Chess Robot Breaks Boy's Finger, But Its Masters Claim It Was The Boy's Fault

A chess-playing robot in Russia broke the finger of a 7-year-old boy during a tournament game last week, leading to wide concern about the intentions and capabilities of robots and AI in the story's wake.

The chess robot, built by Konstantin Kosteniuk, is a long arm with a crab claw-like grabber at its end to pick up and put down pieces. The authorities of the chess tournament said the robot is usually always peaceful, but the boy took his move too quickly and confused it, leading the bot to grab his finger and squeeze. The viral video shows adults running in to free the boy from the robot moments after the incident.

Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven-year-old opponent. Moscow incident occurred because child ‘violated’ safety rules by taking turn too quickly, says official [full story: https://t.co/WZw3ypBcfg] pic.twitter.com/e0sZ7Jj84v

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 25, 2022

According to the Moscow Times, the boy – a chess prodigy named Kristofer – continued to compete in the tournament with his finger in a cast. The outcome of the specific game between the robot and Kristofer that saw the finger-breaking has not been released to the public.

As the news proceeded to go viral over the weekend, the Moscow Chess Federation President’s response to the incident was amusing to many.

This is how it begins: "The robot broke the child's finger," Sergey Lazarev, Moscow Chess Federation President, told Tass news agency. "This is of course bad." https://t.co/GBuesu9UFX

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) July 24, 2022

A number of commentators expect this broken finger is just the first of many to come, comparing the rogue robot to the Terminator with jokes about robots rising up flooding the internet.

The robot revolt has begun.https://t.co/RG3IxRsY4d

— Rounding the Earth (@EduEngineer) July 24, 2022

One day they’ll invent a robot that doesn’t break a 7-year-old’s finger. And after that the future is impossible to predict

— Brooks Otterlake (@i_zzzzzz) July 25, 2022

Alongside the memers, a distinct minority of posters also appeared to support the robot.

a win’s a win. well done to the robot

— Nick Schadegg (@nickschadegg) July 24, 2022

Others pointed out other examples of violent robots or bots used by humans for violence. In particular, a video of Boston Dynamics' robot dogs firing guns circulated widely. The robot dogs are controversial because the Department of Homeland Security is currently testing to see if they can be useful for tracking people at the border, and many human rights groups have expressed concern about the menacing 100-pound mechanical hounds chasing down human beings.

Its already begun

Autonomous killing machine https://t.co/AxG6GmjDEF

— ᴀʟɪ #ToriesPartiedWhilePeopleDied (@Ali_8k) July 24, 2022

“software error” pic.twitter.com/Z8nsJ7qn5B

— Park (@philparkbot) July 24, 2022

Despite jokes and even some legitimate concerns, the chess robot in Russia went 15 years before it broke a boy’s finger. We can only hope that all our other increasingly advanced robots wait that long as well.