Dark Side of Chess: The Chess Iceberg - Reinventing the Truth

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

Mark Twain...?

Or perhaps it's an Irish proverb. Ironically, no one truly knows who came up with this quote, but Mark Twain sure could write a good story. This quote could also be applicable when speaking about countless chess anecdotes and tales that have been told over the years. So many in fact, that I was inspired to create my own Chess Iceberg, entailing the stories that really caught my eye. I had originally considered utilising a pyramid structure, with each level of stones representing increasingly more outrageous lies. However, while a pyramid points to the light, the deeper my journey went to uncover many of chess's lies, the further I fell into a cold, dark void. Some of these stories are not for the faint-hearted. After realising this, I decided that it was best to place these tales in order how dark their content is, rather than on the absurdity of their lies. I was inspired by the first chess-related lie I ever came across, which was a light-hearted and fun story about #YoghurtGate. Many chess fans are privy to this humourous anecdote about chess and yoghurt (a meal that was part of a different pyramid: the original Food Pyramid, which turned out to be a lie that was politically guided and based upon corruption, where dodgy research had placed blame on fats, not sugars to promote overconsumption. They were sponsored by corporations, and it all unsurprisingly coincided with the obesity epidemic. But I digress...).

I won't delve too deeply into #YoghurtGate, as this story has been covered by many people. However, to this day, there are droves of chess fans who still believe that Anatoly Karpov was receiving hidden messages inside of his yoghurt in the form of different fruits, to indicate what decisions he should make. This incident was during the 1978 World Chess Championship match against Viktor Korchnoi. What people often fail to mention are the other allegations during this match. These involved wearing mirrored sunglasses to prevent any attempts of hypnosis, as well as requesting Korchnoi's chair be X-rayed for hidden devices. No evidence of any wrongdoing was ever found. It turned out that it was simply two bitter rivals, accusing the other of misdeeds, with the media and the viewers eating it up, the way Karpov ate his completely non-suspicious yoghurt. 

These extra titbits were eye-opening to learn, as even one of the most light-hearted chess stories I knew had a darker side. As I continued on my journey for the truth, many subsequent stories got more sinister. Hence, this Chess Iceberg will go deeper into the chilling depths, in an attempt to uncover the truth (plus, switching away from the pyramid means that I won't end up ranting about the ridiculous food pyramid again). Be warned: while this iceberg will begin with fun, the truth isn't always sunshine and rainbows, and currently, we're just at the tip of the iceberg.

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Contents

• The Mechanical Turk
• The Prodigy Meme
• Chinese Whispers
• Julian Assange's Tweet
• The Middle-Eastern Gambit
• The Chessboard Killer

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The Mechanical Turk

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The Mechanical Turk is quite a common story, so I will attempt to keep this one brief. In 1770, the ruler of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, thoroughly enjoyed magic. One day, she challenged Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen to build a device that would be better than any magic act she had ever seen. After 6 months, Wolfgang returned to the Empress with The Automaton Chess Player (now referred to as The Mechanical Turk). This machine proved capable of beating some of the best players in the world. The Empress was impressed, and for the next 84 years, the Mechanical Turk went on a world tour beating the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon. It even defeated the legendary poet, Edgar Allen Poe, who, when asked if he would he play it again, probably reponded with 'Nevermore' (This is a funny joke, because Poe wrote the poem 'The Raven', which had the iconic refrain "Qouth the Raven, 'Nevermore'").  

It was only after a fire destroyed The Mechanical Turk in 1854 that the truth came out. Over the years, several different chess players had hidden inside of the machine (most notably William Schlumberger) and moved the magnetic chess pieces around from within. While this may seem obvious now, for the better half of century, this machine baffled people from all over the world. Crowds of people would buy tickets to watch this machine beat many of the best players of the 18th and early 19th century. Back then, it was believed that The Mechanical Turk was either operated by thin wires, a trained monkey, or evil spirits. Furthermore, while this is now told as a fun story, this device had tricked people out of their money and fooled some great chess players into believing they were beaten by a magical machine, which was an impossible feat back then (as if a machine could beat humans, am I right?). If a story came out today, that a top player had been handed all of their moves, we would be outraged. However, The Mechanical Turk, a glorified con, has gone down in history as a charming hoax, and an inspiration for AI. 

