---
title: "Russian Chess Robot Breaks Child’s Finger During Tournament"
description: "A chess robot playing three games at once broke a 7-year-old boy's finger in a tournament that ended Thursday in Russia. Officials say the bot was confused."
date: "2022-07-24"
modified: "2022-07-24"
authors:
  - name: "Lonnie Lee Hood"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/ahood"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/russian-chess-robot-child-finger"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "robotics"
  - "Russia"
  - "the digest"
---

# Russian Chess Robot Breaks Child’s Finger During Tournament

![A chess robot playing three games at once broke a 7-year-old boy's finger in a tournament that ended Thursday in Russia. Officials say the bot was confused.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/russian-chess-robot-child-finger.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Baza\</em\>*

## Poor Loser

A chess robot playing three games at once broke a 7-year-old boy's finger in a tournament that ended Thursday.

Russian-language news outlet *Baza* [posted video footage of the moment to its Telegram channel](<https://t.me/bazabazon/12441>) and reported that the boy suffered a fracture but is otherwise okay. Twitter netizens then nabbed the footage and uploaded it online for all to see, [like the video shown below](<https://twitter.com/russian_market/status/1550156267162927125>).

https://twitter.com/russian_market/status/1550156267162927125?s=20&t=uElWUEpyC7JXinQ-ywGhUA

## Grudge Match

According to *Baza*, the robot "squeezed" the kid's finger, but it's possible that's a mistranslation or just a little off. The video makes it seem as if the robot placed its "finger" or a chess piece down on top of the kid's hand, as if it were just confused.

Russian state-owned news outlet [*TASS* reported](<https://tass.ru/sport/15280405?&utm_source=pcgamer.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pcgamer.com&utm_referrer=pcgamer.com>) that the child was able to finish the tournament while wearing a cast, but that his parents may be filing suit, as [spotted by *PC Gamer* yesterday](<https://www.pcgamer.com/a-chess-playing-robot-broke-a-kids-finger/>). For now, authorities think the injury was an accident.

"The robot broke the child's finger — this, of course, is bad," Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev told *TASS*, via *PCG*. "The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places, for a long time, with specialists. Apparently, the operators overlooked it. The child made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried , the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot."

## Stale Mate

Sergey Smagin, a deputy of the Moscow Chess Federation, told *RIA Novosti* — also owned by Russia — said this was the first time in his memory he could remember a robot breaking anyone's finger.

In all likelihood the robot, which was admittedly playing multiple opponents, just got confused or tried to make a move at a bad time.

Good thing there's not a violent chess bot on the loose at the same time [Google AI's was (most likely falsely) accused of gaining sentience](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-fires-engineer-ai-sentience>). We wouldn't want them to team up.

**More on Russian news**: [*In Huge Reversal, Russia Letting SpaceX Fly Cosmonauts to Space Station*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/russia-spacex-cosmonauts-space-station>)