Chess for Euromaidan

In late January tensions between the Ukrainian opposition and President Yanykovych's government increased - it is easy to find the developments of this anywhere on the Internet. If one wants to know my opinion about what is going on in Ukraine, it is an anti-criminal revolution in favor of the democratic, European values here in Ukraine.

As a chess player, organiser and Euromaidan Activist, I participated in two Ukrainian chess events, in which all of the involved players have expressed their support of the all-Ukrainian Euromaidan movement.

The first of such events was the Internet match between Kiev and Odessa

Kiev vs. Odessa - Internet Match

Mikhail Golubev, grandmaster and supporter of Euromaidan,
and Pavel Grankin of the Batkivshchina Party

The EuroMatch Kiev vs Odessa was played in the Playchess game zone the 13th of January. In this event, officially called "A move for Europe, the Chess Match Kiev - Odessa in support of Euromaidan" 7 grandmasters and one FIDE Master were involved.

Team Odessa

The Kiev team (GMs Vladimir Baklan, Andrey Baryshpolets, Georgy Timoshenko and Andrey Zontakh) and the Odessa team (GMs Nikolay A Legky, Mikhail Golubev, Andrey Sumets and FM Georgy Sodol) played a consultation Internet game with a time control of 20 minutes per game for each side (without increment).

The Playchess server was used for the game

The Odessa team got the white pieces in this game, which had primarily a symbolic importance, as the will of the involved players, the EuroMaidan participants or activists, was to express clearly their support to the All-Ukrainian EuroMaidan movement.

Golubev in control of the consultation game in the Odessa side

A live feed on Skype allowed the players to see, but not hear, the other team

On the 14th move Odessa made a perhaps not accurate move 14.d5, but the fight was more or less balanced until 33.e4?, a significant mistake, after which Kiev took the advantage with a precise 33...Qe5!. One more mistake by Odessa, 46.Qd8?, underestimating a strong 46...f6!, resulted in a winning position for Kiev. Black soon had a healthy extra bishop, with queens and with three kingside pawns preserved by each side. But both sides were already in Zeitnot by then: Black was slow in converting the advantage, and after eventually organising the decisive breakthrough, KIEV soon lost on time in a position where only two moves remained until Odessa would have been mated...

Deep in analysis in a complex position

Despite the dramatic end of the game, both teams were happy with the match which proceeded without technical difficulties. Additional computers were used so teams could see (but not hear, understandably!) each other during the whole game. The Kiev team played in a cafe at the famous Maidan Nezalezhnosti while the Odessa team, which wished to underline additionally the support to the online petition to "use all legitimate constitutional means to free Yulia Timoshenko now", played in the regional Odessa office of the Batkivshchyna party at the Preobrazhensaya Street.

The event had significant coverage in Ukraine, including the main television channels. Photos, videos, links to reports, etc. can be found at the Facebook page of the match here.

As a coordinator of the Odessa team, I express my gratitude to all the players and the organiser at the Kiev side, my friend and colleague, journalist Anatoly Javorsky for the successful cooperation!

Team Kiev during their analysis

When its a cooperation game even the first move must be discussed!

Grandmasters, but also political activists in their own way

It reads: Odessa - city of masters! and grandmasters!

Euromaidan blitz tournament

On 20 January 2014, exactly one week after the Kiev vs Odessa internet match in support of the all-Ukrainian Euromaidan movement, a blitz tournament was organised for the Odessa Euromaidan supporters in the Vsevolod Sokalyuk's lawyer's office.

The tournament well under way

GM Golubev vs. GM Sumets

Sometimes this can't be avoided. Yulia Kostina vs. Dmitry Kostin!

The small board and the old fashioned clocks really gave it a traditional chess feeling

The tournament gathered attention from the press

The players had a chance to express their opinions and the reason for the tournament

The tournament was won by Mikhail Golubev and Yuri Drozdovskij, who tied at the top with 3.5/4. They were followed by Nikolay Legky, Andrey Sumets and Georgiy Sodol with 2.5.

Signs in support of Euromaidan at the tournament

Media Coverage

People playing chess during the Euromaidan demonstrations in Kiev

Both EuroMaidan chess events were covered in the 31st installment of the Odessa chess TV program "Shkola Chempionov" on the TRC Krug channel:

Additionally, another local TV channel has covered the Blitz tournament, and I am grateful to Dumskaya.TV for the permission to use their report.

One more video was recorded (originally by the Evroduk.blogspot.com blog team) on 13.1 directly at the EuroMaidan in Odessa near statue of the Duke of Richelieu. I had a speech in Russian about our chess match:

Thanks to all involved people and particularly to the Euromaidan-Odessa activist FM Georgiy Sodol for his help in organising both events in Odessa; to the Batkivshchyna party and Vsevolod Sokalyuk, who hosted the first and second events, lastly, to Anatoly Javorsky the coordinator of the Kiev team in the Internet Match.

Additionally here is a video prepared by Odessa activists which shows many Euromaidan-Odessa actions of the first five weeks of protests (late November - late December 2013).

Photos used in this report by: Alena Balaba, Mariya Golubeva, Stas Kostin, Vitaly Svichinsky, Anatoly Javorsky.