It got a bit… ugly, because the chess player will go to jail for her actions; it’s as if she was a few hundred years off the mark.

The Dagestan chess tournament was held on August 2, and the story first appeared on a Russian-language Telegram channel (a platform very much used in Eastern Europe), which was then picked up by the state media. Amina Abakarova, a 40-year-old player from Dagestan, was paired for a match with Umayganat Osmanova. Abakarova had lost to Osmanova a week before the affair, and the two have long been rivals. They also had a close match in the past where Osmanova came out on top…

However, 20 minutes before the start of the match, security cameras recorded Abakarova walking up to the table and pouring some kind of liquid from a thermometer onto the chess board and pieces. According to Chess.com, Abakarova had previously asked if cameras would be used at the event and was told no. The liquid from the thermometer was mercury. It is dangerous if it comes into contact with the skin, but if inhaled or swallowed it can be fatal.

Half an hour into the match, Osmanova complained of feeling sick, dizzy and nauseous. Doctors examined her and immediately suspected poisoning. They then examined the CCTV footage (available below) and Abakarova was caught and arrested within moments. Osmanova later said she felt terrible, disgusted and morally depressed after realizing she had been poisoned, adding that another player had also fallen ill. “I still feel bad. In the first few minutes I felt a lack of air and a taste of iron in my mouth. I had to spend about five hours on that board. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t seen it earlier,” Osmanova told Russia Today.

According to Russian media, Abakarova had a personal grudge against Osmanova, adding that she wanted to “knock her out of the competition. If found guilty of attempted poisoning, she could face up to three years in prison. The Russian Chess Federation has provisionally suspended him from competition and is likely to impose a lifetime ban pending its own investigation. “The motives of such an experienced competitor as Amina Abakarova are incomprehensible. The actions she took could have led to a most tragic outcome, endangering the lives of everyone present, including herself. Now she will have to face the law for what she did,” said Sazhid Sazhidov, Dagestan’s Minister of Sport. “I have never seen anything like this. This is, as far as I know, the first recorded case of someone using a toxic substance in the history of chess,” said Malcolm Pein of the English Chess Federation.

Osmanova at least managed to recover as she finished in second place. Abakarova was understandably disqualified.

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