Russian grandmaster Alexei Sarana became European champion after winning a chess tournament in Serbia. According to Sports.ru, he scored 8.5 points after 11 rounds, beating Kirill Shevchenko of Romania and Belgian Daniel Dardu, who scored the same number of points, on additional indicators.
Another Russian, Andrei Esipenko, entered the top ten of the best players in the championship, who took 8th place. Russian chess players competed under the flag of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
Oleksiy Sarana, now 23, left Russia shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As Radio Liberty clarifies , in March 2022, the grandmaster made an anti-war statement and decided to stay in Serbia, where he came to the next tournament. “The actions of our authorities cause complete disgust. I don't agree with them, but I can't influence them. I don’t like this war, its causes are terrible,” said Sarana.
Andrei Esipenko also opposed the war. He signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin from Russian chess players, in which they demanded an end to hostilities.