Dark Side Of The Board ~ The Chess Board Killer, Part 2

The Chessboard of Bones

In Moscow's shadows, His name was whispered, in fear and dread Alexander Pichushkin, the Chessboard Killer, With chessboard cold, and heart of stone He'd sacrifice pawns, and make them atone

Alexander Pichushkin name still echoes through the annals of true crime history, his story is a chilling reminder that brilliance and evil can coexist. Behind the unassuming facade of a chess enthusiast, lurked a sinister mind, calculating and ruthless. In this blog, I'll delve into the twisted world of Pichushkin, exploring his dual persona - a chess prodigy and a serial killer.

Early Life and Chess Brilliance

Pichushkin's love affair with chess began at a tender age. He spent hours studying the game, mastering strategies, and analyzing moves. His dedication earned him a reputation as a skilled player in Moscow's chess circles. The game became an escape, a way to exercise his intellect and feed his competitive spirit.

He is a prolific Russian Serial Killer who murdered 48 people. His goal was to kill at least 64 people (the same number of squares on a chessboard) so that he could surpass his idol, Andrei Chikatilo.

Alexander Pichushkin (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ю́рьевич Пичу́шкин) also known as the Chessboard Killer (Russian: Убийца с шахматной доской) and the Bitsa Park Maniac (Russian: Битцевский маньяк)was born on April 9, 1974 in the Russian part of the Soviet Union ; Mytishchi, on 2 Khersonskaya Street in Moscow proper. He lived there with his mother Natalia Elmouradovna, his younger half-sister, her husband, and their son in a two-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor. He was initially a sociable child, but that all changed when he suffered a head injury, causing a shift in his behavior. He fell off a swing and was hit on head by the swing on its way back.

While it may seem like a minor childhood accident, Pichushkin's family claims that the event marked a change in his demeanor. Instead of being a normal, sociable child, He became hostile and impulsive, and he was frequently bullied at school. Eventually, his mother decided to transfer him to a special needs school; however, upon reaching early adolescence, his grandfather removed him from said school. This was because he regarded Pichushkin to be intelligent, and the school was focused more on overcoming disability rather than promoting achievement.

Pichushkin moved in with his grandfather and was taught how to play chess. As a result, Pichushkin spent a lot of time in Bitsa park- a large, natural park in southeast Moscow- where he played exhibition games with older gentlemen. Unfortunately, Pichushkin continued to be bullied by mainstream students in his adolescence, and things took a turn for the worse when his grandfather died, which devastated him and led to a vodka addiction. He returned to his mother's home and enrolled as a student. Meanwhile, Pichushkin kept playing chess in Bitsa Park and also developed a sadistic hobby in which he would record himself threatening children. He watched these videos repeatedly to reaffirm his power, but his murderous urges were not satisfied.

The Dark Descent

As Pichushkin's chess prowess grew, so did his fascination with death and violence. He began to see his victims as mere pawns, disposable pieces to be used and discarded. The thrill of the hunt, the strategic planning, and the ultimate checkmate – it all became a grotesque game to him. His mind warped, Pichushkin started to believe he was above the law, a master of fate.

The Murders

Between 2001 and 2006, Pichushkin terrorized Moscow, claiming the lives of 48 people, mostly elderly men. He'd lure them to secluded areas, bludgeon them to death, and then mark the locations on a chessboard, keeping track of his "wins." The police were baffled, unable to connect the dots between the seemingly unrelated murders.  

He claimed that while killing people he felt like God as he decided whether his victims should live or die. "For me, life without killing is like life without food for you" he once said. "I felt like the father of all these people, since it was I who opened the door for them to another world". Experts at the Serbsky Institute, Russia's main psychiatric clinic, have found Pichushkin irrecuperable.

On July 27, 1992, 18-year-old Pichushkin committed his first murder.  He planned on killing people with a friend, Mikhail Odichuk, who thought that he was only joking. When Odichuk realized that his classmate was being serious, he tried to back out of the situation. Enraged, Pichushkin struck his friend with a hammer and pushed his body into a well. Three days later, Pichushkin was questioned by police about Odichuk's death. There was some evidence pointing to his guilt, but nothing ever came out of the investigation.

On May 17, 2001, Pichushkin was in Bitsa Park, playing chess with a man named Yevgeny Pronin. When the game ended, he invited Pronin to take a walk with him. Pichushkin, who used to own a dog, told him it was the anniversary of his beloved pet's death and that he wanted to visit his grave. Pronin accompanied him, and they reached an isolated spot in the park. Pichushkin then produced a bottle of vodka and offered him a drink, which he accepted. The two men drank a toast to the dog before Pichushkin suddenly bludgeoned Pronin and dumped his body into a nearby well.

Maria Viricheva was one of the very few people lucky enough to survive Pichushkin. On February 23, 2002, he lured the pregnant saleswoman into Bitsa Park and pushed her into the same well where most of his victims were disposed of. When she clung to the sides, he held her by the hair and smashed her head against the concrete walls repeatedly before she fell. He left, believing her to be dead. Fortunately, she survived and managed to climb out of the well without suffering a miscarriage. Viricheva reported the crime to the police, but since she was an illegal immigrant, she was forced to drop her claim that Pichushkin had attempted to kill her.

