Russian chess player caught on camera allegedly poisoning rival\u2019s pieces CCTVThe Russian Chess Federation has suspended 40-year-old Amina Abakarova after she was caught appearing to poison her rival\u2019s pieces. There\u2019s a new controversy sweeping the chess world and it\u2019s wild enough, it sounds like something out of Netflix\u2019s The Queen\u2019s Gambit. On August 2 at the Dagestan Chess Championship, Abakarova was caught on security camera footage appearing to pour a substance on the board twenty minutes before her rival, Umayganat Osmanova\u2019s match. Abakarova had reportedly asked staff if the cameras were in operation and, when she was told they weren\u2019t, she allegedly placed a grey powder on the board \u2013 something prosecutors claim was mercury from a thermometer. She\u2019s accused of smearing the poison with a chess piece before stealthily leaving the scene. When Osmanova eventually played later that day, she began to feel ill with \u201csevere dizziness and nausea\u201d and doctor assistance was needed. The health professionals determined that she had been poisoned and the CCTV footage was reviewed. The police detained Abakarova, who reportedly confessed to the poisoning and explained that she wanted to \u201cknock her opponent out of the tournament.\u201d A week earlier, Osmanova had narrowly won the Rapid Chess Championship, edging out Abakarova via tie-breaks. Abakarova is facing charges of \u201cintentional infliction of bodily harm\u201d and could be looking at up to three years in jail if convicted. \u201cLike many others, I am perplexed by what happened, and the motives of such an experienced competitor as Amina Abakarova are incomprehensible,\u201d Dagestan\u2019s Minister of Sport Sazhida Sazhidova said. \u201cThe actions she took could have led to a most tragic outcome, threatening the lives of everyone who was present, including herself. Now she must answer for what she did by the law.\u201d Amazingly, Osmanova was able to persevere and ended up placing second in the tournament despite feeling unwell. The chess world has not been without its dramatics in recent years. In addition to this alleged assassination plot, the chess community has its eyes on a long-awaited grudge match between Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen after the Norwegian accused the youngster of cheating in the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian chess player caught on camera allegedly poisoning rival\u2019s pieces CCTVThe Russian Chess Federation has suspended 40-year-old Amina Abakarova after she was caught appearing to poison her rival\u2019s pieces. There\u2019s a new controversy sweeping the chess world and it\u2019s wild enough, it sounds like something out of Netflix\u2019s The Queen\u2019s Gambit. On August 2 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}