SJU’s Nelunika Methmani shines in World University Online Chess tourney
View(s):Sri Lanka University Sports Association fielded five teams at the FISU (International University Sports Federation) World University Mind Sports Online Chess championship 2020 but none of them failed to enter the final round.
Team China 1 became the 2020 FISU World University Mind Sports Online champions of the event that brought together 551 student-players from four continents and 40 countries. The champions won all their matches in both the qualification stage and play-offs, losing just a single individual game.
The pick of the Sri Lankan players was Nelunika Methmani of Sri Jayawardenapura University who scored 5½ in her nine matches.
Sri Lanka 1 performed extremely well on the second day, winning all three rounds. However, the strong opponents they faced on the third day proved to be too much for them. They concluded the event with four wins, unable to progress to the knockout rounds.
Sri Lanka 2 got eight match points as well, with two wins and four draws. Sri Lanka 5 managed two wins and three draws to score seven match points, while Sri Lanka 3 and Sri Lanka 4 scored six and five match points respectively.
In the semifinals, China 1 routed top seeds Armenia 3.5-0.5 while Ukraine beat Belarus 3-1.
After three games in the final were drawn, the captain of team China Lei Tingije (silver medallist of the World Rapid Chess Championship) defeated a member of the Ukrainian Olympic Team, Iulija Osmak, and secured gold for her squad.
In the match for third place Armenia prevailed over Belarus thanks to a nice victory by Shant Sargsyan over IM Mihail Nikitienko and took home bronze.
The FISU online World University Mind Games Chess Championship 2020 conducted by FISU and organised by the Polish University sports Federation, took place from October 26 at the Tornelo flat form. The time control was 15 minutes + 10 seconds and nine rounds were played as the first round.