A Russian chess champion has been suspended after poisoning her childhood rival ahead of a match by smearing deadly mercury over her pieces.

Amina Abakarova, 43, is reported to have said she attacked Umayganat Osmanova out of revenge for a personal insult.

She has been arrested and faces up to three years in jail if found guilty.

Security footage captures the moment Ms Abakarova entered the hall where the tournament was to take place last Friday in Makhachkala, southern Russia, and appeared to be making the preparations for the poisoning.

She is seen looking around as she casually approaches her opponent’s table before taking something from her bag – seemingly a vial – and smearing its contents on Ms Osmanova’s board and some of her pieces.

Ms Osmanova suffered “severe dizziness and nausea” soon after the game began and required medical attention.

“We have video proof showing that one of the players at the Dagestani chess championship, Amina Abakarova from the city of Makhachkala, applied an unidentified substance, which later turned out to contain mercury, to the table where Umayganat Osmanova from the city of Kaspiisk was set to play against her,” said Sazhid Sazhidov, the president of the Russian Republic of Dagestan for physical culture and sports.

A judge from the tournament reported the incident to police, with CCTV footage confirming that Ms Abakarova had been present.

Malcolm Pain, English Chess Federation director of international chess, said that he had “never seen anything like this before”.

“This is the first recorded case of somebody using a toxic substance, to my knowledge, in the history of the game of chess,” he told The Telegraph. “This is off the scale.”

He said that “psychological” tactics were normally wielded in the world of chess, with players sometimes going to extreme lengths to throw off their opponents.

Sazhida Sazhidova, the Russian minister of sport, said he was “perplexed” by Ms Abarakova’s misdeeds.

“Like many others, I am perplexed by what happened, and the motives of such an experienced competitor as Amina Abakarova are incomprehensible,” he said.

“The actions she took could have led to a most tragic outcome, threatening the lives of everyone who was present, including herself. Now she must answer for what she did by the law.”

Ms Abakarova is said to have told other competitors at the tournament that her actions were to “take revenge” for “nasty things [Ms Osmanova said] about her and her relatives behind her back” and that the attack was fuelled solely by “personal hostility” and to “scare” Ms Osmanova.

Despite the scare, Ms Osmanova continued in the tournament and won one of the prize places, according to reports in Russian media.

Alexander Tkachyov, the Russian Chess Federation executive director, told Tass his organisation was considering giving Ms Abakarova a lifetime ban.

“We are waiting for the investigation from law enforcement bodies,” Mr Tkachyov said. 

“If the other chess player is found guilty, our [RCF] reaction will be stiff, possibly a lifetime ban.”

He added: “We regret that such an incident took place at a chess tournament.

“We have no doubt that law enforcement bodies will get to the bottom of the incident and we wish the injured player a quick recovery and that she is back at a chessboard as soon as possible.”

The fierce 1972 world championship showdown between the grandmaster rivals Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov was one such example.

Korchnoi, a member of the Communist party, famously wore mirrored glasses to hide his eyes from Karpov in the 1978 world chess championship. Karpov complained that the lenses reflected light into his eyes.

Karpov later requested that his opponent’s chair be examined for “prohibited devices” and resorted to swivelling his own chair during games in an apparent attempt to put off his opponent.

In 2023, Hans Niemann, a chess grandmaster, was accused of sneaking anal beads into his game against Magnus Carlsen which helped him clinch a win.

Niemann denied the allegations that he was using the sex toy to receive outside instructions, leading to a legal row that the pair resolved out of court.

Niemann admitted to cheating online when he was 12 and 16 years old, but denied any wrongdoing while contesting over-the-board games.