Chess Champs Academy emerge winners
Chess Champs Academy led by Thilini Koswatte won the maiden CFSL Online Women’s Rapid Team Chess Cup 2021 conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL) convincingly. At the grand finals, which was held in double rounds giving each player a black and a white, Chess Champs scored 3 match points where their rivals could score only one match point in first round.
In the first round Woman Grand Master from Kazakhstan, Gulmira Dauletota and Tharushi Sandeepani scored the points for Passed Pawns while Women International Master from India, Isha Sharma and Saumy Zainab scored points for the Chess Champs Academy team.
But, in the second round Thilini played a captain’s game by outplaying strong Kazakhstan WGM Gulmira at a critical stage while WIM Isha Sharma suffered a loss from Sri Lankan Women International Master Sachini Ranasinghe. Dinushki Premanath and Saumy Zainab, both former national champions, excelled by scoring full points for their team. Eventually Chess Champs beat Passed Pawns 3-1 in the second round to win the championship.
A total of 275 players, divided into 55 teams from all over the country, participated in the tournament and teams were drafted into three categories according to their player’s ratings. Then the Division ‘C’ was played on January 14 with the last 27 teams according to the ranking.
The three top teams in Division ‘C’ advanced to the Division ‘B’ to play with next ranked 23 teams on January 16. The top three teams of Division ‘B’ were promoted to play a Round Robin event with top five ranked teams of 55 on January 17 as the Division ‘A’ event.
The top four teams of the Category ‘A’ were paired according to the double knockout method at the final stage and from the beginning to the end it looked more interesting.
Passed Pawns CC, consisted of WIM Sachini Ranasinghe (captain), WGM Gulmira Deltoteva, Dasuni Mendis, Pasindi Yathra Wijesuriya and Tharushi Sandeepani. The champions of Division ‘A’ beat Fischer Chess Club ‘A’, who became fourth in Division ‘A’ with Nethmi Fernando (captain), WIM Nelunika Methmani, Ashvini Pawalachandran, Niklesha Tharushi and Esha Pallie in the first semi-finals with 3 match points to 1.
Chess Champ Academy, first runner-up in Division ‘A’ led by Thilini Koswatte with Dinushki Premanath, WIM Isha Sharma, Saumy Zainab and Prasansa Premanath, beat the Fischer Chess Club ‘A’, who placed third in Division ‘A’, by 3 match points to 1 in the second semi-final.
The losing team included Chamodya Yapabandara, WFM Manisha Gunaratne, Rumethma Tennakoon, W.M.M.N. Wijesingha and Chanethma Marasinghe. In the consolation final Fischer Chess Club ‘A’ beat Fischer Chess Club ‘B’ in the first round 3-1, while Fischer Chess Club ‘B’ beat Fischer Chess Club ‘A’ in the second round, 2½ to 1½, to claim the bronze medal with highest game points.
Games were played under high-anti-cheating rules and regulations according to FIDE standards on Chess.com platform. Also the games were commentated by Fide Master Rajeendra Kalugampitiya and Dulan Edirisinghe, both former five-time national chess champions, through the CFSL YouTube channel.
The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka will be awarding a total prize fund of Rs. 40,000 and has organised a virtual Awards Ceremony.
| Result of the Finals | |
Round 1
Round 2
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