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Chess player's turn (symbolic photo): fingers in the game
Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP
When playing football, basketball or cycling there is a risk of abrasions or even broken bones.
But if you send your child to play chess, you can usually be very sure that the offspring will come home unharmed.
But that doesn't seem to apply to duels with artificial intelligence: a chess robot is said to have crushed the finger of a seven-year-old boy in Moscow during a game.
This is reported by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti and the news medium Baza.
"Baza" writes that the machine even broke the boy's finger.
A video shared on Twitter is said to show the incident.
According to the reports, the artificial intelligence equipped with a robotic arm was scheduled to play three games of chess against children at the same time on July 19.
Among them was the seven-year-old.
The robot hit one of the boy's pieces and then wanted to place its own piece on the field.
Apparently, the boy was too hasty in striving for his own train.
The robot squeezed the child's index finger.
Bystanders rushed to help and could have freed the boy's finger.
A ban on tournaments with the robot is not being considered
Moscow Chess Federation (FSM) vice-president Sergei Smagin said the boy was not seriously injured.
However, the finger was put in plaster.
Smagin also said he was not aware of a similar case.
The robot has been playing games against humans for many years.
"It is extremely strange that this has happened."
According to Smagin, a ban on tournaments with the robot is currently not being considered: "It has to be analyzed why this happened".
The robot arm may need a protection system.
Chess is one of the most popular sports in Russia, but not as popular as it used to be when chess icons Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov competed in world championship duels.
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