Ukrainian drafts player Tkachenko is playing for the world title in Wageningen, her new home

Ukrainian drafts player Darya Tkachenko will play for the world title against her compatriot and defending champion Viktorija Motritskjo in the coming days. Wageningen, the place of action, is special for the 40-year-old Tkachenko.

The four-time world champion and two-time European champion ended up there when she left her home country in 2022, just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After a week of air raids, she took the train and traveled to the Netherlands in three days.

Her contacts at the Wageningen drafts club WSDV helped her on her way. Since then she has played for the premier league and became Dutch champion twice. Because she has been staying in the Netherlands for more than a year, she can compete for the world title under the Dutch flag.

“These matches provide some distraction, but my wish is actually that the disasters in the world come to an end and that we can live a normal life,” says Tkatsjenko from the Wageningen town hall, where most of the matches will take place in the wedding hall.

Tkachenko and Viktorija Motritskjo will play twelve games between December 19 and 30. The one with the most points wins, provided they have won at least two games. If necessary, a tiebreak with a reduced reflection time will be played on New Year’s Day.

The drafts players, who also competed for the world title last year, will play on special tables: an original and a replica of the tables from Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen. There, in 1945, during the Second World War, the capitulation of the German occupier in the Netherlands was agreed. Canadian Lieutenant General Foulkes presented the terms to German Colonel General Blaskowitz.

“It’s a nice signal,” says Tkachenko, who was in the Netherlands for the first time in 1997 for a youth tournament. “I visited the hotel and saw pictures.”

Yet Tkachenko wants to focus mainly on conquering her fifth world title. “Whether I win or lose, I will keep going. I see checkers as a science that you can study, but at the same time it is also an art form.”

The Netherlands is a good country for drafts players, says Tkachenko, who previously lived in France, Germany, Luxembourg and Russia. “There are a lot of people here who play and understand the game. The group that plays at a professional level is small, maybe four or five, but they are among the best players in the world.”