A Russian chess player is facing a lifetime ban from official competitions after allegedly trying to poison an opponent by spreading mercury compounds on her chess board.

Amina Abakarova, a 40-year-old chess player from the Russian Republic of Dagestan, stands accused of trying to poison another female player during a chess tournament in Makhachkala. Surveillance footage from the Dagestan Classical Chess Championship shows the 40-year-old woman spreading a substance later identified as mercury on the chess board and pieces that would later be used by another player, Umayganat Osmanova. CCTV footage clearly shows Abakarova walking to the table where Osmanova was about to play and tampering with the chess board and pieces before casually walking away so as not to draw attention. Her actions would have probably gone unnoticed had Umayganat Osmanova not begun to experience symptoms like nausea and dizziness just 30 minutes later.

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30-year-old Umayganat Osmanova ended up requiring medical assistance and is still recovering from the poisoning attempt. She told Russian reporters that she began feeling bad only a few minutes after taking a seat at the chess table, and believes she would have died if she hadn’t noticed something strange on her chess pieces and on the chess board.

“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 this board. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t seen it earlier,” Osmanova told Russia Today.

After doctors confirmed that the victim had been poisoned with mercury, the chess tournament organizers checked the surveillance camera footage and saw Amina Abakarova tampering with her rival’s chess board. When confronted with the evidence, the 40-year-old woman confessed to trying to poison Umayganat Osmanova with mercury from an old thermometer as a way to “knock her out of the tournament,” admitting that she felt “personal hostility” toward Osmanova. However, she denied wanting to harm her rival, claiming that she only wanted to scare her.

Those who know Amina Abakarova declared themselves shocked by her actions, describing her as a very kind kids’ chess coach. Apparently, she and Osmanova have known each other since childhood and have always been competitors at the regional level.

 

Russian media reports that Abakarova now faces a lifetime disqualification, dismissal from work, and criminal prosecution.