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The Prodigy Meme

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I have seen this meme on various occasions, all with similar captions. It has popped up in my feed consistently for the good part of a decade. His age would occasionally change slightly, as would the number of players he faced, and their skill level. However, what never changed was the message that he lost every single game. Honestly, I never thought too much of it. I didn't know who Samuel Reshevsky was, so I never questioned it. The comment section would commonly be filled with people making fun of this child, born over 100 years ago.

One day, my curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to learn more about who Samuel Reshevsky was. My thought process was that, if his name hadn't been forgotten, perhaps more information about his life would be remembered. This was when I found out that it was all an internet lie. Shocking, I know. A meme that lies.  

It turns out that Samuel Reshevsky, who later became a Grandmaster, would tour the country when he was a child, playing simultaneous exhibition matches. His record consisted of over 1500 matches played, with only 8 losses. Samuel had played simultaneous games on the day that the prodigy meme photo was taken, just like the meme said, however, the truth is that he had actually won every single game that was played. As per the New York Times in 1920, Samuel had played against and defeated "twenty greybeards" when he was 8 years old. Some of these competitors were amongst the best players in France. 

Later in life, Samuel went on to become an 8-time winner of the US Chess Championship, had a rivalry with Bobby Fischer, published several chess books, and even had a cameo in The Three Musketeers, with Douglas Fairbanks (who was the original Zorro). Personally, it is genuinely a shame that the only times I see his name pop up, is when it is attached to a lie, where he is the punchline. 

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Chinese Whispers

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Before delving into this story, let me explain the gist of what Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) is. Chess and Xiangqi are actually quite similar and have the same goal of checkmating their opponent (there are no checks in Xiangqi). The pieces may look different, but they have the same abilities in both games, however, Xiangqi's board has a 'river', which can impact the pieces movements. Furthermore, Xiangqi is played on a 9x10 grid, while chess is played on an 8x8 grid.  

Now to this sublime story. Yan Chenglong had just been crowned the “Xiangqi King” (The champion of Chinese Chess), after winning a major tournament in December 2023. After his victory, Yan and some of his friends went back to the hotel, and celebrated with some drinks. The next morning, poop hit the fan, or should I say, the bathtub. You heard that right, Yan had defecated in the hotel's bathtub. Following this indiscretion, he was subsequently banned from competing in Chinese Chess for a year by The Chinese Xiangqi Association. He also had his championship title and prize money revoked. They stated that this was due to his inappropriate behaviour, where his excrement had apparently caused damage to hotel property. 

Social media in China went wild over this. Suddenly, there were reports that this wasn't an isolated incident. Apparently, back in 2021, it was alleged that Yan was excessively drinking, which had ended in the same result. The story then evolved into Yan Chenglong being accused of cheating in the same way that Hans Neimman was wrongfully accused of, in 2022 (if you know, you know). People on social media began claiming that Yan was "clenching and unclenching rhythmically", during his games. These lies, perpetuated by social media, got so out of control that Business Insider wrote, "The device (he was using to cheat with) was allegedly found in the bathtub excrement by a hotel employee". The news spread so far that The Chinese Xiangqi Association were forced to release a statement that there was no evidence that Yan Chenglong cheated with 'beads'. 
 

After this fiasco, Yan Chenglong sued The Chinese Xiangqi association for their part in what transpired, as they publicly shared his hotel bathtub escapades first. Yan demanded that they release an apology to restore his reputation, and also pay him 100,000 yuan (14,000 US dollars) in damages (which was the same amount of money he was stripped of). Yan was the man who came number 1. He never denied doing a number 2. According to him, however, he only drank a moderate amount of beer that night. He claimed that it was actually the food he ate that had caused stomach problems, preventing him from making it to the toilet in time. So far, no result of the court case has been announced. However, ironically, a few months later, two of his competitors, the top ranked Wang Tianyi, and Wang Yuefei, were both found to be cheating (although this was through match fixing).

