There is mischief in her eyes as she moves her queen in a piercing diagonal, opening up my crumbling defence. Checkmate is just moves away, a formality.
Once a rising chess star in eastern Ukraine, Kamila Hryshchenko was forced to leave her home in Kramatorsk when the bombs started to fall around her.
Still just 21 years old, she now lives in Hull after an international network of chess players helped whisk her and her mother to safety.
After switching to play for England to show her appreciation, Kamila Hryshchenko is now one of the highest ranked players in the country. The top spot? That’s now occupied by a Russian.
As Nikita Vitiugov makes his debut for England in the European Team Chess Championship today, we dive into the enthralling world of professional chess…
‘We knew our world chess family was going to help us’
When Vladimir Putin unleashed his war on Ukraine in February 2022, the city of Kramatorsk came under regular attack from missiles and bombs.
The first days of the invasion were marked by chaos and confusion, and incredible danger.
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“I wanted to leave but we didn’t know what was going on or where Russian soldiers were,” Kamila tells Sky News.
They reached out to Andrei Ciuravin, a Ukrainian already living in the UK, who got the wheels in motion for Kamila’s long journey from Ukraine.
“Chess is a family, especially in these hard times. We knew our world chess family was going to help us.”
Image: Remains of a Russian missile near Kramatorsk railway station
Kamila and her mother left via the busy Kramatorsk railway station, which in the early days of the war was constantly packed with thousands of people trying to flee west to relative safety.
Their hair-raising rail journey from Kramatorsk in the east to Chernivtsi on the western border with Romania saw their train constantly stopping as the driver received warnings from the Ukrainian army about bombs and blocked routes.
“Everything was connected with chess,” Kamila says, explaining how the Romanian Chess Federation and friends from the chess world helped them with a hotel and in getting her visa to the UK.
On 24 April, 2022 they arrived in England and were taken in by a family of chess players in Chichester – one month after leaving Kramatorsk.
Kamila and her mother eventually moved to Hull where they live now. Kamila studies computer science at the University of Hull – and of course continues to play chess.
Image: Kamila Hryshchenko in Kramatorsk
Playing chess in the trenches
“That’s interesting,” Kamila says. She’s looking at our chessboard – we’re on our second game now – and considering her next move.
My king is under pressure and I’ve done my best to surround it with my remaining pieces. Have I managed to ward off the attacks from her rooks?
“Am I gonna lose? I don’t like it,” she quips. Maybe some hope for me, I wonder.
“Ah, I like it,” she adds, suddenly smiling. “Check.” It’s not long before it is, once again, checkmate.
Image: Ukrainian soldiers play chess in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol
With so many famous players hailing from Ukraine and Russia – after the decades of Soviet domination of the game – it’s unsurprising that the war has sent shockwaves through the world of chess.
Like countless other Ukrainians, Kamila had to leave her home because it was not safe anymore.
For men it has been mostly illegal to leave the country, and many have been called up to join the armed forces. Chess players are no exception.
Grandmaster Igor Kovalenko, ranked 60th in the world, didn’t know how to fire a rifle before he joined the army.
The 34-year-old was deployed to the fiercely contested Donetsk region of Ukraine. While his chess is mostly on hold, he was pictured playing an online event from the trenches during a quiet moment.
Image: Igor Kovalenko playing chess from his tablet in a trench at the frontline. Pic: Peter Heine Nielsen
In East Yorkshire, Kamila and her mother spend much of their spare time doing everything they can to raise funds for Ukraine.
Her decision to change her chess federation from Ukraine to England – and thus play under the English flag – was a difficult one, she says.
“It was a very hard decision for me. It was so personal because of Ukraine and the war, and I want to support my country.
“When I changed federation I was thinking it’s better for my chess career and I can pay back lots of English people for their support here, supporting my chess.”
“We still support Ukraine,” she adds. “For me it’s better to help physically by fundraising and volunteering than just to have a flag next to my name.”
As Russian tanks bore down on the Ukrainian capital in the first days of the invasion, an emergency meeting of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) council was held.
It voted to condemn the use of military force and barred Russian and Belarusian players from competing under their national flags.
Two months later, 44 top Russian chess players including a host of grandmasters signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin criticising the war and calling for a ceasefire.
“We share the pain of our Ukrainian colleagues and call for peace,” the letter said.
Since then, a series of senior Russian players have defected to other countries in protest against what the Kremlin is doing in Ukraine.
Image: New English number one Nikita Vitiugov. Pic: AP
They include Nikita Vitiugov, 36, who has swapped St Petersburg for East Anglia.
Ranked 31 in the world, he’s now the top-rated player in England and is expected to make his debut under his new flag today at the European Team Chess Championship in Montenegro.
Changing country was a quick decision for Grigoriy Oparin, a grandmaster who grew up in Moscow and started playing chess when he was just four years old.
“It was just a total shock for me,” he said of the February 2022 invasion. “I could not believe it was happening.
“It was just so shameful that my native country started this war.”
Image: Grandmaster Grigoriy Oparin pictured in 2018
Grigoriy, 26, told Sky News that he immediately began the process of changing from the Russian Chess Federation to the US Federation.
And while he has been able to switch his chess flag to the stars and stripes, he has been left unable to compete in official events for two years unless he agrees to pay a 35,000 euro (£30,400) release fee to the Russian Chess Federation.
“It’s a little bit unfortunate that I cannot play, but I think it’s such a minor issue considering everything that’s happening in the world.”
Image: Sergey Karjakin with Russian soldiers, apparently in occupied Zaporozhia, Ukraine. Pic: Sergey Karjakin/Telegram
Karjakin’s support for war and self-imposed ban from world chess
But not all Russian chess players are opposed to the war.
Sergey Karjakin has sparked anger and criticism for his vocal support for Vladimir Putin’s efforts to annex Ukraine.
The world number nine, who himself was born in Ukraine, posted an open letter to the Russian president on social media just days after the invasion.
He discussed the “demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine and its ruling regime”.
“I express for you, our commander in chief, full support in defending Russia’s interests, our multinational Russian people, eliminating threats and establishing peace!”, he told Mr Putin.
Karjakin was handed a six-month ban by FIDE and still refuses to play in any tournament where he cannot play under a Russian flag.
Since then he has courted further controversy with his visits to occupied areas of Ukraine, including photo ops with Russian soldiers.
Among the questions about her dangerous journey to the UK and her love for Ukraine, I ask Kamila if she still enjoys playing chess, after so many years and so much else going on in her life.
“Every chess player has those moments when you want to give up,” she says.
“I still love it. I can’t really imagine myself without chess.”
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Image: Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.