Twelve-year-old Tessa Wong stares down at her chessboard with an intense and quiet focus. Chess has been an enormous a part of the seventh-grader’s life — she’s performed since she was 4 — however this sport stands out as the hardest and most memorable but.
Standing throughout Wong’s board is 23-year-old Evgeny Shtembuliak, a Ukrainian grandmaster ranked 191st on the earth by the Worldwide Chess Federation who escaped his house nation shortly after the Russian invasion. From March 26 to 27, he visited Palo Alto to assist sharpen the chess expertise of native youngsters.
Throughout this specific sport, the 12-year-old will get a great lesson in chess sportsmanship and technique. A dozen or so strikes into their sport, the grandmaster checkmates Wong. She smiles rapidly by way of her masks as her king falls down on the board alongside the opposite silver and gold items.
“I’m stunned I lasted so long as I did,” mentioned Wong, who mentioned she’s coaching partially to chip away on the male-dominated sport. “I have to look extra and know what he’s planning subsequent. He’s superb. I fell into a few his traps.”
Whereas the previous few weeks have been tumultuous and chaotic for Shtembuliak, on this specific Sunday morning he’s calm and pleasant towards the group of youngsters he’s instructing.
The scholars, who span in age from 7 to 16, are given pointers by the Ukrainian chess participant as he takes turns taking part in every one in a semi circle of boards at Palo Alto’s Foothills Tennis and Swimming Membership. In a single occasion, he tells a youthful little one to decelerate a bit when making strikes. On one other board, Shtembuliak exhibits a baby how he may simply checkmate them and offers them one other probability.
“What I like essentially the most is when individuals get that ‘Aha!’ second,” mentioned Shtembuliak, 23. “They’ve been taking part in chess and so they noticed that one thing was true however then they realized it was not true. When individuals be taught and so they get it, they get that good feeling. That may be very rewarding, particularly with youngsters.”
Shtembuliak was additionally capable of deliver alongside one other fellow Ukrainian chess participant and buddy of his, Nadiia Salakh. The College of Missouri pupil left her house of Kakhovka in January after Russian troops began to amass on the border of her nation.
The turmoil in Ukraine that has rocked Salakh and Shtembuliak’s worlds additionally practically sidelined the Palo Alto chess camp, half of the proceeds of that are going towards support in Ukraine.
Shtembuliak had plans to go to Palo Alto because the begin of the yr. He was in Kyiv when Russia began its invasion on Feb. 24, woke up by bombs that went off at 5 a.m. He spent the subsequent couple of nights along with his girlfriend in a windowless rest room, pondering it will be most secure place. Together with a buddy, Shtembuliak then journeyed to a rural a part of the Kyiv, however that solely proved to be a short lived answer.
“We figured it was getting much more harmful there. You could possibly hear the sounds (of bombs). You by no means know. Is it our jets or their jets?” he mentioned.
“It’s not very good,” he provides with a darkish chuckle.
Shtembuliak then acquired to the western border of Ukraine. Whereas all males in Ukraine between 18 and 60 have been banned from exiting the nation, he mentioned he was capable of depart by presenting paperwork that excluded him from navy service. On March 10, Shtembuliak reached Slovakia after which traveled to Poland earlier than reaching California on March 23.
Though Shtembuliak was capable of enter the U.S. with a inexperienced card, he needed to half methods along with his girlfriend and mom, who're nonetheless in Poland and are at the moment attempting to get to America. His journey in California, he mentioned, could also be transient. Wherever his girlfriend and mom find yourself, he’ll comply with. Proper now, there are numerous unknowns.
“We’ll see,” mentioned Shtembuliak about future plans. “I’m probably not positive.”
The invasion of Ukraine, which has led to Western companies pulling out of Russia, has even reached the worldwide chess world. On March 21, the Worldwide Chess Federation suspended Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin from competitors after the top-ranked participant expressed help for the invasion on social media.
“He’s a fantastic participant however not a fantastic individual,” Shtembuliak mentioned about Karjakin. “I don’t assume he ought to have the ability to play.” (In response to Shtembuliak, he performed towards the Russian chess participant when he was 9. He misplaced.)
The Ukrainian participant was born in Odessa and lived a majority of his life within the close by metropolis of Chornomorsk. He began studying chess after his mom introduced him to a neighborhood membership when he was 6 and he went on to get pleasure from a star-studded profession in his youth. In 2007, he received the nation’s chess championship for his age group and later positioned second in a number of European Chess Championship video games. In 2019, he earned the title of grandmaster, the best title in chess.
In Februrary 2021, Shtembuliak dropped out of Texas Tech College and has since began his personal enterprise, the place he teaches different chess gamers and likewise offers chess coaches lesson plans and techniques. He mentioned he finds the mentorship side of chess much more enjoyable than competing.
Certainly one of Shtembuliak’s college students, 16-year-old Palo Alto Excessive Faculty pupil Kyle Cromwell who helped manage the weekend chess camp, mentioned the Ukrainian chess participant has helped him majorly enhance his sport. He additionally mentioned he can hardly imagine what Shtembuliak goes by way of.
“It’s undoubtedly a extremely unhappy scenario,” Cromwell mentioned. “I can’t think about having to depart my house and depart the whole lot behind.”
