Chess robot breaks seven-year-old boy’s finger during match in Moscow

A chess-playing robot broke a seven-year-old boy’s finger during a match in Moscow.

Footage shared online shows the machine taking one of the kid’s pieces.

The child, named Christopher, then makes his own move, and the robot grabs his finger. Four adults rush to help the boy, who is eventually freed and ushered away from the scene.

"The robot broke the child’s finger," Sergey Lazarev, president of the Moscow Chess Federation, told Russian state news agency Tass. "This is of course bad."

Mr Lazarev claimed it grabbed the boy after he “hurried” the robot, not allowing it “time to answer”.

He added that the boy was in good health, saying he “played the very next day, finished the tournament, and volunteers helped to record the moves”.

Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, claimed that the robot attacked after its opponent failed to wait for it to complete its move.

"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," Mr Smagin said.

It is not yet clear who manufactured the robot or whether the boy received any safety instructions before the match.