YORK, England — Pints in hand, a group of
men sat hunched over
chessboards under the sloping ceiling beams of the Eagle
and Child pub in York, in northern England.
اضافة اعلان
Among them sat Maksym Kryshtafor, an eight-year-old
Ukrainian boy with freckles and an impish smile, who navigated his pieces
across the board with intense focus.
The group had moved its weekly meeting to an earlier
time to accommodate its young guest’s bedtime, and he was soon impressing these
chess aficionados with decades more experience.
“He’s really good for his age; there’s no question
about that,” said Paul Townsend, 62, an avid chess player and member of
England’s
chess federation. “And he clearly has a talent.”
Townsend and his family are hosting Maksym and his
mother after the federation essentially played matchmaker and asked if they
would be willing to sponsor the pair.
More than 6 million refugees have left Ukraine for
Europe, according to the UN, each facing the challenges of a life ripped apart
by war: a strange land, an unfamiliar language, and tenuous ties to support
systems such as education and health care — if they have any ties all. Finding
a pursuit that provides focus and stability can help exiles navigate the
anxieties and upheaval of restarting life far from home.
For Maksym, it was chess.
Just four days after arriving in Britain, Maksym
drew the attention of the local news media when he won a tournament in County
Durham, about 45 minutes north of York by train. He quickly became known on the
local chess circuit.
“Chess is all his life, and now it’s all my life,”
said Maksym’s mother, Iryna. “It’s like air for him because all the time he is
playing.”
Chess has helped Maksym deal with the complex
emotions of leaving his home and adjusting to life in Britain, which has not
always been easy. Without a good grasp of English, he was placed with younger
students for some of his lessons in school, and it has been hard for him to
connect with other children, his mother said. He misses his grandparents, who
lived with them in the Ukrainian city of Odesa and who stayed behind. Maksym’s
mother is estranged from his father, who has not been a part of the boy’s life.
When the war broke out in February, Iryna
Kryshtafor, 45, had scrambled to throw her and Maksym’s most essential
belongings into a rucksack as they fled for the border.
Countless mothers across
Ukraine were focused on how
to save their children while maintaining a sense of stability, and Kryshtafor
was no different.
While she forgot to bring a proper winter coat for
herself, she packed the things she knew were the most important to Maksym: a
chess book, a laptop for him to practice his games on, and the white polo shirt
and red fleece that he wears for every competition.
They went first to Romania, where they stayed for
weeks. Then Kryshtafor reached out to the English Chess Federation to see if
someone would host her and Maksym so he could continue playing and return to
school.
She was eventually connected with Townsend and his
wife, Helen, who offered them an annex in their spacious house near York, under
a program that allowed British families to host Ukrainians fleeing the war for
six months. So far, despite procedural difficulties, more than 65,000 people
have headed to Britain from Ukraine under the program.
Maksym has been enrolled in school, where he is
beginning to make friends and is enjoying math, Kryshtafor said, because even
without a strong grasp of English, he can understand it.
Under British policy, families agree to host
Ukrainians for six months, and their visas last for up to three years. The
Kryshtafors will need to find a place of their own unless the sponsors allow
them to stay beyond the initial agreement.
On a recent Saturday morning, Townsend took Maksym
and Kryshtafor to a Quaker school in York for a competition involving 120
youths ages 7–18. Boards were lined up on tables in a gym, filled with row
after row of children tapping clocks and moving pieces.
Some of the children were so small that when seated,
their feet swung above the floor. Maksym’s sneakers barely touched it.
He sat, fidgeting slightly, while the organizers
rattled off the rules in English. He did not understand much of what was being
said, but he knows how to play. His first match was over in less than a minute.
He ran into the hall where Kryshtafor was waiting
and embraced her. After the next match, Maksym again went running out to his
mother.
“Too easy,” he said with a smile. “I made a
checkmate.”
Before the fifth match, Maksym pressed his forehead
against his mother’s and she whispered some words of encouragement. His
opponent, an older boy, arrived just before play began.
Maksym rested his chin on his hand and smiled until,
suddenly, he realized he had made a mistake. He pulled at tufts of his hair,
twisting them around his fingers. He eventually lost to the boy, and after they
shook hands, he wiped tears from his eyes.
Maksym eventually placed second in the competition.
By the end, he seemed more interested in chatting with a group of children who
had organized a game of tag outside.
His long hair flew behind him as one of the children
chased him.
“He’s just a child,” his mother said as she watched him
frolic. “He works so hard with chess that sometimes you forget he’s just a
child.”
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