A trio of people taking part in a friendly game of chess at a busy Toronto attraction managed to film a racist encounter that could have gone much, much worse had they not reacted so coolly and collectedly.

A streamer recording herself and her friends playing the board game at Nathan Phillips Square witnessed harassment by a random passerby who, though not pictured, can be heard spewing racist remarks and other aggressive nonsense in the video.

During the short 30-second clip, the three individuals look up from their match as a man begins verbally attacking a third-party nearby for no reason, saying out of nowhere, "I'm sitting here minding my business, you don't f***ing think about me, you f***ing goof."

He seems to get closer as his voice gets louder and more clear on the camera, with the players just sitting and staring in confused disbelief.

Trigger warning: The following video contains a racial slur. 

A streamer and her friends were racially harassed while playing chess in Toronto pic.twitter.com/w4YhHKQxBX

— 6ixBuzzTV (@6ixbuzztv) July 21, 2023

As the stranger continues on his strange, expletive-filled rant about them "standing there and vegetating," he drops a shocking racial slur. Though the group seems suddenly very uncomfortable, they don't react, and continue to sit calmly, appearing quite worried about what the man may do next.

The streamer, at one point, looks across the table at her opponent and makes a "well, that was weird" sort of expression, and the two eventually break into smiles, seeming very relieved that the person decided to leave them alone after they gave him no response to work with.

It is this poise that viewers of the video are applauding the friends for.

I feel so badly for them. Just minding their own business. Kudos to how politely and civilly they handled it even tho that guy deserved a slap.

— schmoozenews (@schmoozenews) July 21, 2023

Many liked how the group handled the situation like mature adults, and speculate that the attacker may have been suffering from mental health and/or substance abuse issues, which means that no reaction was likely the best reaction — as tempting as it would have been to try and hold the person accountable.

The post comes a day after another man was witnessed uttering the same racial slur at a group of kids over Wendy's juice, and amid ongoing concerns of too much violence, drug use, homelessness and more in the city lately.