Sri Lanka Chess: Isuru Alahakoon, Sachini Ranasinghe win National Chess Titles
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hello everyone,
Isuru Alahakoon of Sri Lanka Navy has won the country's national chess championship for the second consecutive year. Prasanna Kurukulasuriya led up to the penultimate round, but he lost to a weaker opponent. Isuru continued to play with confidence and won the title with 8.5 points over 13 rounds. He tied with Prasanna, but won on better tiebreak.
In the women's section WIM Sachini Ranasinghe won the title with 12 points over 13 rounds. She only lost to WIM Nelunika Methmani in the penultimate round, but picked up her third consecutive national title of her total four national title wins. Nelunika Methmani was second. Shelani De Silva was third.
The Sri Lanka National Chess Championships were held from September 27-October 7 at the National Institute of Sports Science, Colombo.
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Labels: isuru alahakoon, Sachini Ranasinghe, sri lanka chess
Sri Lanka Chess: Sajith Peiris Following in His Father’s Footsteps
12th Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Latest Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013Hi everyone,
Sajith Peiris
Unlike India, which has a glorious tradition of chess, the sport has become popular in the Indian sub-continent only in the last five years or so. Therefore, we are compelled to share this nice feature by Harsha Amarasinghe on a talented Sri Lanka chess youngster - Sajith Peiris. Sajith has the right genes in chess - his father was the national chess champion of the island nation. Read on...
In sports there are illustrious names of individual players, brothers, sisters and even families that can never be forgotten. For instance the Pollocks were magnificent for South Africa with the likes of Shaun Pollock, his father Peter Pollock, uncle Graeme Pollock and grandfather Andrew Pollock representing their country at the highest level of cricket. When it comes to Sri Lanka though, you do not find many families that have completely dominated a sport, but one cannot simply forget the chess champions of the Peiris family.
TDR Peiris, father of Gayan Peiris and Sajith Peiris, is a five-time national chess champion and a name that will never disappear from the history of Sri Lanka chess. In 1983 TDR Peiris clinched the Sri Lanka Open Chess Championship and in the same year he went on to win the national title as well. His sons, both Gayan and Sajith have always been the players to watch out for in the domestic chess arena, but are still far off from the fantastic five-time champion achievement of the father.
However, the youngest of the Peiris’s, Sajith managed to take the first step to emulate his father when he emerged champion of the Sri Lanka Open Chess Tournament 2013 last week. An old boy of Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya, Sajith scored 8.5 out of the possible 10 points which included victories over the only International Master (IM) of Sri Lanka, Romesh Weerawardane, and the experienced Prasanna Kurukulasuriya. Apart from that he secured draws over former national champions Isuru Alahakoon and Chinthaka Anuruddha.
These solid performances have drawn the admiration of Sri Lankan chess players and fans to the 21-year-old Sajith. He has been identified as one of the hot favourites to seal the National Championship due to be played in August. If young Sajith could live up to expectations he will not only become the national champion but he could also match what his father achieved 30 years ago.
Talking to The Nation following his victory, Sajith said that he is absolutely thrilled with his effort and is determined to deliver what is expected of him.
“Yes, I am very happy with this (the victory) as I played against some quality players in this tournament and also managed to collect few good results which lifted my confidence.
“I know my father had previously won both the Sri Lanka Open and National Championship back in 1983, so I hope I could complete a double by winning the national championship.”
Although Sajith has had a good tournament against some of the senior chess players his talent will surely be tested in the national championship, especially against the other youngsters such Lahiru Hapuarachchi and Chamika Perera. “There are lots of good players and it’s difficult to say that I could win the national championship just because I won this tournament, but, the good thing is this victory gives me a lot of confidence to try and win the big tournament.”
The youngest Peris, who was also the former under-18 national champion, showed gratitude by not forgetting to thank his father and brother for their support over the years when he said: “Well, my father and brother have been very supportive to me right from the start of my career. My father had won the national title five times, my brother finished second on several occasions. Both of them are really strong players and if I could win this time around they would be the happiest people in the world.”
Once, in 2010, seated at the same table with Sajith at an International Chess tournament held in Kandy, I heard him saying to one of his friends who was very worried about the fact that he was going to face an Indian International Master in the following round: “Look, even I can put a board around my chest telling people that I am an IM but, at the end of day it is just a title and usually in chess the better player wins, not the title or the names.” This says a lot about the player and his mindset. He is one of the top contenders for the national title but, what gives him the edge ahead of the other players is that he has a heart of a lion and he is certainly as fearless too.
Labels: gayan peiris, harsha amarasinghe, sajith peiris, sri lanka chess, tdr peiris
Trivia Chess History: Sri Lanka Get their First IM
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi Everyone,
It's a very special moment in chess history for the island nation of Sri Lanka. The country has just got their first IM. Can you name him? Find the answer at this Chess Blog post.
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Labels: Chess trivia, first IM of sri lanka, sri lanka chess
Asian Youth Chess Championship Begins in Sri Lanka
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012Hi everyone,Latest chess news from Asia is that the Youth Chess Championship has begun in Sri Lanka. Young chess players from 19 countries are taking part in the Asian Youth Chess Championship being held in the beach resort of Hikkaduwa.
The chess tournament has entries from 308 boys and girls for categories of under-8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 for Open and girls. A kindergarten championship is being held for the under-6.
In photo above, Bandula Gunawardane, Minister of Education, makes the ceremonial move with Harshana Thilakaratne who tied for first place in the World Youth Championship 2011 in Brazil.
Looking on are Sri Lanka Chess Federation president Upali Gunasekera and Secretary Luxman Wijesuriya, Zone President and Organizing Committee chairman and Asian Chess Federation Deputy President Casto Abundo.
Labels: asian youth chess, sri lanka chess
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