At the Moscow Open Chess Tournament, a chess robot participating in the event grabbed his 7-year-old opponent’s finger and broke it.
The accident, which occurred in the middle of the championship last week, went viral on social networks and opened a classic debate on the use of these technologies.
Accident with robot arm in chess tournament
In the video pointed out, which has been widely shared on social networks, the robot can be seen taking one of the child’s pieces and then grabbing his finger, while trying to make a move during.
Next, four adults rush in to rescue the minor, struggling to free him before leading him away from the chessboard.
“The robot broke the child’s finger”Sergei Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, told the Russian agency TASS. “Of course this is bad”added the representative, according to slogan AP.
Lazarev commented that the Chess Federation had rented the robot protagonist of this incident for many other previous events, without any surprises. He also added that the boy’s parents were considering filing a lawsuit, commenting that “we will communicate, work it out and try to help (the family) in any way we can”.
Although the injury was not minor, the boy was able to play again the next day and finished the tournament with his finger in a cast.
Separately, Sergey Smagin, vice president of the Russian Chess Federation, told the Russian state news agency Ria Novosti that the robot had grabbed the boy’s finger because it broke the rules.
“There are certain safety rules and the boy apparently violated them. When he made the move on him, he didn’t realize that he had to wait first.”Smagin said. He added that the case was “extremely rare”.
About this incident and its media impact, the role and presence of robots in society turned again to a controversial point. To what extent are the safety measures of an instrument that will interact directly with children regulated and what guarantees can be explicitly offered by whoever is behind this technology, are some of the aspects that once again attract special attention and fall into question.
