Ukraine Chess Olympic Champion: Brave women from war-torn country put smiles on the world’s lips

Simply put, chess is a fight that takes place on 64 squares. But it doesn’t hurt you. A real war happened.

No country in the world at the moment can say more about the horrors of war than Ukraine, which has resisted Russian aggression for more than five months. Ukraine may be pretty far away from a victory – or peace – but they scored an important victory here on Tuesday. It won the Women’s Chess Olympiad.

It has to be one of the most moving stories to emerge from the international sports scene later this year. India is indeed the team that won this title, but the country should not hold a grudge against brave women from Ukraine. Anna Ushenina, Muzychuk sisters Mariya and Anna, Natalkya Buksa and Yuliya Osmak have given their country something to celebrate during these heartbreakingly bad times.

This is perhaps the happiest moment for Ukraine since the Russo-Ukrainian war began on February 24. In May, Ukrainian rap group Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest, but it’s also because of some goodwill from the viewers vote.

In sports, however, there’s no such thing as goodwill to win you gold. You need talent, bravery, determination and the will to fight to become a champion. Five Ukrainian women have displayed those qualities in abundance over the past two weeks.

They may even have made up for the disappointment of their home sports fans when the Ukrainian football team was nearly eliminated in this year’s World Cup, also by an own goal in the playoff game against Wales. . They come here as the second seed, after the host.

They finished first with a 3-1 victory over Poland in the final round. A victory for Ushenina, who became the first Ukrainian woman to win the World Championship in 2012, over the in-form Oliwia Kiolbasa. Pole was in great form, she won all of her first nine games and then drew her 10th.

Ushenina hails from Kharkiv, which remains one of the worst cities affected by the war. The Battle of Kharkiv devastated the country.

The war certainly affected chess in Ukraine. And it was a struggle for Ukrainian chess players – women and men – to make it to Chennai for the Olympiad.

Captain Oleksandr Sulypa of the men’s team even spent several months defending the territory. Natalia Zhukova, who was Ushenina’s teammate when Ukraine won its first Women’s Chess Olympics in 2006, is helping people as a board member of Odessa.

This remarkable victory must put a smile on Zhukova’s lips and the entire Ukraine team. Their joy will surely be shared by most of the world.