‘Chess saved my life’: The Ukrainians and Russians now making moves for England
“Chess saved my life,” Kamila says.
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.
“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.”
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.
A few days later, a Russian missile attack on the rail hub killed more than 30 people and wounded over 100 others.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Read more:
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Ban on Russian football teams to stay in place
Russian Vitiugov now England’s top-ranked player
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.
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.”
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.”
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.”
World
Fire rips through arms depot deep inside Russia after huge Ukrainian drone attack – as Zelenskyy prepares to meet Trump
A fire has ripped through a Russian missile depot in the Tver region deep inside the country after it was targeted in a Ukrainian drone attack, the defence ministry in Moscow has said.
Footage shows a second Ukrainian drone attack on the southwestern Russian region of Krasnodar also triggered a fire and caused a series of explosions.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces shot down 101 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and occupied Crimea during the overnight attacks.
The drone strikes were carried out as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskky said he is hoping to meet Donald Trump next week when he travels to the US – where he will present US President Joe Biden with a “victory plan” in relation to the war.
An explosion after the drone strike on the arms depot in Krasnodar
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister said Russia appears to be planning strikes on Ukrainian nuclear facilities before the winter.
Posts on local Telegram channels said a Ukrainian drone attack struck an arms depot near the town of Toropets, in Russia’s Tver region – which is about 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of Moscow and about 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border on Saturday.
Russian authorities closed a 100-kilometre (62-mile) stretch of a highway and evacuated passengers from a nearby rail station.
The depot appeared to be just miles from a Russian weapons arsenal storing missiles, bombs and ammunition in Tver that was struck by Ukrainian drones early Wednesday, injuring 13 people and also causing a huge fire.
Flames rise after the strike on the Tver region on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, at least 1,200 people were evacuated from Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region after an ammunition depot and missile arsenal were struck in the second drone attack overnight, the local governor has said.
Most of those evacuated were staying with friends and relatives, Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in either Tver or Krasnodar.
Ukraine warning of attacks on nuclear sites
It comes as Kyiv is urging the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ukraine’s allies to establish permanent monitoring missions at the country’s nuclear plants as it warns they could be targeted in Russian attacks.
“In particular, it concerns open distribution devices at (nuclear power plants and) transmission substations, critical for the safe operation of nuclear energy,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiha wrote on X.
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A mushroom cloud rises after the drone strike on Toropets in the Tver region. Pic: Reuters
Zelenskyy prepares for US trip
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leader has said he plans to meet Republican presidential candidate Mr Trump on either Thursday or Friday next week.
During the trip, Mr Zelenskyy will present Mr Biden with a so-called victory plan as he hopes to bring about an end to the conflict.
Volodymr Zelenskyy with Donald Trump in 2020. Pic: Reuters
The Ukrainian president has said the plan will include long-range striking capabilities and other weapons long sought by Kyiv, and will serve as the basis for any future negotiation with Russia.
He is also expected to push Washington to lift restrictions on long-range missile strikes inside Russia.
Mr Zelenskyy will attend sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly and also plans to meet vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in this year’s US election, in separate meetings on 26 September.
The developments come as three sources have told Reuters that Iran did not include mobile launchers with the close-range ballistic missiles that Washington has accused Tehran of delivering to Russia for use against Ukraine.
The sources – a European diplomat, a European intelligence official and a US official – said it was not clear why Iran did not supply launchers with the Fath-360 missiles, raising questions about when and if the weapons will be operational.
At least 44 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Gaza in the last 24 hours.
A strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut killed at least 31 people including three children and seven women, the country’s health minister Firas Abiad said.
Fifteen of the 68 wounded in the attack remain in hospital.
Ali Harake, the head of the rescue team searching through the rubble, told Sky News his team is still looking for between 17 and 18 missing people – though he fears none have survived.
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‘I think the missing people are dead’
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It is understood two apartment blocks in a densely populated southern neighbourhood collapsed in the strike – the deadliest attack on Beirut in decades.
Top Hezbollah commanders are believed to have been meeting in the basement of one of the buildings.
Hezbollah has confirmed two of its senior commanders, Ibrahim Aqil and Ahmed Wahbi, died in the strike while an Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 16 Hezbollah militants were killed.
Wahbi oversaw the military operations of the Radwan special forces – a commando unit that seeks to infiltrate and carry out attacks in Israel – until early 2024. Aqil was also a top commander for the Iran-backed group.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has described the killing of Aqil as a “crime” and a “folly”, adding Israel will “pay the price”.
Read more: Israeli airstrike on Beirut causes more shock to a country already rocked to its core
Meanwhile, at least 13 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City, according to a local report.
The strikes are believed to have hit several schools sheltering displaced people in the southern part of the city.
Inside a school, that was sheltering displaced people, after it was hit by an Israeli strike this morning. Pic: Reuters
The street outside the school. Pic: Reuters
The strikes come after Hezbollah launched one of its most intense bombardments of northern Israel in nearly a year of fighting, largely targeting Israeli military sites.
