By Todd Russell
Tomorrow, July 20, the chess community will celebrate National Chess Day. Let’s revisit a story from 2024 that reminds that winning and losing with grace is important.
This story takes desire to win at a game — by any means — to ludicrous human levels:
“Around 20 minutes before the match was due to start, security camera footage caught Abakarova approaching the table, before smearing liquid mercury from a thermometer over the chess board and pieces. According to Chess.com, Abakarova had asked prior to this whether cameras were in use at the venue, and had been told they weren’t.” – via Russian chess player faces jail after video shows her allegedly poisoning opponent with mercury: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’ | PC Gamer
Look, I’m not that good at chess, am competitive and like to win, but can’t see any parallel reality where I’m ever poisoning an opponent. Not for any game, not for any reason, period. This is straight up nuts.
Have you heard any other game where an opponent has done something this … evil?