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Julian Assange's Tweet

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One of my absolute best friends is a 79-year-old man named Martin, who has lived an incredible life. A few months ago, when the news hit that Julian Assange was a freed man, Martin came racing straight to my house, and as I opened the door, he screamed out "It was my fault!". Martin is quite eccentric and theatrical. In fact, he had been a theatre director for over 50 years, with over 100 productions under his belt. He barged into my house, sat on the edge of my couch with a folder in his hand, and proceeded to tell me a story.  

In 1978, in the lead up to a show Martin directed and produced, called 'The Revolutionary Sandwich', he held a publicity stunt in the form of a mock protest on the steps of South Australia's Parliament House (my hometown). There was an actress at the front with a rifle, and at the back stood an actor holding a bazooka. These were not prop guns (and this definitely could not happen in 2025). Crowds of people watched on; however, Martin recalls seeing a young child in amongst the crowd, admiring his adopted father (the man holding a bazooka) fighting for a revolution. The child who watched on was Julian Assange. It was as if Martin and I were in a confessional both, and he was admitting to me that this may have been the catalyst that sparked something inside of Julian Assange. Perhaps this ripple effect was the reason Julian Assange founded Wikileaks, which began a revolution of its own.  

This backstory, and my personal connection to it is why this entry really stood out to me. In 2018, while Julian Assange was still being held in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, he sent out a tweet of a chess position. Soon, several people commented, stating that it was checkmate on whites King. They claimed that this meant Julian Assange had won (or had departed the embassy he had been contained in for half of a decade). However, this vocal majority didn’t fully grasp chess. It was only later that some sleuths and chess enthusiasts came on board (literally) and realised that this was, in fact, a position from the infamous game between Marshall and Capablanca in 1918.  

In fact, the position that was shown was from move 24, with the game going for another 12 moves, before black (Marshall) resigned. While white has an advantage, this wasn't a critical position of the game. White had just moved their King out of danger (the complete opposite of what the consensus had claimed online) and was up material. Afterwards, white (Capablanca) was able to consolidate, and win the game. Assange never publicly commented on this tweet, so it is open to interpretation to this day. However, it took another 6 years for him to be freed, so checkmate definitely was not the purpose of his tweet.

Another aspect I love about this, is the lie within a lie, because the game itself has a fictional story of its own. The Marshall Gambit is a popular opening, still being used over 100 years after Frank Marshall created it. There is a myth that Marshall held onto this gambit secretly, saving it solely to use it against Capablanca during this match. However, Capablanca was able to escape this scheme and win the game anyway. Contrary to this belief, Marshall had reportedly played this line a year earlier, in 1917. I will say that I do adore the idea of someone spending years concocting a trap, only to have it be unsuccessful.

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The Middle-Eastern Gambit

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For over a century, there have been countless articles written about corruption in chess at the highest of levels. Bobby Fischer has claimed that the chess games played during the 1985 World Championship between Karpov and Kasparov were pre-arranged. Andrey Filatov, the President of the Russian Chess Federation, stated that the result of the final game between Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju to end the 2024 World Chess Championship was extremely suspicious and should be investigated. The list of accusations goes on; however, no claim has been as wild as Valery Salov's, in relation to the 1995 World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov.

Salov believes that over the years, chess games have been used as rituals that brought forth devastating world events. He claimed these games were played to "Express their general contempt of humanity". Salov stated that "This is because chess is part of the control process, and the model of life". There has been no incident more tragic that Salov had connected to these rituals, than the events that took place on September the 11th, 2001. Salov's evidence is that the 1995 World Chess Championship was held in the World Trade Centre, with the first 8 game resulted in peaceful draws, before descending into bloodshed. Suddenly, from the 9th until the 11th of September (which were also games 9-11), each contest involved a rook sacrifice (a piece also known as a tower), all resulting in definitive results. Salov believes that Anand and Kasparov not only cheated, but should face criminal charges for being complicit (or being political puppets) in what he dubbed as The Middle-Eastern Gambit.

