Eight-member Sri Lanka team for Youth Chess Olympiad

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

CHESS:An Eight member under 16 team led by Chathura Rajapakse of Dharmaraja College, Kandy is taking part at the ‘World Youth Olympiad Chess Championship which got underway at the Asean Chess Academy in Singapore.

Altogether thirty five teams are taking part in this biggest youth chess event in the world chess calendar.

Two teams are in the fray from Sri Lanka, Chathura Rajapakse who also represented the Sri Lanka team at the senior olympiad chess championship held in Turin, Italy including Lahiru Hapuarachchi (Kingswood College, Kandy), Rashin de Silva (Devananda College, Ambalangoda), Sahan Sachintha (Richmond College, Galle) are the players for the ‘A’ team.

The second team comprises Shakthi Ediriweera (Ananda College, Colombo), Malaka Perera (Trinity College), Charuni Sulakkana (Dharmashoka College, Ambalangoda) and Oshadi Kottachchy (Royal College). Most of the players in the team have performed well in the local and overseas tourneys held recently. Some players have already been selected to play in the National `A’ chess championship to be held in the latter part of August. So Sri Lanka has a better opportunity to end up within the top ten teams.

Officials Malinda Seneviratne (Manager), Mrs. Kottachchy (chaperon). The tournament will be conducted according to swiss system over ten rounds and will be worked off till August 12 2007.

Five players from Sri Lanka which is taking part at the second S.K. Narasingham memorial FIDE rated chess championship is being conducted by the Tamil Nadu State chess Association at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai, India. The tournament commenced yesterday and will be continued till August 13. The event comprised 11 rounds.

The team comprises national champion Athula Russel, Laxman Wijesooriya, Adil Nazir, Prabuddha Wijesinghe and Anjula Samarasinghe. Altogether 200 players are taking part at this tourney including 150 rated players.