Grandmaster Fights for His Country

Sulypa, standing guard in Ukraine.

Sulypa, standing guard in Ukraine. Ljósmynd/Aðsend

Vala Hafstað

Ukrainian Grandmaster Oleksandr Sulypa was scheduled to compete for the Reykjavík Chess Club Thursday at the Icelandic national championship of chess clubs, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed his plans.

“I’m going to defend my country,” Sulypa tells Morgunblaðið. He has been provided with firearms and currently guards a Ukrainian military base.

“I went to the defensive position of the city of Lviv, the western part of which is close to Poland,” he relates. “My job is to monitor the stations and stop cars that drive by. Today, I searched more than 2,000 cars. We don’t participate in combat, but there are spies in many places, especially in the vicinity of the airport where I am.”

Sulypa couldn’t send photos from the site, since the location is strategically important and close to the airport where military equipment and humanitarian aid is received.

“We recently captured four Russian terrorists who had planted bombs in the area,” he notes.

“I have light weapons and a gun; all heavy weapons are sent to the combat zones. But here, at our base, we do of course have machine guns and hand grenades. If ordered to do so, I will go and fight in Kyiv. I know how to shoot; I learned that in school.”

Sulypa led the Ukrainian national chess team to victory at the European Team Chess Championship in Slovenia in November of last year. He is well known inside the Icelandic Chess Association and has helped train young chess players here in Iceland. He is asked whether chess can be of help in the battlefield.

“Of course chess is of help,” he responds. “It makes it easier to distinguish the enemy in the crowd. Sports makes us fearless. I’m not afraid of death, and I’m ready to die for my country.”

“I believe we will win [the war], because we’re fighting for our own independence and liberty,” he states. “I’d like to use the opportunity to thank journalists and reporters for covering what is really happening in Ukraine — that our small military is fighting neo-fascists,” he concludes.

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