Society

Russian chess champ caught poisoning rival's pieces

Screen capture from CCTV footage of Amina Abakarova poisoning her rival's chess pieces. Photo: X
Screen capture from CCTV footage of Amina Abakarova poisoning her rival's chess pieces. Photo: X
podpis źródła zdjęcia

A Russian chess champion faces a jail term amid suspicions that she tried to poison an opponent with mercury before a tournament.

Amina Abakarova, who comes from Dagestan, was arrested after CCTV footage appeared to show her dabbing a chessboard with a substance, later confirmed by the local police to be mercury.
Wearing high gloves, Abakarova is seen coolly sauntering towards a table where she was due to play her rival and childhood friend Umayganat Osmanova, and smearing the white King piece.

After the game began, Osmanova started to feel nauseous and required medical attention.

“Mercury produces fumes which are not lethal in themselves but would impair breathing and cause disorientation to a chess player hunched over a chessboard,” Dr Milena Słoń, an emergency medicine specialist working in Warsaw’s biggest teaching hospital, told TVP World.

Abakarova, 43, admitted that the attack was motivated by a personal vendetta against Osmanova, whom she accused of saying “nasty things” about her and her relatives behind her back.

Paweł Bekanowski, of the Polish Chess Federation, told TVP World: “Psychological warfare during chess tournaments is nothing new but a poisoning attempt is something else.”

He added: “Chess requires concentration and there were instances where players wore a heavy perfume or were caught kicking each other’s shins under a table. Mercury poisoning is a novel, mad idea.”

After receiving medical attention, Osmanova returned to the tournament to win a prize while Abakarova was taken into custody. She is awaiting trial and facing a prison sentence of up to three years.
Source: The Telegraph, TVP World
More In Society MORE...