A hastily deleted YouTube video has sparked a scandal at the World Chess Championship.
Eagle-eyed chess writers spotted an open laptop in the clip, which some say revealed the chess strategies US challenger Fabiano Caruana planned on using in the competition.
They also recognised references to three chess grandmasters — Leinier Dominguez, Alejandro Ramirez and Ioan-Cristian Chirila — with some suggesting the trio was working with Caruana to formulate his battle plan against Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen.
If these chess grandmasters were helping the American, this could give Carlsen's team major hints about Caruana's strategy.
The two-minute clip, posted to the Saint Louis Chess Club's YouTube channel on Tuesday, has since been deleted.
But that was after chess commentator Olimpiu Urcan cut an eight-second GIF of the clip.
On Twitter, the chess writer questioned whether the "leak" could have been a strategic ploy from Caruana's camp.
"The greatest intel blunder in chess history or a hoax?" he said.
Fellow chess writer John Hartmann took to Twitter to voice suspicions it may have been published on purpose as a bluff.
But Carlsen's manager, Espen Agdestein, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK he thought the leak was genuine.
"I know that it's quick to make such mistakes when you're shooting," Mr Agdestein said.
"There is a much greater likelihood that they have made a mistake than they have done on purpose."
Caruana declined to comment when the video was brought up at a tournament press conference, but Carlsen was more animated when asked about the clip.
"I'll have a look at the video … then make up my mind," he said.
Carlsen and Caruana are competing for the world title in a best-of-12 contest, which is now up to the fifth round.
The fourth round resulted in a stalemate, with the overall points tally deadlocked at 2-2.
Games one, two and three were also draws.
Carlsen is currently ranked as the world number one and is the reigning champion after taking out the title in 2013.
Caruana is ranked at number two.
The prize pool is $1.56 million, with the winner set to pocket more than $930,000.
The fifth game is slated for the early hours of tomorrow morning, 3:00pm London time, with the championship expected to wrap up on November 28.
