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It has been 50 years since the most famous chess match of all time – a Cold War clash that saw the US and the Soviet Union battle over a chessboard.

America’s Bobby Fischer eventually defeated world champion Boris Spassky, but the contest was far bigger than just two men and 64 squares. It always had been.

The game of chess has existed for nearly 1,500 years, but in the 20th century it became a vessel for the US and the USSR to vie for intellectual supremacy – amid allegations of collusion and scandal.

The popular game is now back in the news after world number one Magnus Carlsen lost in a shock upset to Hans Niemann, and allegations of cheating against Neumann followed.

Sky News takes a look at some of the biggest scandals in the history of Chess, and how it has shaped our geopolitics.

Magnus Carlsen calls out Hans Niemann and says cheating is an ‘existential threat’ to chess

It’s the scandal that has been rumbling on for weeks and has now boiled over with an explosive statement from Magnus Carlsen.

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Carlsen, the current world number one and widely considered to be one of the best of all time, pulled out of a tournament earlier this month after losing to teenager Hans Niemann.

Later, in an online rematch against Niemann, Carlsen resigned after making only one move.

The pair of defeats for the game’s best active player led to allegations of cheating against Niemann, who had been ranked significantly lower than Carlsen.

On Monday, Carlsen issued a blistering statement on Twitter saying that he thought Niemann “has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted”.

Niemann has admitted to cheating in online games in the past, but has rejected any suggestions he has ever done so in over the board (in person) chess or that he has used computer assistance in a major tournament.

1962: Bobby Fischer cries foul over a series of Soviet draws

The Carlsen-Niemann feud may be under the spotlight, but it’s by no means the first scandal to hit the chess world.

Ten years before his famous match-up with Spassky, Bobby Fischer claimed that Soviet players were colluding at the 1962 Candidates Tournament.

Controversial player Fischer alleged that the Soviets had conspired to prevent any non-Soviet from winning the tournament.

He claimed that the players who eventually finished as the top three – Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres and Efin Geller – had prearranged to draw all 12 of the their games against each other in order to conserve their energy for the end of the tournament.

In a 2002 interview Yuri Averbakh, who was head of the Soviet team, confirmed the existence of the drawing pact.

Chess as a battleground for the Cold War

In the 1960s and 1970s the Cold War was in full swing and chess was highly popular and seen as a battleground between the Soviet Union and America.

“For the Soviet Union, supremacy at the chess board was a demonstration – as its rulers saw it – of the superiority of their socialist system over the Western capitalist one”, English Chess Federation Dominic Lawson told the BBC in 2005.

Fischer’s victory over the Russian Spassky is probably the most famous chess matchup of all time and – briefly – ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Championship.

Three French masters accused of trying to cheat by text

Three French masters-level players were suspended after they were accused of using an elaborate text scheme to cheat at a tournament in 2010.

Cyril Marzolo followed developments over the internet and used computer software to establish the best next move, the BBC reported.

The move was then sent in a coded text message to another member of the team, Arnaud Hauchard, who would then sit at a particular table in the competition hall to communicate the move to Sebastien Feller who was playing the game.

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Mexican navy training vessel hits New York’s Brooklyn Bridge – as reports say three injured

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Mexican navy training vessel hits New York's Brooklyn Bridge - as reports say three injured

A Mexican navy ship has hit the Brooklyn Bridge during a promotional tour in New York City.

The New York Fire Department said authorities were responding to injuries but had no details about how many people might have been hurt or whether they were on the vessel or on the bridge.

Sky’s US partner network NBC News reports that at least three people were seriously injured in the incident.

The Mexican navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in the accident, which has prevented it from continuing its voyage.

Eyewitness video of the collision posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a large Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.

The Mexican navy said the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.

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The Cuauhtemoc is about 297ft long and 40ft wide, according to the Mexican navy. It sailed for the first time in 1982.

A New York Police Department harbour unit prepares to board the Cuauhtemoc. Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Each year, it sets out at the end of classes at the naval military school to finish cadets’ training.

It left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on 6 April with 277 people onboard, the navy said at the time.

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One person dead after explosion outside fertility clinic in California

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One person dead after explosion outside fertility clinic in California

One person has died in a bomb explosion near a reproductive health clinic in California, authorities have said.

The incident took place in Palm Springs, a city two hours east of Los Angeles, and is being investigated as a possible car explosion.

The city’s mayor Ron DeHarte said one person died in the blast, adding that the bomb was “either in or near” a vehicle. The deceased’s identity is not known, Palm Springs police said.

Dr Maher Abdallah, who runs the American Reproductive Centers clinic, told the Associated Press his facility was damaged but all staff were safe and accounted for.

The explosion damaged the office space where the practice conducts patient consultations, but the IVF lab and stored embryos were unharmed, he added.

“I really have no clue what happened,” he said. “Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients.”

Debris covers the ground after an explosion on Saturday, May 17, 2025 in Palm Springs, Calif.  (ABC7 Los Angeles via AP)
Image:
Debris covers the ground after the explosion. Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP

In a statement posted on Facebook the clinic said it was “heartbroken” to learn someone died in the explosion and added: “Our deepest condolences go out to the individuals and families affected.”

It continued: “Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is.

“In the face of this tragedy, we remain committed to creating hope – because we believe that healing begins with community, compassion, and care.

The clinic will be fully operational on Monday, it added.

“This moment has shaken us – but it has not stopped us. We will continue to serve with strength, love, and the hope that brings new life into the world,” the statement concluded.

Debris covers the ground after an explosion on Saturday, May 17, 2025 in Palm Springs, Calif.  (ABC7 Los Angeles via AP)
Image:
Pic: ABC7 Los Angeles/AP

The Palm Springs city government said in a post on Facebook that the explosion happened on North Indian Canyon Drive, near East Tachevah Drive, before 11am local time (6pm GMT).

A burned-out car can be seen in a parking lot behind the building in aerial footage.

The blast caved in the clinic’s roof and blew debris across four lanes of the road.

Another person said he was inside a cannabis dispensary nearby when he felt a massive explosion.

Nima Tabrizi said: “The building just shook, and we go outside and there’s massive cloud smoke.”

Investigators from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are travelling to the scene to help assess what happened.

California governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said.

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James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director’s seashells post ‘meant assassination’

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James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director's seashells post 'meant assassination'

A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.

James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.

James Comey, then the FBI Director, in July  2016. File pic: AP/J. Scott Applewhite
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James Comey later removed the Instagram post. File pic: AP

He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.

One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.

Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.

Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.

“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”

Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.

Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.

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Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.

While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.

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