Chess | The Russian world champion criticizes his country’s attack on Ukraine and changes the national team

Russian chess grandmaster Aleksandra Kostenjuk will switch to Switzerland at the beginning of next year.

Published by the Swiss Chess Federation from the bulletin it turns out, 38-year-old Kostenjuk has had the country’s citizenship for more than ten years, as she is married to a Swiss man. However, the family has lived in France for the last few years, where the couple’s teenage daughter goes to school.

Although Kostenjuk has already won the Swiss championship in the open tournament in 2013, he is known specifically for his merits in the colors of Russia. Kostenjuk became an International Grandmaster in 2004 at the age of just 16, and won the Women’s World Chess Championship from 2008 to 2010.

Kostenjuk won the European Rapid Chess Championship a few weeks ago in Warsaw, where he played under the banner of the International Chess Federation Fide.

Kostenjuk can move on to represent Switzerland only from the beginning of 2024, as he has played his last tournament for Russia in December 2021.

If Kostenjuk were to switch and jump to the Swiss team before the two-year waiting period is over, the country would have to pay the Russian Chess Federation a transfer fee of around 9,400 euros ($10,000).

Kostenjuk is one of those Russian-born athletes who have opposed Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, for example on their own social media channels.

Chess.com– website, Kostenjuk said that he was deeply shocked by the start of the war. At the same time, he stated that the war had divided Russia in two.

“We have spent a lot of time outside of Russia, but it is still my homeland, my home. Now I see it collapsing. The consequences of the war are incomprehensible to ordinary Russians. I feel that pain every day.”

Kostenjuk also stated that he has no need to go back to Russia, where there is a strong propaganda machine.

“I want to be free and understand how important freedom is.”