How Russia-Ukraine Conflict Affected the Chess Community
Now, for a week, the whole world’s attention and prayers have been with the people in Ukraine. Everyone wants peace, and nothing more. It is painful to see the videos and photographs of the people who were caught in the middle of the war, all innocent. Especially, seeing little kids and the elderly is painful. Also, not only humans but all living things are affected by this war. However, today I would like to approach the topic from a different aspect: How does this conflict affect the chess community? While I was scrolling in my social media feed, I saw many last-minute news or comments on this conflict from chess players and chess platforms. Everything is happening very fast. That’s why I thought maybe you have not been to catch up with everything that has happened. In this article, I’ll try my best to catch you up.
To begin with, FIDE (International Chess Federation) has canceled the 44th Chess Olympiad, which was originally planned to take place in Russia, Moscow 5–9 August. And not only the Olympiad, the FIDE Congress, and the competitions for players with disabilities have also been canceled. For their explanation, you can check their statements through this link. From FIDE, there was another strict reaction to Russia. The Russian players’ flags were replaced with the FIDE flag, therefore they no longer represent Russia (See “ Federation Change”). They will play for FIDE Chess Federation.
“Federation Change”
ECU (European Chess Union) has launched a campaign called Support Ukraine Chess as the first response to the war in Ukraine. The campaign aims to reach Ukrainian Chess Federation and players through the chess community. As the first symbolic step, ECU is covering all of its fees for the European Championship for Ukrainian chess players. I believe this is a great way to support the players. Also, it is nice to see my community helping others without wanting anything in return.
In addition, on the 3rd of March the company chess24 organized a fundraising tournament. The tournament lasted 6 hours. And in these 6 hours, the goal was to reach 20.000$. Unfortunately, chess24 has not reached its initial goal. The amount was stuck around 8.350$, which is still significant. In this tournament, the current World Champion Carlsen played in the name of the cause. It is a great sign of sportsmanship. The amount that has been collected will be donated to the Norwegian Refugee Council, the largest Norwegian humanitarian organization. And the organization will use this money for the Ukrainian people’s essential needs such as food, shelter, water, sanitation, and legal assistance. As far as I know, you can still donate money. If you are interested, you can donate through this link.
The most surprising and unpleasant thing for me is how a Russian super grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin, has reacted to this conflict. Probably, you have already seen the tweets of Karjakin. He has tweeted silly things about this important situation (See “Tweets”). His tweet quickly got huge reactions and a few super grandmasters attacked him from Twitter. Then, he deleted the tweet and tweeted an insincere apology tweet. However, after these unpleasant tweets, he was not done. He has tweeted “How lucky I am to live in Russia!” (See “Tweet”). On the other hand, some Russian super grandmasters- Peter Svidler, Andrey Esipenko, Ian Nepomniachtchi- tweeted that they are against war and want peace (See “Tweets 2”). Also, other international super grandmasters- Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura- indicated that they are with peace, not war (See “Carlsen” and “Nakamura”).
Overall, these are the important events that you might have missed. I hope you have enjoyed reading the latest developments in the chess community. :) Please, let me know what you think about these incidents.
Works Cited
Carlsen. Feb. 2022. Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/CaaCwbkBg1T/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.
Federation Change. World Chess, worldchess.com/series/grandprix2022. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.
Nakamura. Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/CaXQPUnB0PH/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.
Tweet. Feb. 2022. Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/CaaB-g5B3VZ/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.
Tweets. Feb. 2022. Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/CaYlRMsBHej/.
Tweets 2. Instagram, www.instagram.com/p/CaXAbPlh1Ym/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2022.
