In world first, Russian chess player poisons rival’s board with mercury

What an imbecile. Mercury is a planet. It is too large to be hidden anywhere on a chess board
- Wrong. Mercury is a god. He's much too powerful to do the biddings of a puny mortal.
  
  You're both wrong, it's a car. I'm pretty crazy about one though.
- I hear it’s in Gatorade
  
  Gators are too big to fit in the bottles, can’t be that
  
  not in microwave?
  
  This comment is an underrated gem.
  Bravo sir.

russians prove they can’t win anything legitimately
- ...this was a regional tournament, in the Caucasus Republic of Dagestan.
  So calling them Russian is technically accurate, but really they are a brutalized and subjugated colonial subject of Russia.
  Also, you'll find this kind of crazy anywhere you go. She literally just dumped mercury around her opponents chess board when she thought no one was around to notice.
  I get why it's catching headlines, but give me a break. It's just crazy being crazy.
  
  So calling them Russian is technically accurate
  The word Russian has two meanings in English. It can mean relating to the country of Russia, or relating to the Rus ethnicity.
  The Russian language distinguishes the two. The first is росси́йский. The second is ру́сский. Both words are translated as “Russian” in English, which causes confusion in English, but there’s no such confusion in Russian.
  These people (Dagestanis) are Russian in the first sense, but not the second sense.
  Historically, the second sense of “Russian” included Ukrainians and Belarussians (so you could say Ukrainians were Russian in the second sense, but not the first sense) but it’s become controversial to do so since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
  
  they are a brutalized and subjugated colonial subject of Russia
  TBF even Russia is a brutalized and subjugated colonial subject of Russia.
- Very not true, Kaspersky® just won a legitimate label as malware.
  
  Kasperskyⓜⓐⓛⓦⓐ®ⓔ
- Yeah! Take that Kasparov! You can't win anything!
- Except maybe the competition for most war crimes committed, but they are closely rivaled by the Israeli fascists
- Dina would like a word.
  
  who?

Is it a first?
Or is it the first time they got caught?
- Yes

this type of stuff I will never get. why are you in a competition if you don't want to do the thing you competing in to win. join an assasin competition.
- they HAVE those???
  
  in Russia, they call them "democracies"
  
  Boeing sponsors a whole team.
- Poor choice of heavy metal.
- I think sometimes competition breeds contempt and she hated this person enough to want to kill her, in addition to wanting to remove her as a challenge.

Actually that's allowed, google en poissant.
- Holy nightshade!
  
  Actual Russian.
- Googling "en poissant" yields "en passant" as a suggested term.
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_passant
  En poissant = in sticking En passant = in passing En poissant = in fish
  Je suis hereux d'apprendre quelques psuedo-homonymes en francais ce jour!
  Merci!
  
  Merci à vous! I do not know French, and my comment was a pun on "en passant" using the word "poison", but I appreciate the free lesson!
  
  WOOOSHHH
  Is the sound the pun made as it just whizzed by you.

Between this, the antisemitism of Bobby Fischer, and the guy cheating with the power of teledildonics, I have to wonder what the hell is up with chess players.
- The only murder in Antarctica was a Russian killing somrone with an ice ax over a game of chess.
  
  The Russians did it again in 2018, apparently. This time either over a rude comment or a book spoiler.
  
  Hmmm lets examine this statement.
  Isolated weird place, scary Russians, Russian stereotypes of intellectual game + tremendous violence.
  Gee, it almost sounds like this is a too convenient racist lie. Any proof? The oldest reference just says 'it totally happened' and cites something I can't access on Google books. It's 20 years after the fact and not a primary source.
- Hell hath no fury like a competitive nerd being put on a pedestal.
  I think this happens a lot anytime someone who perceives themselves as being shunned by society gets too much positive feedback and an iota of power over people.
  I think its the same reason why every nerdy twitch streamer ends up being outed as an abusive child predator.
- Nice to see an instance of my favorite word in the wild.

'traditional russian values' on display for all to see

- You had the chance to legitimately used 'defenestration' and you didn't jump on it?!
  
