The headlines are striking. ‘Chess robot grabs and breaks finger of seven year old opponent’
The vicious act of nipper nipping took place in a demonstration event in Moscow. It seems that the robot had been programmed in turn-taking. Its human opponent moves a piece from one chess board square to another. The robot differentiates legal and illegal chess moves.
If the move is legal, the robot activates its move-making sequences, plucking up an opponent’s piece if its move involves a capture, then moving his own piece to the desired square. It then retreats the robotic ‘arm’ to its default position.
