Famous Ukrainian chess players claim that the preparation of the national team for the European Team Championship in Sweden has failed and ask the executive authorities for support. This position was voiced on Thursday in Kyiv at a press conference at the "Interfax-Ukraine" agency by chess players Ruslan Ponomariov, Oleksandr Moiseienko, Serhiy Karjakin, Pavlo Eljanov and the coach of the Ukrainian national team, Volodymyr Tukmakov.
According to V. Tukmakov, many problems have accumulated in Ukrainian chess, which the team faced during preparation for the championship.
"We are not going with an optimal lineup. The situation is such that those who are ready to sacrifice themselves are going - that is a bold statement, but they are ready to invest time and money to work for the image of Ukraine, which is not entirely right," he said.
The coach claims that only one team training camp was held to prepare the team, at which he met the team's debutants for the first time. "These training camps had nothing to do with the preparation of the national team," V. Tukmakov emphasized.
In addition, due to the lack of prizes and awards, "professional chess players rushed to commercial tournaments," he added.
The national team coach claims that there is no management or organization on the part of the Chess Federation. "Young players and club teams are in a terrible state," V. Tukmakov emphasized.
Speaking about the possible result at the European Championship, which will be held from July 29 to August 8, the national team mentor stated that "an inexperienced lineup cannot be an excuse for poor results." "Third place would be a good result for us," he said.
R. Ponomariov noted that despite the fact that "chess showed brilliant results for a very long time, which should have served to popularize chess in the country," the preparation for the championship turned out to be a failure. "We approached the national federation, but either received no responses at all, or they were forwarded to the Ministry for Youth and Sports. Such a situation is unacceptable," he stated.
In connection with the above, the famous chess player considers it necessary to recognize chess as a priority sport, which would make it possible to conduct preparation at a good level. In addition, R. Ponomariov expressed readiness to play at the team championship in Israel.
The chess player also did not rule out that if necessary he would personally appeal to the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, "with these problems so that he could influence" them. Answering journalists' questions about proposals to change citizenship, all the chess players - participants of the press conference - stated their readiness to continue defending Ukraine's honor at international competitions, and also expressed hope that by November, when the team world championship is scheduled, the situation will change.