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?
What a weird way to try to poison someone. Mercury is really only poisonous under specific circumstances. Specifically, it is extremely dangerous to breath its vapors.
Touching it, or being near a small amount of it a few feet away really doesn't do anything. It's a safe-ish substance to make casual contact with (still not safe, but not profoundly noxious either).
There have been cases of people surviving drinking and even injecting mercury, as it isn't toxic the way you might think it is under most circumstances.
It is still quite a dangerous thing, and using it maliciously (even if you have no idea what you're doing) is no joke. Fortunately, the person targeted here is likely unaffected by mercury exposure.
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..."
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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!
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.
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...