Another survivor was Mikhail Lobov, a teenage skater. On March 10, 2002, after being led by Pichushkin into Bitsa Park with the promise of cigarettes and vodka, he was struck over the head and pushed down the well. Thinking that the boy was dead, Pichushkin left the scene. Luckily, Lobov's jacket had gotten caught on a piece of metal inside the well, saving him from plummeting into the icy waters. He was able to climb out. Days later, he confronted Pichushkin, only to be threatened with arrest by the police.

The police began to take the murders more seriously when a former policeman named Nikolai Zakharchenko turned up dead. Murdered on November 16, 2005, his body had been left out in the open instead of being disposed of in the well, presumably as a sort of challenge for the police. Pichushkin had started to become cocky by leaving bodies out in plain sight, but he was still careful enough to avoid capture. 

Pichushkin committed his final murder on June 14, 2006. Marina Moskalyova worked at the same store where another woman, Larissa Kulygina, had worked at before suddenly vanishing; she had been killed by Pichushkin, who was a co-worker, on April 12. Despite this, Kulygina's strange disappearance did not seem to phase Moskalyova, assuming she was even aware of it. She took a walk with her co-worker into Bitsa Park, where he then struck her with a hammer. What Pichushkin did not know was that shortly before going with him, Moskalyova had left a note for her son, telling him where she was going and who was with her. The note also contained his phone number. The boy called Pichushkin, who told him that he had not seen his mother. Obviously suspicious, the boy informed his father about this, who then proceeded to call the police. Another thing Pichushkin was unaware of was that Moskalyova's clothing contained a metro ticket. CCTV footage from the station where she had bought said ticket was reviewed, which displayed Pichushkin walking alongside her. Two days later, he was arrested.

One particular piece of evidence against Pichushkin was the fact that he kept a logbook around. Said logbook contained 64 squares inside, much like a chessboard. Each square represented someone who was killed. 62 had been filled in, which was later lowered to 60 when Pichushkin learned that two of his victims (presumably Viricheva and Polikarpov) had survived. Out of the alleged 60 murders, 48 were confirmed. According to Pichushkin, he idolized Andrei  Chikatilo, another serial killer who committed horrific killings in Russia, He killed 53 teenagers and children in southern Russia between 1978 and 1990. Pichushkin stated that his goal was to surpass his idol's confirmed body count of 53 victims by murdering at least 64 people, representing the number of squares on a chessboard. Pichushkin also said that even if he did reach 64 murders, he would kill more people unless he was stopped. Chikatilo, the Soviet Union’s most prolific serial killer, was arrested in 1990, condemned to death and executed in 1994. Before him the country’s most notorious serial killer was Vassily Komarov, a horse dealer, who was known as The Wolf of Moscow, who killed 33 people in the 1920s.

He initially denied everything and said he is not the one they are looking for. But within a couple of hours of interrogation, Pichushkin confessed the murder of Marina Moskalyova. The final pieces of her murder are coming together. He met marina on June 13 and invited her for a picnic. According to his confession, they sat for hours alone while he was contemplating whether to kill her or not. He eventually decided to take her life, as life would have become torture for him otherwise. 

On October 27, 2007, Pichushkin was convicted of murder and attempted murder. He asked the Russian court to add more victims to his body count. During his trial, he was kept in a glass cage for his own protection. The judge took an hour to read the verdict, which was life imprisonment with the first fifteen years to be spent in solitary confinement. As of now, Pichushkin is still in solitary confinement, but in 2016, a woman known only as Natalya visited him, and the two actually ended up getting married.

Modus Operandi

Pichushkin would usually lure his victims with the promise of vodka or other promising items. He mostly targeted homeless men, but he also sometimes went after women and children. Once he got his victims to a secluded spot in a nearby forest, he would trick them into paying respect to his deceased dog. While the victim was busy doing that, Pichushkin would bludgeon them with a hammer. The blows were usually enough to kill them, but other times, he would throw them down a well while they were still alive, sometimes not even using the hammer at all. The well was where he typically disposed of the bodies, but he later began leaving them out in the open. Pichushkin often shoved broken bottles of vodka into the gaping holes of his victims' skulls. As a way of keeping count, he would also carry around a chessboard and fill in a square whenever he killed someone.

The Chess Board

Pichushkin's chessboard became a twisted trophy case, a map of his macabre conquests. Each square, a grim reminder of a life extinguished, a pawn sacrificed in his twisted game of death. The chessboard, once a symbol of intellectual pursuits and strategic brilliance, had been transformed into a grotesque canvas, illustrating the depths of Pichushkin's depravity.

As he meticulously marked each square, corresponding to the location of his victims, the chessboard became a chilling testament to his calculating nature. It was an eerie archive of his heinous crimes, a record of the lives he had callously discarded. The chessboard, now a haunting artifact, seemed to whisper tales of the terror he inspired, its squares stained with the blood of the innocent.

In this twisted world, Pichushkin was the master, orchestrating a symphony of death, with each move meticulously planned and executed. The chessboard, his twisted trophy case, stood as a grim reminder of his reign of terror, a haunting legacy that would forever be etched in the annals of history.

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Sources

Wikipedia Article on Pichushkin

MurderPedia’s Article on Pichushkin