Chess Olympiad 2022: Players from conflict-torn nations checkmate all odds

Randa Seder climbs up a chair and sits on her knees to reach the table where a chessboard has been laid out for her at the ongoing 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 in Tamil Nadu’s Mamallapuram. As her opponent Fahima Ali Mohamed from the Comoros waits for things to settle down, Randa, an eight-year-old Palestinian and the youngest participant in the ongoing tournament, looks unfrazzled. Her little fingers, smaller than the chess pieces, make quick moves. By the 39th move in Round 2, Randa beats Fahima, 12 years her senior.

While this is Randa’s first Olympiad where she is representing Palestine as part of the four-member women’s team, the 44th Chess Olympiad is the first instance when the war-torn nation has sent a women’s chess team. The girls have surmounted many obstacles to make it to the Olympiad from a country which has been at war since the 1940s because of which women and girls have had to fight doubly hard to find a semblance of normalcy in their day-to-day life.

“Randa started playing chess when she was just five years old. It is her father who taught her the game,” Eman Sawan, a Palestinian player who won the U-14 Arab Youth Chess Championship in 2021, tells The Federal. Eman and other players translate Randa’s monosyllabic answers into English for The Federal since the eight-year-old speaks only Arabic.

Warriors from war zones

Although chess is believed to have originated in India, modern chess is often called a Jewish game. In fact, it is described as the Jewish national game and is considered superior to other games. The history of chess in Israel starts from the 12th century after the foundations were laid by the Yishuv community in Ottoman and British Palestine.

“The Yishuv community had a population ranging from a few tens of thousands in the 1880s to 600,000 when the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. The higher number is less than the population of an insignificant American city, yet chess clubs were established all over the country, and local players visited the smallest villages to give lectures on the game and participate in exhibitions. Chess columns were published, problems and studies were composed, even live chess and blindfold exhibitions were organised,” say professors Shahar Gindi and Avital Pilpel, in a chapter titled ‘Chess in Israel: The Jewish Game Returns Home’, which was included in the book Israeli Life and Leisure in the 21st Century, published in 2014.

In 1934, the Palestine Chess Federation was established which later became Israeli Chess Federation in 1948. Palestine, however, took part in the biennial Chess Olympiad in 1937 and 1939. After the Palestine Liberation Organisation established its territory, the Palestine Chess Federation was established in 1981. The country started taking part in the Olympiad in 1984.

Despite a number of restrictions posed on women in Palestine, chess isn’t forbidden. However, constant bombings and shootings make it impossible for anyone to play chess in peace. “There is no way to escape the sounds of indiscriminate bombing and shelling. Yet we practice and play the game,” says Eman.

The road to the Olympiad wasn’t an easy one. Taqwa Hamouri, a Palestinian player, during a media interaction said it took a long time to travel to India because of the situation in her country.

“We couldn’t travel to India directly. We came to Jordan and from there to Bahrain and finally reached India because of the situation in Palestine. Back home, there are not many tournaments. But in future, we hope we will have many tournaments and expect many GMs (grandmasters) and IMs (international masters),” says Taqwa.

However, the Palestinian team is not alone in its struggle and perseverance. Many young participants from conflict-ridden nations have surmounted incredible odds to make it to the Olympiad.

In an interview to a sports channel, the captain of Ukraine men’s team, Oleksandr Sulypa, recounted how the players from his country braved the war to participate in this Olympiad.

“Our players Andrei Volokitin took refuge in Poland and Yuriy Kuzubov escaped to Bilbao (Spain) and Kirill Shevchenko lived for a few months in Germany. Volodymyr Onyshchuk remains safe. You know, our best player here, Anton Korobov, lost two of his apartments [to the bombings] in Kharkiv. His family is, however, safe,” says Sulypa.

Sulypa and his teammates are playing in the Olympiad even though they had to spend out of their own pocket to reach here.

“We understand there is a war going on and conditions are difficult. But it is important for our country to take part [in the Olympiad]. We support chess. It is an honour to participate,” Sulypa adds.

Participants from Myanmar, where the military took power in a coup in February last year, are also struggling amid the deepening humanitarian crisis in the country.

Missing government support

Sai Than Tun Aung, father of 15-year-old Sai Han Thiha, who is touted as Myanmar’s future and second grandmaster, says chess is not given much importance in his country.

“Many in Myanmar think it’s a boring sport,” Sai Than, whose son is participating in the 44th Olympiad, says.

This, despite the country opening up to conduct an international chess championship in 2014, following the end of the military junta’s regime in 2011.

Separated by thousands of kilometres, Dewo Dafounga, the national coach of the Central African Republic, shares a similar experience. The land-locked Central African Republic has about 49 lakh people, of which over 40 per cent are below the age of 14.

“There is not enough support from the government. Chess has not been introduced in schools. The children need to depend on the private academies by paying enormous fees,” he shares.

The brain game is not just overlooked in countries battling conflicts and economic deprivation, but also in developed countries like Ireland.

An Indian-origin Irish national, Nandita Dayanand, who serves as development officer in the Irish Chess Union says chess is not even considered a sport in Ireland.

“The government there largely supports sports activities in which you actually sweat. It is only through the chess clubs and internet that most children are learning the game,” says Nandita, whose children Tarun and Trisha are playing their first Olympiad in Chennai. Both Tarun and Trisha have learnt to play chess from their father Dayanand.

Interestingly, Trisha is the first women international master from her country.

Chess for women, by women

The year 2022 has been declared as the ‘Year of the Woman in Chess’ by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Incidentally, it is the first Olympiad in which a large number of women chess players are participating from across the world.

According to Eva Repkova, chair of FIDE Women’s Commission, this is a chance to take a leap forward in its mission for gender equity. “In recent years, we have achieved a number of long-lasting strategic goals, from encouraging women to actively participate in all aspects of chess by offering them free educational seminars to implementing gender quotas for various official positions and assignments.”

“While our colleagues have worked tirelessly to provide better conditions for top female players and to significantly increase the prize money, our commission has focused on connecting, inspiring and educating female players from all backgrounds across the globe,” she says.

In 2021, the commission had organised Queen’s Festival, a series of continental and global tournaments with over 460 participants from 82 countries. This year, it has constituted awards exclusively for women in categories such as best player award, outstanding administrator, influencer, arbiter, and even an award for the federation with the most women.

And girls like Randa have already proven that nothing is impossible in chess and life.