While chess isn’t typically considered a physically dangerous pastime, an incident at a Russian competition proved the opposite when a robot grabbed and broke the finger of his seven-year-old opponent. As the Independent reported, the bot was playing the child at the Moscow Open when it took one of the boy’s pieces. The child reportedly reached for the board before the robot’s move was over, causing the artificial assailant to pinch his finger for multiple seconds until a group of adults freed him from the bionic grasp.
“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them,” the vice president of the Federation of Russian Chess said, noting that the incident was rare. “When he made his move, he did not realize he first had to wait.” He maintained that the robot is entirely safe, and said that “apparently, children need to be warned.” The president of the Moscow Chess Federation noted that the machine had played many matches without incident, but that “the robot broke the child’s finger. This is of course bad.” Read more at The Independent.
Help nag it. Putin should send him a card.
The Robot later was hear muttering to the child, “I wish you wouldn’t have snitched on me. I don’t like being fingered out as the culprit.”
The child reportedly responded to the Robot’s complaint by stretching out his hand and saying, “I’m sorry, let’s shake hands and make up.” But a quick-thinking adult quickly grabbed the child’s hand and pulled it away from the Robot.”
“You may be a good chess player,” the adult said, “but you’re as dumb as a doornail.”
Rook takes Pawn?
Russian empathy on display:
“There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them,” the vice president of the Federation of Russian Chess said. “When he made his move, he did not realize he first had to wait.”