Ranindu Liyanage and Nethmi Fernando are new Sri Lanka champions
A 16-year old schoolboy from Ananda College, Colombo, Ranindu Liyanage is crowned as the National Chess Champion. Ranindu who was playing excellent сhess from the very start on 11th September finished with an excellent score of 10 ½ points out of 13. On his way to the top spot Young Ranidu suffered an unnecessary loss to CC Weerasinghe at the penultimate round but conceded only three draws to LMST De Silva, Lakshitha Randil and Gayantha Dissanayake. Ranindu won the National Chess Champion title, Rs. 100,000/= with a trophy and gold medal. Minul Doluweera of Royal College Colombo also had a good tournament, scoring 10 points out of 13, but lost the race for the title to Ranidu and had to settle for silver. The youngest participant, 14-year old Susal De Silva of Nalanda College took bronze. Nethmi Fernando of Girls High School clinched the title of Sri Lanka Women’s National Chess Champion scoring 10/13. After an impressive start 6½ points out of 7 she lost two games to Sandeepani Tharushi and Newanji Hewawasam in the second half of the event but came back strongly to earn 3 ½ out of 4 in the last four rounds. Along with the title the 16-year old Nethmi received Rs. 60,000/= in cash plus a trophy and gold medal. After losing her first three games of the event Sandeepani Tharushi of Devi Balika rebounded strongly to score 9 ½ points, shared the second place with Ashvini Pavalachandran of Wicherly International School, and got silver thanks to better tiebreaks. The Sri Lanka National Chess Championship 2020 held by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka at Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo, from September 11th to 21st September 2020 was a great success. Mrs. Sandamali Aviruppola, Principal and Mr. Luxman Wijesuriya, the President of Chess Federation, General Secretary of South Asian Chess Council and Commonwealth Chess Association, and Vice President of Asian Chess Federation presented the awards to the winners. The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka invited several National Champions such as Harinlal Aturupane and Suneetha Wijesuriya who attended the closing ceremony. Final Standings – Men Rk. Name Club/City Pts. 1 CM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan Ananda College – Colombo 10.5 2 FM Doluweera Minul Sanjula Royal College – Colombo 10 3 FM De Silva L M S T Nalanda College – Colombo 8 4 Theekshana H G Denuwan Ananda College – Colombo 8 5 IM Weerawardane Romesh 7.5 6 Randil Lakshitha Japura Chess Club 7 7 Dabarera G W D M Maliyadeva College – Kurunegala 6.5 8 FM Galappaththi Chinthaka Anuruddha Kandy YMCA Chess Club 6.5 9 Amarasinghe A A C B Japura Chess Club 5.5 10 Samaranayake K P R N Pera Knights Chess Club 5.5 11 Bandara Dhanushka Kandy YMCA Chess Club 5 12 Sivathanujan S Kokuvil Hindu College 4 13 Weerasinghe C C Maroons Chess Club 4 14 Dassanayake D M G S St Sylvesters College – Kandy 3 Final Standings – Women Rk. Name Club/City Pts. 1 Fernando Nethmi L Girls’ High School – Kandy 10 2 Sandeepani M Tharushi Devi Balika Vidyalaya – Colombo 9.5 3 Pavalachandran Ashvini Wycherley International School 9.5 4 WCM Tharushi T H D Niklesha Visakha Vidyalaya – Colombo 9.0 5 WIM Ranasinghe S D Nf3 Chess Club 8.5 6 WCM Jayaweera Sayuni Gihansa Dharmasoka College – Ambalangoda 7.5 7 WCM Pallie Ehsha Mishela Visakha Vidyalaya – Colombo 7.0 8 Wijesinghe W M M N Girls’ High School – Kandy 7.0 9 WFM Hewawasam H Y Nevanjee Dimanya Visakha Vidyalaya – Colombo 6.5 10 Abeysinghe H M H Janandani NSBM Green University 5.0 11 WCM Wickramasinghe Minethma Lasandi Sujatha Vidyalaya – Matara 3.5 12 Ranganath Tharuli Vihasna Yoshida Shokanji International Scho 3.0 13 Koswatte C T Sri Lanka Airport & Aviation 2.5 14 Mapa M M W H Girls’ High School – Kandy 2.5 Text and photo: Luxman Wijesuriya, President of CFSL and Vice-President of Asian Chess Federation
OSG Baden-Baden wins Schachbundesliga championship
The ending of the 2020 German Championship tournament in Karlsruhe turned into a real thriller. OSG Baden-Baden defeated SC Viernheim in the last round 4.5: 3.5 in a tense battle and defended the German Champion title. Viernheim was on the verge of springing a big surprise but had to settle for the runner-up position. Third place went to Schachfreunde Deizisau, which clobbered Solingen 6.5: 1.5. In the final round, Werder Bremen prevailed over Berlin 5.5:2.5 and finished in fourth place. Solingen came fifth ahead of Bayern Munich which beat Aachen 5.5:2.5. Berlin and Aachen found themselves at the bottom of the final standings. Before the final round battle between Baden-Baden and Viernheim, the setup was clear. Thanks to the better board points a draw was enough for the reigning champion to defend the title. This topsy-turvy match was ultimately decided on the tail boards. Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were the first players to shake hands – after 20 moves an absolutely even endgame emerged on the board. Three more draws on boards two, three, and four followed shortly. The first decisive outcome was registered on board eight. Here Sergei Fedorchuk won a fine positional against Etienne Bacrot. However, Viernheim’s optimism was short-lived as Francisco Vallejo Pons quickly leveled the score by defeating Amin Bassem. With 3:3 on the scoreboard, it looked like the final result would be 4:4, as David Anton Guijarro had a clear advantage against Michael Adams while Arkadij Naiditsch had a winning position in his game with Kovalenko although his king was exposed to various threats. Eventually, Naiditsch maneuvered his king to safety and scored the full point. Meanwhile, Anton Guijarro missed a forced win and allowed Adams to transpose into an equal rook endgame so that Baden-Baden even won this great fight. As a result, the defending champion scored a hard-fought victory. OSG Baden-Baden expanded the winning streak, which was only interrupted by SG Solingen in the 2015/16 season, and won the German championship for the 14th time in 15 years. The tournament went very well for Vincent Keymer. The 15-year-old grandmaster won the last encounter against Jan Smeets and with 5.5/7 result he picked up 20 rating-points. Final standings: Place Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. OSG Baden-Baden + 4½ 6½ 5 6 7 7 7 2. SC Viernheim 3½ + 5 6 5 5½ 6 7 3. Chess friends Deizisau 1½ 3 + 5 6½ 4½ 5 7½ 4. SV Werder Bremen 3 2 3 + 4½ 5 5½ 6 5. SG Solingen 2 3 1½ 3½ + 5 7 5½ 6. FC Bayern Munich 1 2½ 3½ 3 3 + 5 5½ 7. SF Berlin 1 2 3 2½ 1 3 + 4 8. Aachener SV 1 1 ½ 2 2½ 2½ 4 + Official website: https://www.schachbundesliga.de/ Text: Georgios Souleidis Photos: Christian Bossert