You're reading: Soviet school still powers Ukrainian chess

Despite being a capital of nearly 3 million residents, Kyiv doesn’t have a chess club.

 Once heavily promoted and used as a
propaganda tool to demonstrate the Soviet Union’s ideological superiority,
chess in independent Ukraine is mostly riding on the momentum and wealth of
chess talent inherited from the previous era.

Gone is the vast state machinery of
well-funded chess schools, trainers and networks of clubs that produced seven
world champions during the Soviet Union’s existence, whose hegemony was only
briefly dented by the highly eccentric American Bobby Fischer in 1972-1975.

“The Soviet chess school was strong so it
couldn’t just disappear, and that inertia includes millions of people that form
a foundation on which Ukraine still achieves success in chess competitions,”
said Viktor Kapustin, head of Ukraine’s chess federation on July 20, during the
nation’s first official commemoration of international chess day.

Since 1991, post-Soviet Ukraine saw Ruslan
Ponomariov win the world chess championship in 2002 and its national team win
the chess Olympiad twice. Lviv Oblast native Vasyl Ivanchuk has consistently
ranked in the top 10 for more than 20 years, a singular feat in chess where
youth often trumps experience.

But a look at the birth year of the nine
Ukrainian grandmasters rated in the global top-100 shows all of them were born
before the Soviet collapse.

“I’m a ‘graduate’ of the Soviet chess
school, I had strong trainers who came up in the tradition of Soviet chess,”
said 27-year-old grandmaster Zakhar Yefymenko, ranked 50th in the world with a
2694 Elo rating, the system of calculating relative strength used by FIDE, the
world chess governing body. 

There are altogether 70 Ukrainian
international grandmasters, according to FIDE, which awards the world
championship title.

But since Ukraine gained independence in
1991, government money, still the main source of finance for the sport, has
dwindled.

Fifty-second ranked grandmaster Pavlo
Elianov recalled how he and his teammates had to pay for their airfare and
accommodations to participate in a chess Olympiad several years ago in Europe.

Ukrainian grandmaster Pavlo Elianov makes a move in Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park on July 20 during a 10-board simultaneous chess exhibition that he gave.

“Luckily our team placed high so we
compensated ourselves for the trip,” said Elianov during a press conference on
July 20 to mark the Day of Chess in Ukraine.

Difficult to market commercially to
sponsors and spectators alike, chess lacks large-scale private funding the
world over.

Kapustin called the situation with private
sponsors “ambiguous” and added that private support inconsistently trickles in
from businessmen who are chess enthusiasts.

Despite the lack of funding, Yefymenko said
chess remains popular throughout the country.

 “Take a look at the parks and squares in
any Ukrainian city, including my hometown of Mukachevo – they’re filled with
chess players,” said Yefymenko.

Lately things have changed. Elianov noted
that the government has paid more attention to chess in recent years.

This and last year the total prize fund for
the Ukrainian chess championship is Hr 600,000 ($75,000), of which some $20,000
will go to winner.

And according to Ravil Safiullin, Ukraine’s
youth and sports minister, chess is part of the curriculum in 168 primary
schools covering some 12,600 children.

Still, on a professional level, only the
world’s top 100 ranked chess players can make a living playing chess, said the
three grandmasters with whom the Kyiv Post spoke.

“You could make much more if you’re ranked
in the top 20,” remarked Oleksandr Moiseenko of Kharkiv, ranked 40th.

The top 20 or so players are commonly
referred to as “super grandmasters,” a title dividing them from the rest of the
world’s grandmasters. Only Ivanchuk is considered a super grandmaster among Ukrainians.

“The difference between a GM [grandmaster] and
a super GM is very thin,” said Moiseenko. “A combination of very few factors
separate them such as, better (chess game) opening preparation and better
mental energy. A top grandmaster is difficult to beat, and if he misses
something or makes a mistake, after a few moves he starts to fight – their
mental strength is slightly better.”

 

Kyiv
Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at
[email protected].