A Russian Chess Player Allegedly Poisoned Her Opponent With Mercury

Russia is no stranger to unique poisonings. State agents have been known to use everything from polonium-laced tea to the deadly nerve agent "novichok" when making assassination attempts against both defectors in the UK and internal political rivals like Alexei Navalny. But a new "first" in the long history of poisonings was opened this month in the Russian republic of Dagestan, where a fortysomething chess player named Amina Abakarova allegedly attempted to poison a rival by depositing liquid mercury on and around her chess board. Malcolm Pein, the English Chess...