A Russian chess player has been suspended by the Russian Chess Federation and is facing time in jail after she tried to poison her opponent at a chess tournament. The incident happened at the Dagestan, Russia, Chess Championship. Contestant Umayganat Osmanova began feeling unwell 30 minutes into the game, complaining of nausea and dizziness. Doctors eventually concluded that poisoning was a likely cause. A review of security camera footage before the game clearly showed her opponent, Amina Abakarova, 40, walking over to the chess board before anyone else was in the room. She calmly smeared something on the table in front of one side of the board, and dipped at least one chess piece into the substance. That substance was later determined to be mercury from a thermometer. Abakarova later confessed that she wanted to “knock her opponent out of the tournament,” because a week earlier Osmanova had beaten her. Abakarova is temporarily suspended from Russian chess events.
* She was immediately detained and then hired by Vladimir Putin.
* Russia: where poisoning your opponent will earn you a suspension.
* One clue was that the pawns were little undertakers.
* All the evidence was there in black and white.
* Oh, those mercurial chess prodigies!