# Chess robot breaks seven-year-old boy's finger during chess tournament **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485 "2022-07-24T19:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2022, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/61 "2022-07-28T20:05:40Z")
Chessmaster 9000 has an estimated ELO of about 2700, which would put it in super grandmaster territory and about Top 30 in the world, but beatable by human grandmasters. Now, for perspective, Stockfish 14 has an estimated ELO of about 3700, which is terrifyingly insane. Magnus’s peak rating was 2882. An 800-pt ELO difference is nuts. According to ELO calculators, that means – with who goes first selected at random – Stockfish wins 99.6% of the time, draws 0.4% of the time and loses 0.0015% of the time. (So well under the 1% I had mentioned before.) Those are just estimates based on ELOs, but you get the picture. Chess engines are well into super-human territory at this point. The last version of Sargon (5), was only at about 1900 from what I can find, which is a reasonable “club” player, well below master level. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/62 "2022-07-29T10:18:04Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Chess matches between humans and computers reminds me of people on horses racing trains. It was fun until the trains improved. Ah, but computers are extremely useful for chess research and training. For example, computers have completely solved endings with just a few pieces (just using brute force): [KvK – Syzygy endgame tablebases (syzygy-tables.info)](https://syzygy-tables.info/) > [@aceplace57](#): > > Computer chess has improved but the grand masters can still beat them. No, as [pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell) said, computers can now beat anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/63 "2022-07-29T10:42:14Z")
Yes, but the robot actually moving pieces rather than changing colors on pixels is not necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/64 "2022-07-29T20:33:42Z")
Even if a human has no chance of outrunning a motor vehicle, a human runner might still race a motor vehicle for the sake of practice. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/65 "2022-07-29T20:37:08Z")
Surely “Even if a human has no chance of outrunning a motor vehicle, a human runner might still race a motor vehicle for the sake of practice, Grasshopper” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2022, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/66 "2022-07-29T21:05:24Z")
Sure, if the person driving the car is doing so specifically to allow the runner to keep up with them. If the car just gets onto the interstate, it’s really not much of a race anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/67 "2022-08-01T20:47:47Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > If the car just gets onto the interstate, it’s really not much of a race anymore. But what if the car keeps stopping to take naps, eat, chat with friends, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2022, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485/68 "2022-08-01T21:39:36Z")
In the 1990’s, I was part of a group given a tour of a bulk mail center. The postal worker pointed out a robot moving around the room and bragged about how safe it was. “It will stop well before it hits a human. Watch!” Oh, we watched. He had to dive out of the way because that robot was not going to stop. Don’t play chicken with a robot, is what I’m saying. Or chess either, apparently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chess-robot-breaks-seven-year-old-boys-finger-during-chess-tournament/968485.md?page=3)