  No no, the point is to make someone jump on it. In this case, it was you!
- Russian suicides you mean? Russian has never once in its history killed anyone, they died of their own accord.
- They also started a misinformation campaign about a female boxer's gender.
- This wasn't assassination though, the headline is just deceptive. It was just a lone psycho in Russia trying to kill another Russian. Not an international competition, like was implied in the headline. (Or at least that's the impression I got from the headline.

You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a land war in Ukraine." But only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Russian when death is on the line!"

Oliver Carroll, a Ukraine war correspondent for The Economist, summed up the situation with some social media snark: "I know that on the standards of Russian doping it's perhaps only a 7 out of 10. But still..."

I'm surprised it actually worked. Liquid mercury isn't really that harmful, it's the vapors that get you. I'd be concerned about it affecting me too, since I'd also be sitting at the board.
- It just says attempted poisoning so I'm not even sure it did actually work.
  
  Comments above say the opponent was hospitalized but not killed. I can’t swear to the veracity. There are many forms of mercury though and they vary in toxicity.
- Filters shoved deep in the nostrils maybe?
  
  I’m no chemist but understand the liquid mercury is safe to handle for short periods provided you wash your hands well. It can absorb through your skin over time though.
- Probably not pure mercury but one of the extremely nasty mercury compounds that is easily absorbed through the skin. The victim was very sick.
- Kamikaze poisoning.. people at both sides will be suspects, seems like a good plan.
  
  ever watched the princess bride?

It's a product of the state of a country that calls Gary Kasparov a terrorist. https://www.chess.com/news/view/russia-issues-arrest-warrant-for-kasparov-on-terrorist-charges

Sounds pretty Russian

If chess players do this, what do you think Russian secret service it's capable of?

These chess strategies are getting more and more creative
- I bet all the people who said "chess is a solved game" are feeling really silly right now
  
  People that say that should always feel silly because chess isn't solved.
- They're thinking out of the box now. Or out of the board.
  
  Out of the window.

"I learned it by watching you, Vlad!"
- Someone grew up in the 80s.

The Quicksilver Gambit? In modern chess? We're far beyond that!

Russians doing Russian things

This opening move is called "The Russian Statesman". Very traditional.

- I mean, the article states that the victim did suffer some symptoms, so I wouldn't say they were totally unaffected. If the article is accurate, would it be possible that she was inhaling vapor from the spill? The victim is quoted as saying she had to be at that board for 5 hours, and the Wikipedia article indicates that the primary danger of elemental mercury is inhalation of vapor (it claims 80% absorption rate via respiration, as opposed to the 1% via direct contact). Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant of chemistry, so I've no idea if my speculation is plausible. How much room temp mercury would need to be sitting in front of you before you felt the effects of the vapor. Or even if you would at all, since the CDC website says the vapor is more dense than air.
  Additionally, I noticed that one of the symptoms of mercury inhalation is cognitive impairment. Obviously this is more speculation, but perhaps the intent was not to kill, but rather to sabotage the victim's play? After all, it seems like the perpetrator and the victim were rivals. Could be a Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding situation, just more classically Russian what with the use of poison rather than brute force.
- should've used dimethylmercury
  
  The potion of instant dementia

What is it with Russian athletes (being it mental or physical) just always cheating so much that at this point it's just expected?
Would it have anything to do with living in a dictatorship with a leader who always needs to be perceived as the best with the best countryband the best people because of his policies?
- Russia has enough of a population that crazies pop up. Think Florida man.
- Probably because they were raised in the post-Soviet mafia era.
- Its pretty common practice to cheat. Jon Jones has been getting away with cheating for years.

I don't get this, mercury will absorb into the skin but it's not lethal unless you're exposed to a constant amount over time
- Evidently, she didn't understand that dimethylmercury is not the same thing as elemental mercury.
  
  What’s the difference? (So I don’t embarass myself at my next chess tournament.)

this was a death in paradise episode!
s11e08
- Lol just learned about that series. 100+ murders in the span of a few years in a remote Island with 10k population? Sounds plausible
  
  haha yeah, the murder rate is a bit steep. as someone else said who had pointed it out to me on lemmy, its like comfort food. you kinda know what youre getting, but the characters are well written.
  
