Sri Lanka claim gold and bronze at Chess Olympiad
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Both the Sri Lankan Open and Women’s teams performed exceptionally at the FIDE Chess Olympiad with to secure podium finishes in their respective categories following notable performances in the final round. The Open team finished first in the ‘D’ category while the Women’s team finished third in the ‘C’ category at the FIDE Chess Olympiad, held in Hungary.
The Sri Lanka Open team faced the strong Thailand team in the final round, entering ranked second in the category. Despite being outrated in three out of four boards, Sri Lanka showed admirable fight to secure a 2-2 draw, which could even have been a win under more fortunate circumstances. IM Ranindu Liyanage secured a draw against IM Prim Laohawirapap, and despite Kosala Amaratunga losing, KK Dinujaya Kodithuwakku kept up his impressive performance in the tournament to even the scores with a win over Jonathan Bodemar. Danushka Bandara secured a draw with FM Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit. With that draw Sri Lanka emerged on top of ‘D’ Category with 11 match points, ahead of Liechtenstein and Pakistan. All four members of the Open team performed exceptionally throughout the tournament with Ranindu having a 2414 rating performance and Dinujaya performing at a 2220 level on the way to a 7 out of 11 score. The other members of the team also performed well above their ratings.
Sri Lanka team 1st place – Open Category ‘D’ IM Ranindu Liyanage (Läufer Chess Club), Kosala Sandeepa Amaratunga (Mayor Chess Club), KK Dinujaya Kodithuwakku (Rahula College, Matara), Danushka Bandara (Kandyan Lions Chess Club)
The Women’s team capped off an exceptional tournament with one final victory against North Macedonia by a 2.5-1.5 margin. WCM Sandula Dahamdi secured a solid draw against WFM Monika Stojkovska. A loss for WCM Tharushi Niklesha was balanced out by two convincing victories for WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie and WFM Devindya Oshini Gunawardena led Sri Lanka to 13 match points, securing third place in the ‘C’ Category behind Turkmenistan and Malaysia. Sandula and Oshini were the standout players for Sri Lanka during the tournament with Sandula scoring 5 out of 7 on the way to a 2192 rating performance while 12-year-old Oshini put up an outstanding score of 8.5 out of 9 for a rating performance of 2230. Both Tharushi and Ehsha also performed at a 2000+ level during the tournament.
India were the standout performers during the tournament winning gold medals in both the Open and Women’s categories for the first time in their history. The United States of America and Uzbekistan came second and third in the Open segment while Kazakhstan and USA achieved the same in the Women’s category.
Women’s team 3rd place – Category ‘C’ WCM Sanudula Dahamdi (Musaeus College), WCM Tharushi Niklesha (University of Kelaniya), WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie (Visakha Vidyalaya), WFM Devindya Oshini Gunawardena (Wycherly International School), Janandani Abeysinghe (Hatton National Bank)