According to the Guardian, the child moved his pawn too soon and the robot got tangled up grabbing his finger and squeezing it, causing a fracture before help arrived. "The robot broke the boy's finger," said Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev, adding that "this is of course very bad."
The video shows the robot grabbing the child's finger and holding it for several seconds until a group of people come to release it. It's not clear what went wrong, but according to Lazarev the child had "made a move and then we had to give the robot time to respond, but the boy was in a hurry and the robot proceeded to make the misguided move." He even hinted that the robot's suppliers might need work on the security aspects of the robot, saying that "they should reconsider."
The boy named Christopher was not bothered and participated the next day in the tournament as usual, completing his participation without any other unpleasant surprises. His parents, however, have reportedly been contacted by the prosecution. A Russian official downplayed the incident, calling it a "coincidence", while stating that the robot is "absolutely safe".
In any case, the incident can be seen as a modern parable about the dangers of robots, even in something as innocent as chess. On a larger scale, however, with things like robotic cars, the stakes are significantly higher.
