Chess Robot Blunders With Unorthodox Move (Childs Finger to Emergency Room 1)

I rather enjoy chess, but would freely concede that even on just a somewhat mildly competitive level, I’m not very good. I’m sure though that I wouldn’t be telling you anything new by stating that for nearly 50 years, give or take, people have been seeing the limits of how well computers, and slightly more recently, robots can handle the game.

Following a report via the Guardian, however, it seems that one recent showcase of a robot chess player didn’t end too well for one person. And no, it wasn’t because they walked themselves into a fool’s mate. Instead, the robot decided to play the somewhat unorthodox move of simply crushing its 7-year-old opponent’s finger.

Robot Chess Play Crushes Opponent (Quite Literally)

Due to the unusual nature of the video footage, alas, I can’t embed it into this article. Giving you a quick summary though, following a chess tournament in Moscow, an exhibition was being held between a robot arm and what appears to be an ‘all-comers welcome’ match against three simultaneous human players. – One 7-year-old player, however, got more than they bargained for taking this machine on!

It would appear that while making a move the child’s finger lurks on top of the rook in a somewhat mulling nature (chess usually doesn’t consider a move complete until the piece is let go). While his finger was only in place for a moment, however, for reasons unclear, it seems that the robot doesn’t recognise that this is not a completed move and with all the enthusiasm of pouncing on a mate in 1 move, it grabs the piece along with the child’s finger!

While the child’s finger was broken in the clearly illegal move (over-the-table chess typically frowns on physically harming your opponent), the good news is that it doesn’t appear to be been a hugely damaging injury with him returning to the tournament the next day. – For the creator of this chess robot though, well, let’s just say that while its game might be sound, its sportsmanship clearly requires some additional work!

You can, incidentally, check out the video via the link here!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!