We collected 2,953 EUR for MSF! Thank you, everybody—every donation, small or large, helped us there.

It is hard to concentrate on chess at the moment, with the Ukrainian people under constant attack from Putin's artillery and forces. I have so many things to say, but I will try to keep it as short as I can:

If you have ever enjoyed this site as a viewer: Ever since I launched analysis.sesse.net in 2013, I have not asked for donations of any kind. I have not run any ads. I have not collected your personal information or in general made any money off of the site. I am in the privileged position to be able to pay for my own hardware and have it stay a hobby. But now I am asking you to support the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. If you ever wanted to show your support for the site: This is your chance. See below.

To all Russian chess fans: Know that our dispute is with your leadership, not the Russian people. It would be deeply hypocritical of me from the comfort and security of my own home to demand that you try to overthrow a dictator, but I have tremendous respect for those of you who have gone out to protest. In particular, I feel for every common person who has been hit by the sanctions; and I feel for the brave chess players and other athletes who have spoken out and are still refused entry to international competitions, but with a leadership that politicizes sports so intensely, any other outcome seems difficult. I know that you did not want this to happen, and I welcome Russian and Belarusian viewers to both my site and to my chess board, should we ever meet. (I would make an exception for Putin and his hawks, but I heard he does not use the Internet anyway.)

How to help

I have chosen MSF (also known as Doctors Without Borders) as my preferred charity; they are a neutral, humanitarian charity that I hope we can all get behind, no matter our nationality and political views. If, for whatever reason, you cannot or will not donate to the MSF, consider the Red Cross. If you have access to gift matching or tax deduction, use that to amplify your donation. (Sometimes, using your local MSF organization instead of the international site may reduce friction in such matters.) You can mark your donation with “analysis.sesse.net” if you wish, but I will not see it nevertheless. You do not need to earmark your donation to Ukraine; know that both the MSF and the ICRC are in the area and are saving lives. Any donation, large or small, is welcome and will help.

Donate here or find your local MSF chapter.

After you've donated, please fill out this form; you can choose to stay anonymous, use your full name or an alias. After some brief moderation for spam and abuse, I will post it here so we can all see how it's going. This is on the honor system, I trust you to play fair as I cannot verify your donations (I chose to trust you rather than ask you to trust me in forwarding your money, and in general, international donation campaigns are complex things best left to professionals). Comments and/or messages will be left unpublished. All amounts will be converted to EUR.

Donations so far

Update 2022-05-26: We're continuing until the end of Norway Chess; after that, I'll make a complete tally. Thank you, everybody, for your generosity!

Newest donations are listed first.