Chenitha and Thehas under 10 winner and runner up of Commonwealth Chess Championship

Sri Lanka’s most remarkable success in the Commonwealth Chess championship came in the Under 10 section with both the winner and runner up in the category representing Sri Lanka. Both Chenitha Karunasena (Nalanda College – Colombo 10) and Thehas Kiringoda (Ananda College – Colombo 10) fought all the way until the end, with both players finishing on 8/9 points while Chenitha  just edging into first place based off tiebreaks

GM S.P Sethuraman (India) emerged as the open champion scoring 7/9 points. GM NR Vignesh (India) came in second place while Sri Lanka found their way on to the podium through IM Ranindu Liyanage who showed an exceptional performance to win the bronze medal after a hard-fought draw against the eventual winner in the final round.

The most successful nation across the entire tournament was India who won 12 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 9 bronze medals to be crowned as the dominant team in the tournament. Sri Lanka won 7 medals while Singapore were also able to win a solitary silver medal

Other notable performances from the Sri Lankan contingent included those by Dishal Nimsara Weerasekara (Sri Chandananda Buddhist College – Kandy) and B Janukshan (Jaffna Hindu College) both of whom scored 5.5/9 points. Overall Sri Lanka had 7 players finish in the top 3 in their respective categories, accumulating a total of one gold, two silvers and four bronze  medals.

The Sri Lankan medal winners are given below,

Chenitha Sihas Dinsara Karunasena (1st place – U10 Open, Nalanda College Colombo 10)

Thehas Rithmitha Kiringoda (2nd place – U10 Open, Ananda College – Colombo 10)

Nethumi Dihansa Perera (2nd place – U08 Girls, Polymath International School)

Liyanage Pesandu Rashmitha (3rd place – U18 Open, D S Senanayake College – Colombo 07)

Theruni Jayasundara (3rd place – U14 Girls, St. Paul’s Girl’s School – Milagiriya)

Sethumlee Devhara Palliyage (3rd place – U12 Girls, Sanghamiththa Balika Vidyalaya – Gampaha)

Eleesha Warnakulasuriya Fernando (3rd place – U08 Girls, Holy Family Balika Primary School – Wennapuwa)

Source: Daily News