Julian Assange has today offered the world his most mysterious tweet so far: a chess position. With no comment. And presented to the world in the wee small hours: at 4:34am, Greenwich Mean Time.
The tweet did not go unnoticed and many users began to speculate about its meaning. A chess fan discovered that the chess board situation used by Assange was from the historic game between José Raúl Capablanca and Frank James Marshall, played in New York in 1918, and considered to be a masterpiece of defensive play.
Some have argued that this message shows that Assange is close to victory and therefore predict that he will soon be able to put an end to his five-year period at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The fight to #FreeAssange isn't just any fight. It's about human rights, and gov't overreach. It's about corruption at the top and it's about one man's courage to expose it all. Support @JulianAssange pic.twitter.com/cwFJzqG4yi
And other social media users used the occasion to come out in defence of Assange and the freedom of expression.