The Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) has announced the suspension of Dagestani chess player Amina Abakarova from all competitions following allegations that she spilled mercury near her opponent's board during a tournament in Makhachkala. 

In a statement published on August 7, CFR President Andrey Filatov stated that Abakarova would remain suspended until law enforcement concluded its investigation, with potential penalties including a lifetime disqualification.

The incident took place at the Dagestan Chess Championship on August 2. In surveillance footage shared online, 40-year-old Abakarova can be seen alone in the chess tournament room, before walking to one of the tables. She then is seen spilling mercury near one of the chess boards. The board scheduled to be used by European champion Umayganat Osmanova. Osmanova began feeling dizzy and nauseous during the competition and promptly alerted other players. The discovery of the poisonous substance led to the immediate pausing of the tournament and the involvement of the police.

According to reports from Russian state media, Abakarova was detained on the same day.  She confessed to the police, citing personal animosity towards Osmanova as her motivation. Abakarova claimed she wanted to scare Osmanova, who had allegedly spoken ill of her and her relatives.

Additional reports from the Telegram channel Mash suggested that Abakarova believed Osmanova had secretly recorded her games in a previous tournament and might have stolen her tactics. 

Speaking on August 7, Dagestan's Minister of Sports Sajid Sajidov confirmed that nobody else other than Osmanova was harmed. Abakarova is currently faces charges of “causing minor harm to health."

“Like many others, I am perplexed by what happened, and the motives of such an experienced athlete as Amina Abakarova are also incomprehensible to me,” Sajidov said. “The actions she took could have led to the most tragic outcome, they threatened the lives of everyone in the chess house, including herself. Now she will have to answer for what she did before the law.”

Despite the ordeal, Osmanova made a full recovery and resumed the tournament when it restarted three days later, ultimately finishing in second place.

Although the first Chess-related incident, the poisoning of Osmanova is the latest in a long line of Russian poisoning stories to hit the headlines. In 2020, Russian dissent Alexey Navalny was famously poisoned via his underpants by the Russian state, before he was eventually saved by a German hospital. Russian political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza has also been a victim of poisoning, while Russian-British double agent Sergei Skripal was targeted by the Novichok nerve agent in the United Kingdom.