Tournaments relocated, top player suspended as online players pitch in to help With Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine raging on, Svitlana Demchenko pauses to think about how she'll handle her next Russian opponent.

"I think it depends on the person … not every Russian player has such strong opinions," said the 18-year-old Ottawa chess player, who holds the woman international master title and is one of Canada's highest-ranked competitors.

"I do not know how I would feel. I'm a bit conflicted."

Born in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Demchenko has friends and relatives there who've been sleeping in bomb shelters at night. Between those worries and her university studies, chess isn't her biggest priority at the moment.

Nonetheless, the war, now more than a month old, is reverberating far beyond Ukraine's borders — and the world of chess is no exception.

Tournaments have been relocated. One top Russian player has been suspended for supporting Putin, while others are unable to play due to travel restrictions. There have been calls for the Russian head of governing body FIDE to resign, even though he's spoken out against the conflict.