When fact checking this improbable story, I learnt that the World Chess Championship for 1995 began on the 10th of September, which means that game 9 could never have been played on the 9th. I also looked into other views that Salov has publicly shared about these rituals. He has accused many other high-profile players, believing that it relates to having a last name begin with the letters K, B or L. The 11 players he said should be banned, as they all fit his criteria as cheaters who are being influenced are Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Khalifman, Keene, Kok, Anand, Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian and Kirsan (both Carlsen and Caruana would be spelt with a K in Russia). It should be mentioned that Kirsan, is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's first name, and Salov focused on K's and A's in his list of bans, after speaking on the significance of K, B and L. 

Salov wrote that his beliefs "are not conspiracies but rather SINCERACIES". Yes, he capitalised the word 'sinceracies' (sincerities). I am sure that he is sincere about what he believes in. When looking further into Salov's life, I learnt that he suffered from blood disease in the 1990's, which increased his risk of brain damage. During this time, and before 2001, Kasparov had referred to Salov as "Mentally damaged". I want state that my goal here isn't to speculate on Salov's mental health, otherwise, I would be forming my own conspiracy, based upon my sincerities, when I would rather focus on the facts.  

The simple fact is, a few coincidences does not signify proof. Both Anand and Kasparov have been quite prevalent in sacrificing.... THE ROOK!!! throughout their careers, so these particular games are in no way a rarity for them. Sometimes, people will search so hard to find a reason that will explain a horrific event. Most of us have heard conspiracies that September the 11th was an inside job or a controlled demolition. There are even beliefs that there were no planes involved. It can be difficult for many people to accept that sometimes, atrocities happen in the world, and there aren't any good answers. No one wins and there's nothing more to it. And that's a hard truth to accept.

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the Chessboard Killer

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Alexander Pichushkin has been described as being quite normal as a child. However, one day when he was 4 years old, while playing at Bitsevsky park, he fell off of a swing. This swing proceeded to strike him in the forehead as it swung back. It is speculated that this damaged Pichushkin's frontal cortex, affecting his ability to regulate his aggression. He was transferred to a school for children with learning disabilities soon after.

His Grandparents didn't like this decision, because they saw Pichushkin as highly intelligent. His grandpa (dedushka) was worried that this school wasn't supporting his intellectual needs and introduced him to chess. Pichushkin soon became better at chess than his grandpa, so his grandma (babushka) began bringing him to Bitsevsky park (the scene of his swing accident), where many elderly men would play chess against him. His grandma believed that this would help him manage his aggression. However, when she wasn't around him, he would record himself threatening younger children at the park.

After Pichushkin's grandpa passed away, his aggressive tendencies grew, leading him to murder.  It has been suggested that once he became an adult, he would play chess at Bitsevsky park against the older men (most of whom were homeless), while drinking vodka. After their chess games ended, Pichushkin would offer them vodka if they came with him to visit his dogs grave, which was buried in this same park. When they reached this supposed burial ground (there is no evidence that his dog was buried at Bitsevsky park), he would push them down a 30ft well that led to a sewer, plummeting to their death. This pattern was mostly followed until his 41st kill, who he struck with a hammer to the skull (not too dissimilar to how he was struck as a child). Afterwards, Pichushkin stuck a bottle of vodka inside of the victim's shattered skull and left him there. This man turned out to be Nikolai Zakarchenko, a former police officer. It was only then, that the police decided to take a more active role in apprehending the murderer. Many people have believed that the police were acting to catch The Chessboard Killer before he reached his goal of killing 63 people, one for each square of a chessboard, with Pichushkin's death acting as the 64th and final square. Every victim after Zakarchenko's was brutally killed in the same fashion, with a hammer to the skull, followed by inserting the vodka bottle into the wound. Rumours insisted that Pichushkin was caught just shy of his goal and sentenced to life in prison (with the first 15 years to be spent in solitary confinement).
 

