A chess-playing robot grabbed the hand of a seven-year-old boy and broke his finger in distressing scenes, but Russian authorities are blaming the child for the shocking incident.
The Russian boy, named locally as Christopher, is thought to be one of the best young chess players in Moscow, The Sun reports.
But he suffered the horrible injury while competing in the Moscow Open this week.
Video footage of the incident showed the robot making a move to capture one of the child’s pieces.
As the robot dropped the piece into the box beside the board, the boy quickly responded with a move of his own.
But picking up his piece, his electronic opponent took grip of the boy’s hand with its claws and crushed it.
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Four adults rushed to help free him, but not before the child’s finger was broken by the robot.
The boy had his finger put in a plaster cast and was reportedly not seriously traumatised.
However, his parents are said to have contacted the public prosecutor’s office.
It is understood the chess robot has never done anything similar, and manufacturers will now work to ensure nothing like it happens again.
President of the Moscow Chess Federation Sergey Lazarev told the TASS news agency: “The robot broke the child’s finger. This is of course bad.
“The child played the very next day, finished the tournament, and volunteers helped to record the moves.”
He added the boy had “made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him”.
Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, told Baza: “There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them.
“When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait.
“This is an extremely rare case, the first I can recall.”
Mr Smagin said the incident was “a coincidence” and the robot – which can play multiple chess matches simultaneously – is “absolutely safe”.
“It has performed at many opens,” he said.
“Apparently, children need to be warned. It happens.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Distressing footage shows Russian chess robot crushing seven-year-old boy’s hand
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