Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia

I walked into the park across from the law and philosophy faculties of the university with its conspicuously red walls. It was not long before I came across what I was looking for. Chess rounders of Shevchenko Park were surely there. I was lucky enough to be seated opposite someone waiting for an opponent. Most of the time they were not free, and I’d have to leave without being able to play but watching. With a standard chess set and a sturdy but user-unfriendly Russian Jantar chess clock, we began our blitz game (speed chess) following a hand shake. My opponent, good humored elderly gentleman with a beautiful face, was probably not expecting someone who played in tournaments for years. I had a better position on the board just after the opening, but he was “Confident with all the stone tranquility of a Buddha statue.” ¹ In countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Russia, such players need to be taken seriously. I couldn’t help but ponder whether 10 - 20 UAH, this little amount of our bet on the game, was significant for him. I was watching him more than the chessboard. The weather was very cold and I was freezing. I put my hand in my pocket every time right after making my move, in order to keep warm. The old man achieved the complex position he wanted in the middlegame, and seemed waiting patiently for a hapless move on my part... * A writer, whose name I fail to recall, once said of Kiev, “Many a city I have seen with parks in them, but one city was in the park itself.” Kiev and Ukraine present many intellectual and naturel wonders. There are parks named Shevchenko in many Ukrainian cities and an opera and ballet building of an impressive architecture, with a show every night, in almost all cities... Alas, the old man would not be in the park today. Even birds would have fled the scene if there has been an explosion in the vicinity. Minerva’s Owl ²  will not be flapping its wings at the Faculty of Philosophy right across the street.  It has been said that the walls of Taras Shevchenko State University have been painted red to remind bloodshed in war. Various details as well as different reasons abound. Although the reason for the choice of red remains unknown, “homo sapiens” know that war brings nothing but pain and blood.  * The literature giant Shevchenko, after whom parks, streets, the opera building and the university have been named, is a significant name in terms of Ukrainian cultural values and national identity. However, he rises above the local and from this infrastructure, he starts an escalate towards the universal with his works. Every society develops by preserving, first and foremost, its authentic values and then developing and surpassing them, not by being forced to overstep this principle. Taras Hryhorovich Shevchenko has fought for such an existence for Ukraine. He is a painter as well as an author and a poet. One can’t help but wonder if such productivity also found its reflection in being a chess champion too? I have no idea but he has definitely been the champion of Ukrainian freedom against the Russians in 1800s. History has taught us that no matter how much pain is inflicted, once a championship is won it cannot be taken back. * You must be curious about the winner of our chess game. The result may matter, but it dwindles in the existence of values reflected from the wonders of Ukraine. And war has no winner. _______________ ¹ From the poem of “The Caspien Sea” (Bahr-i Hazar), Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet. ² Symbol of knowledge and wisdom, especially in the Western world.