In reality, Pichushkin was only labelled The Chessboard Killer after his final murder, to a victim who didn't even play chess. Before being caught, he had been labelled as The Bitsevsky Maniac. His real motivation was actually to beat Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian serial killer who was convicted of 52 murders. Pichushkin was convicted of killing 48 people (with 3 others surviving). Pichushkin had no intention of stopping or killing himself. In fact, Pichushkin himself has changed the number of people he claims to have killed several times, claiming 48, 49, 61, and even said that it was so high that he had simply lost count. Pichushkin had stated that he would have continued to kill after reaching 63, because "For me, a life without murder is like a life without food for you".

It is claimed that he had the dates of the murders written on a chessboard in his home. Yet, every official report states that he actually noted it in his notebook, not on a real chessboard. During his trial, the forensic psychologist stated that Pichushkin sketched a chessboard in this notebook and would write the date that corresponded with the alleged murders, to "maintain the bridge between his dreamed desires and the reality of acting out his fantasy". This is important, because I have read so many articles, and watched a few videos that show a chessboard they claim is real, yet the chessboard they show only has numbers, not dates. This could be because the people who made it didn't know every date that he killed his victims on. I can't officially prove that these images are fake, but I have come across two pictures online, both claiming to be real, complete with numbers written on a chessboard, perpetuating a false narrative. One example is in a video by MrBallen, which has accumulated 7.7 million views at the making of this blog. At 30 minutes and 25 seconds of his video, McBallen says "The police searched his apartment and found his notebook.... and in Alexanders notebook, this chessboard had 62 of the 64 squared filled in". He said this all while showing a picture of a real chessboard, that had 61 squares filled in with numbers, that he labelled "Real photo of Alexander's chessboard". 

Although chess and his aggression were suggested to be Pichushkin's motivator, with articles writing that the killer was "so obsessed with chess" in their clickbait titles, many of his kills were unrelated to chess. 10 of his murders were of his neighbours, and another 3 were dates that he had gone on. The older men in the park were more related to convenience and the loss of his grandpa, rather than to chess itself. Pichushkin stated that "I had to get to know the person I killed, to hear their voice, to know their plans and dreams - because it was important for me not to simply kill flesh, but to kill a human being". 

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Final Thoughts

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Firstly, there were many more stories that I wanted to cover, however, as this blog grew, I accepted that icebergs are much better at shrinking. For example, I desperately wanted to write about the mercury poisoning of Umayganat Osmanova, by Amina Abakarova, during an over the board match in August 2024. In the end, I decided not to, based upon the length of this blog, as well as the fact that the truth hasn't fully been revealed yet. I would have also enjoyed adding more about The Mechanical Turk and #YoghurtGate, because they are fascinating stories. Alas, this is a blog, not a novel. Furthermore, I chose not to cover stories such as the Neimman vs Magnus saga, other than namedropping it during Chinese Whispers, because everything about this situation has already been written by many others. 

Being a blogger and writer myself, I know all too well about wanting to capture the reader's attention, however, in The Prodigy Meme, #YoghurtGate, Chinese Whispers and The Chessboard Killer, the parts of the stories that were fabricated didn't need to be for a reader to find them interesting. Furthermore, in relation to Julian Assange's Tweet, The Mechanical Turk and The Middle-Eastern Gambit, there is nothing wrong with not knowing the answers or having a guess. The issue is when guesses are painted as facts. One of my mantras is that it's always good to ask questions, but it isn't healthy if you feel like you need every question answered. While many of these stories have enough facts to determine the truth behind them, some things in life will never be answered, and that's okay. A puzzle doesn't need every piece for us to know what the picture is, and a chess game is easier to solve when there are less pieces on the board.

We have made it to the very depths of The Chess Iceberg. What began as a fun journey, scaling down the ice cliffs, definitely got a little cold and dark, especially near the bottom. I would suggest a nice warm bath to relax, but I feel like it's a little too soon (I'm looking at you, Yan Chenglong). Thank you so much for reading my blog. Feel free to let me know in the comments if there were any other chess stories, where you felt the truth was reinvented. I hope you all have a beautiful day.