Ukraine Relief 2023

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As early as March 2022, the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) unequivocally condemned the Russian Federation’s unjustified war on Ukraine and took
strong actions against participation of Russian athletes and officials. Please refer to the “IBCA Statement on war in Ukraine” on the home page: https://ibca-info.org/.

Players from war-torn Ukraine faced numerous obstacles to their participation in the 2022
IBCA official events in 2022 but were able to overcome them all with the help of the worldwide Braille chess family that organized a successful fundraising effort and ensured players’ safe passage.

National Braille associations of Sweden, Germany, Canada, North Macedonia, France, Italy, as well as the IBCA itself, generously contributed enough money to make possible both the participation of Team Ukraine in the IBCA World Team Championship in North Macedonia and the participation of Liubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko, Ukraine’s best female Braille player, in the 2022 IBCA World Women’s Championship in France. This is a great example of solidarity that transcends borders! WIM Liubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko from Kyiv, Ukraine dominated the field, scoring 8.5 points out of 9 and was crowned the World Champion. Her achievement was universally cheered as yet another manifestation of cohesiveness and solidarity.

The situation in 2023 did not change, it is still bad. IBCA decided to continue with the decision to restrict Russia from taking part in all the IBCA events planned in 2023 and also to continue supporting Ukrainian players in this difficult situation.

On January 31, 2023 the IBCA President Dr. Charudatta Jadhav announced measures to “extend all possible support to Ukrainian players in this difficult situation”. Here are the steps the IBCA already took to help Ukraine in 2023 :

  1. Exempt Ukraine from the annual membership fee for 2023.
  2. Waive player registration fees for participants from Ukraine in the official 2023 events.
  3. Use the remainder of funds collected last year to support participation of Ukrainian players in 2023 events.

The worldwide Braille community is strongly supporting the Ukraine relief effort. The Italian Amateur Blind Chess Association (A.S.C.I.d.) led by president Mr. Bersan Vrioni
has started a fundraising round for 2023. Countries such as Sweden and Canada have already joined and are collecting funds. The IBCA thank everyone who supported this noble cause and also cordially invites other national member associations to join the noble initiative of our Italian friends.