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system intercepted most of the Katyusha rockets.
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Hezbollah said its latest wave of rocket attacks was a response to past Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.
It came days after mass explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies killed at least 37 people, including two children. Some 2,900 others were wounded in the assault which has been widely attributed to Israel.
The Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs of Beirut came as the Lebanese caretaker government was having an emergency meeting to discuss the previous two days of pager and radio explosions.
It caused yet more shock in a nation which considers itself battle-hardened after years of strife, disaster and wars.
But Lebanon has been truly rocked to its core by the string of attacks over the past few days.
“These are war crimes,” one Lebanese minister told us.
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Watch Yalda Hakim’s interview with Lebanon’s energy minister
The Israeli military said it had targeted and killed a senior Hezbollah military commander. They named him as Ibrahim Aqil – a man with a $7m US bounty on his head.
He’s been on the US most wanted list for more than forty years after being accused of being involved in the bombing of the US embassy and US marine barracks in 1983 which killed hundreds.
But the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh is a heavily populated crowded residential area and packed with shops, markets, and high-rise apartments.
The strike appeared to have flattened an entire block, flipping cars and leaving other vehicles covered in a heavy blanket of thick dust and rubble.
Damage caused by an Israeli air attack on a southern suburb of Beirut. Pic: AP
Several people could be seen in video footage filmed by neighbours, trapped under piles of rubble.
The Lebanese health authority keeps on updating the number of people killed in the strike, with the latest figures reaching 14.
There are more than 60 injured, with some of those believed to be in critical condition. Children are said to be among the dead, missing and injured.
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Aftermath of IDF strike on Lebanon
‘Our actions speak for themselves’
The Israeli military immediately claimed success – saying that, along with Aqil, the strike had wiped out about 10 of his elite Radwan Force.
According to an IDF spokesman, who did not provide any evidence, Aqil’s team had been planning an attack into northern Israel similar to the Hamas attack on 7 October.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a very short statement on X, saying: “Our goals are clear and our actions speak for themselves.”
Both the prime minister and defence minister have vowed to restore security to the north of Israel so the 60,000 residents who have fled the cross-border attacks can return to their homes.
An estimated 120,000 Lebanese have also been forced out of their homes along the border.
The airstrike in the capital is the second in Beirut in two months – both, according to the IDF, targeted at senior Hezbollah commanders.
According to sources being quoted in Lebanese media, the Hezbollah group of senior leaders was meeting in an underground basement of a large housing block when the missile penetrated.
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‘Things are escalating by the minute’
It is unlikely to be seen as a justifiable precision attack – or a “targeted strike”, as described by the Israeli military – if the Lebanese government ministers’ reactions are anything to go by.
We spoke to several as they arrived for their emergency cabinet meeting in the hour before the attack.
They were already incensed by the back-to-back coordinated booby trap explosions of communication devices across the country. Israel has yet to confirm or deny its involvement in the blasts.
Speaking about the pager and radio explosions across Lebanon earlier this week, the country’s environment minister and head of its disaster management committee Nasser Yassin said: “It’s genocidal, it’s indiscriminate and a violation of international humanitarian law and every other law.
“We have an insane leadership on the southern end of our borders who don’t want to be indicted by the International Court of Justice.”
The head of the country’s disaster management committee, Nasser Yassin
The information minister Ziad Makary called the explosions of communication devices “a new crime… it’s a war crime and not something that would pass easily trying to kill three thousand or four thousand civilians as we see them”.
The information minister Ziad Makary
And Amin Salam, the economy minister, warned: “Things are escalating by the minute.
“There’s more tension, more provocation. We have been doing our best to get to a peaceful solution but the escalation is unprecedented.
“It’s an act of terror, regardless of who was targeted.”
Most intense border fighting in nearly a year
The airstrike in Beirut came after a marked increase in cross-border exchanges – the most intense in nearly a year.
The Israeli military said Hezbollah had spent the early part of the day firing nearly 200 rockets across the border into Israel.
Many of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.
This followed the Israeli bombing of more than 50 targets in the south of Lebanon overnight – which the IDF said hit launchers and weapons stores.
The Israeli military is suffering losses too – there were two funerals today for Israeli soldiers killed on their northern border – but it’s Hezbollah which seems to be paying a far heavier price right now.
Read more from Sky News:
Iran mulls next move as fears of war grow
Israel’s history of secret operations
Hezbollah unilaterally entered this latest war on 8 October, much to the frustration of Lebanon’s caretaker government, and a day after the Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Hezbollah have repeatedly said their actions are in support of Gaza and have continued to insist they will only stop once there’s a ceasefire.
But right now, the fighting group allied to Iran – and designated a terror group by the US and UK – appears to be very much on the backfoot after three attacks in four days.
Meanwhile, Israel is ploughing on despite the cries of indignation and condemnation from the international community.
Additional reporting from Beirut with camera Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon producers Jihad Jineid and Sami Zein.
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