  Sounds like a Dexter type show.

This is a story made for all the chess meme communities
Opening move Move poison to c1 Poison opponent

Once again, 105 comments and nothing about the actual article and it's information. Plenty of xenophobic comments against a population of a country (like the U.S. government is that great, so therefor I must be exactly like my political leaders). The Chess players had already competed against each other and the other player who was poisoned won by a default with a tie. There's some other reporting about a confrontation between the two and they've known each other for years apparently.
Chessbase said the dispute was over a recent match between the two in which "both chess players scored the same number of points, but the victory was awarded to Osmanova, based on additional factors."
Another Telegram channel says that the issue was about negative statements made by Osmanova about Abakarova and her family members.
One Russian news outlet said that the two had known each other for years but had recently fought. In this version of the story, Abakarova showed up to one recent match with a phone, which is against the rules. Osmanova was upset but did not tell the judges. "She should have been grateful to me that I didn’t make a fuss and forgave her," Osmanova said. "Instead, Amina refused to shake my hand during the competition last week."
Definitely not ok either way and I hope that they get a sentencing that matches the crime. This is just a bitter crazy person it seems and has nothing to do about poisoning to win a match. Love the disconnect on the sports world and rampant cheating like it doesn't exist everywhere lol.
edit: some grammar
- ...guy fucking lemms.

I told y’all in 2020 - build a giant fence around there and nobody go in for 100 years. After that we’ll check on ‘em. But nooooo “it’s too expensive” pfffft. And now look - it’s . . . whatever this is!
- We could have had Australia 2!

There's a video of her putting the mercury on the board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy1s1Q3knZA&t=36s
- Am I seeing it right thats she's not wearing gloves?
  
  yes, apparently you can touch it and the effects are pretty mild with short exposure if you wash your hands after, most of the toxicity is from the fumes.
  so she touched it but she was only there briefly, while her opponent that she was trying to poison was sitting there breathing in the fumes for 5 hours.

it was all a result of a misunderstanding. his coach told him to focus on the H, G files of the chessboard and he heard that as something else.
- *she
  
  ah, so it was another misunderstanding, then. she was taught that the queen can do absolutely anything on the chess board and proceeded accordingly.
- It took me way too long to realize this was supposed to be a joke because Hg is the chemical symbol for Mercury. Such an easy thing to mishear.

Oooo, I heard putin like chess? Maybe he could play next?

Should have used polonium instead, like the dear leader

Season 2 of The Queen's Gambit sounds crazy.
- Mad Max crossover confirmed

How would it have poisoned just his rival and not also him? Touching it doesn't do much unless you're submerging your skin in it for long periods. The fumes would affect everyone. And it's very unlikely his opponent would have licked the board to ingest the mercury.
- Organic mercury compounds can look like water and absorb quickly through skin, they can be potent enough for just a drop on your skin being deadly, even if you have gloves as it can penetrate quickly through many different rubbers. Metallic doesn't kill you even if you ate it*. With metallic mercury highest risk is vapours but unless you heat it it will only become a problem in poorly ventalated areas.
  *assuming you have no open wounds on your digestive tract and minor chronic damage might be still caused depending on amount and frequency.
  
  Metallic doesn't kill you even if you ate it
  The article says it’s safe to touch and even swallow, but inhaling it causes problems consistent with the victim’s symptoms.
- How would it have poisoned just his rival and not also him?
  Don't know, but both players were women.
- Suicide chess player?

Should have used vibrating anal beads imstead.

If you can't beat'em, kill'em.

Seeing as mercury fumes are the real danger (you can fairly safely handle elemental mercury, it won't absorb into the skin) this seems like an exceptionally poor poisoning attempt. Maybe if you put a fan behind you so the fumes only waft into the opponents face...
- Yeah I have so many questions. How would both players not get poisoned? Does mercury evaporate? I played with thermometer mercury as a child, does that explain things?

Sounds Russian.

Intercepted message:
No no no no no no.
You throw the board out of the window.
The opponent goes "Oh no! My board!" and runs after it.
You have failed the basic training, agent.
- Self defenstration! Genius.