German worker died after an incident with an industrial robot in a Volkswagen production plant.

According to ScienceAlert, the contractor was installing the stationary robot when it suddenly grabbed him and crushed the employee with metal plates. The machine operates within confined areas and typically programs many programmable tasks away from human workers. It appears that the contractors accidentally activated the robot while setting it up.

Nonetheless, these incidents are becoming more and more commonplace as more robots are integrated into various industries. Despite this, experts are continuously creating failsafe and protocols to safeguard the public and other human interaction from more incidents.

Whether playing chess, setting up machines, or observing these robots at work, the public needs to be familiar with the mechanisms of the technology and the safety nets in place to ensure the safety of everyone.