The Sri Lanka chess team made an early exit from the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 after failing to enter the Group II level following defeats against Botswana and Portugal in round seven and eight last weekend. Sri Lankans opened the quest for the Olympiad on a promising note by defeating number 1 International Cripple [...]

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Sri Lanka fail to enter Group II level in FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020

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The Sri Lanka chess team made an early exit from the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 after failing to enter the Group II level following defeats against Botswana and Portugal in round seven and eight last weekend.

Sri Lankans opened the quest for the Olympiad on a promising note by defeating number 1 International Cripple Association team and strong Tajikistan team in earlier rounds. But they lost the touch against the strong Portugal and Scotland teams in the rounds 2 and 8 and were held to a draw by the UAE.

The FIDE World Chess Olympiad is conducted by the World Chess Federation because the COVID-19 pandemic forced postponement of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad to August 2021. With the participation of 163 countries, FIDE has introduced a new format which allows a team to have two males, two females, one each from Under-20 boys and girls in the team. The event was held in the Rapid Chess format with 15 minutes per side with 10 second increment from move one.

Sri Lanka beat Chinese Taipei 4½-1½ in the first round, but lost to Scotland 2½-3½ in second round. The Lankans received a walkover from Nigeria 6-0 in third round, before beating Tajikistan 4-2 in the fourth round.

They drew with UAE in the fifth round 3-3, and regained momentum to beat Angola 4-2 in the sixth round and beat IPCA 4-2 in the seventh round. But the Lankans eventually lost to Portugal 2½-1½ in the eighth round and to Botswana 1-5 in the final round to score 11 match points. The overall outcome placed Sri Lanka fifth in the group.

Portugal, IPCA and Scotland were placed first, second, and third in Pool B, the group Sri Lanka competed, and advanced to Level II that will commence soon.

In addition Women International Master Sachini Ranasinghe was the pick of Sri Lankans to achieve the individual best to score of five points out of six games while Devnethmi Dahampriya also scored five points out of eight games.

The Sri Lanka National Chess team comprised FIDE Master Harshana Thilakarathne (Captain, Maliyadeva College), FIDE Master Isuru Alahakoon (SL Navy), Devnethmi Dahampriya (Visakha Vidyalaya), Ashvini Pavalchandran (Wycherly International School), FIDE Master L.M.S.T. de Silva (Nalanda College), WCM Sayuni Gihansa Jayaweera (Dharmasoka College), CM Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (Ananda College), FIDE Master Chinthaka Anuruddha (YMCA Kandy), Nethmi Fernando(Girls’ High School), Women International Master Sachini Ranasinghe (NF3 Chess Club), FIDE Master Minul Doluweera (Royal College) and WCM Tharushi Niklesha (Visakha Vidyalaya). Ransith Fernando was the team manager while Rajeendra Kalugampitiya was the coach.

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