Occasionally grandmaster Natalya Zhukova plays chess with the deputy mayor of Odessa. Then they sit across from each other, over a maple chessboard signed by Judit Polgár, the greatest female chess player ever. Zhukova is a municipal councilor for Ukrainian President Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. Deputy Mayor Dmytro Zjeman is not a member of her party, but Zhukova handed him the chessboard when she entered the council in 2020. Cooperation is required at City Hall, as no party has a majority.
The Ukrainian and European chess champion Zhukova (43) also extends her hand to Russian chess players, but asks them to give up their national tricolor. “You cannot be against the war and remain under the Russian flag.”
No electricity
A spate of Russian power grid attacks is causing power outages all over Odessa. For Zhukova, life during the war is not any easier. When she got ready for the interview at home, there was no electricity. “Before the war I was very picky. Everything had to be a certain way,” she says. “Coffee had to be an americano and necessarily from a stone cup. Now I can just drink hot water from a paper cup – if that is available at all.”
Odessa is known as “the pearl of the Black Sea” for its lavish European-style 19th-century architecture. The sea view is now closed to the public. The harbor has become a strategic object – forbidden to photograph for fear that the images could fall into enemy hands. Mines have been laid along the coast.
“It is unimaginable,” says Zhukova. “It’s a real war, the kind we’ve only seen in movies. If you don’t live here you can’t understand how all-encompassing the war is, or how it is that this has been going on for almost a year.”
Arkady Dvorkovich was re-elected in the summer as head of the international chess federation FIDE. Deutsche Welle wrote: ‘This means that Putin is still king of chess’.
“Unfortunately yes, that’s right. If you look at the board of trustees of the Russian Chess Federation, you will see that its chairman is Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman. Politics and chess are connected – but so are all sports. The Russian flag is now smeared with blood. Under this banner, the military murders and rapes our children, women. They are behaving absolutely abnormally. Some anti-war Russian athletes still compete under the Russian flag. I cannot understand this.”
Dvorkovich was elected by Russia and 156 other countries. Ukrainian rival Baryshpolets had just 16 votes. Do you see short-term solutions?
“I don’t see that. Everyone only thinks of their own ass. Some say he does his job well and that he is a good manager. But he does everything for Russians. Now the rules for the women’s world championships have changed and Russians were allowed to participate in the World Rapid & Blitz in Almaty.
“They seem to do that under a neutral flag, but immediately after the tournament they are back under the Russian flag. That’s not really taking a stand. These are Russian methods. They think they are the smartest. But it’s abnormal.
“In sports without a Russian chairman, this would not happen. There are of course chess players who do take a stand, such as Aleksandra Kostenyuk [hij zal vanaf 2024 voor Zwitserland spelen].”
Is there any tension between Russian and Ukrainian players?
“Relations between chess players from Russia and Ukraine remain good. As long as we don’t talk about those people who openly call for the killing of Ukrainians, or about the ‘denazification of Ukraine’ and those kinds of words whose meaning we don’t even understand. About [schakers als] Sergey Karyakin or Sergey Shipov.”
Shortly after the outbreak of war, the Ukrainian Chess Federation called for “the proper assessment and punishment of [drie] famous grandmasters who openly support aggression against Ukraine”, i.e. Karjakin, Shipov and Anatoli Karpov. On February 28, the International Chess Federation officially condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In March, FIDE’s Ethics and Disciplinary Committee imposed a six-month suspension on Karjakin for his public statements about the war in Ukraine. The commission concluded that Shipov had not violated the code of ethics.
You used to live in Moscow. Do you feel betrayed?
“Yes. I have lived there since my first husband [grootmeester Aleksandr Grisjtsjoek] comes from Russia. My daughter was born in Moscow. I never felt any kind of hostility. My husband lived here with me for many years. You know, it’s completely artificial. The hatred for Ukrainians is completely fabricated.”
What was your last game of chess?
“Since the beginning of the war I have played in one tournament: the European Championships in Prague in August. I’d like to play more, but every morning starts with the news. Every evening ends with the news. And chess requires concentration, it requires preparation. It’s hard to focus on that right now.”
Her husband, the American-Ukrainian chess grandmaster Alexander Onishchuk, breaks in. “Odessa and chess, that’s your life, if you ask me.”
Zhukova: „Even when I am not playing, I organize tournaments. And Odessa, yes you are right. Our Black Sea, our beautiful coast, which is now full of mines. The echo of the war will be heard here for a long time, even after we have won.”
A version of this article also appeared in the January 31, 2023 newspaper