Resolute Vivash wins convincingly
All winners with CFSL President Luxman Wijesuriya after the completion of the Youth GP 2022
Vivash Samarakoon of Royal College, won the 3rd Sri Lanka Youth Chess Grand Prix 2022, beating schoolmate Thisarindu Induwara by 1½-½ convincingly. Vivash started the first game with black pieces and the opening was a scotch game, where he slightly complicated by opening the ‘D’ file early. In couple of moves he claimed a Bishop and a Knight for a Rook, to gain a winning advantage. When the white took the Queen to the Queenside in 22nd move, Vivash sacrificed a piece fearlessly, which brought him the total control of the game, and eventually the win.
In the second game, Vivash played a defensively against the ‘Caro Kann Defense’ by Induwara. Though Induwara advanced his Pawns in the Kings territory, threatening the control of Kings region, Vivash managed to obtain slight perpetual checks to draw the game and the title. Vivash bagged Rs.30,000 with the trophy and the gold medal while Induwara had to satisfy with the bronze medal.
Vivash (L) playing against Pamok (R)
Pamok Samaranayake of Rahula College beat Maleesha Savindu Weerathunge of D.S. Senanayake College in the first tiebreaker, after the Rapid play in the consolation finals. Pamok playing white, won the first round game against the ‘Sicilian Defense Opening’ played by his opponent after 49 moves. Though Maleesha got a break through to enter whites territory, his King was isolated with Pamok’s a double Rooks combination and was checkmated in the 49th move.
Maleesha came back strongly to win the second game against the ‘Sicilian Defense Pelican’ variation. Though Pamok managed to get the advantage of two Bishops at once, but his King in the centre gave trouble with Maleesha’s pieces working towards black King. With the tiebreaker in the Rapid games, which had the time control of 15 minutes and 10 second increments from move one, Pamok won by 1½-½ and claimed the silver medal with a cash award of Rs.10,000. Maleesha finished at overall fourth place.
Vivash receives the trophy from CFSL President Luxman Wijesuriya
The 3rd Sri Lanka Youth Chess Grand Prix 2022 was conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka at its headquarters. There were two Round Robin events of 11 rounds played as Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the first stage with 12 players each. The winners, Maleesha from Group ‘A’ and Vivash from Group ‘B’ and runners-up Pamok from Group ‘A’ and Induwara from Group ‘B’ advanced to the knockout stage. In the semi-finals, Induwara beat Maleesha and Vivash beat Pamok to reach the finals.
The awards ceremony was held soon after the event with the participation of Luxman Wijesuriya, the President of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka.