Sri Lanka field strong teams for Asian Nation Chess
Men's team skipper Minul
Sri Lanka will field two chess teams — men’s and women’s at the Asian Nation Cup Online Chess Championship 2020 which started yesterday. The competition, which concludes on October 24, will be hosted via Chess.com online platform. Since the physical chess has not yet been possible due to the global COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the Asian Chess Federation has turned on to the online version, which has helped chess continue and the event a reality.
Sachini, the Women's skipper
Sri Lanka will include a strong side of Youth National Chess team this year under the captaincy of Minul Doluweera of Royal College with the Sri Lanka’s strongest, International Master elect Harshana Thilakarathne (Maliyadeva College), the new national chess champion Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (Ananda College), the youngest L.M.S.T. de Silva (Nalanda College) and Theekshan Denuwan (Ananda College). The recently concluded Sri Lanka National Chess Championship proved that the board sport is for young players and the average age of the team is 17 years.
The Sri Lanka Women’s National Chess team led by most experienced, Women International Master Sachini Ranasinghe, will consist of the new national champion Nethmi Fernando (Girls High School, Kandy), Sandeepani Tharushi (Devi Balika Vidyalaya), Ashvini Pavalachandran (Wycherley International School) and T.H.D. Tharushi Niklesha (Visakha Vidyalaya).
Thirty nine Asian Countries have registered in the Men’s Division while 32 Asian Countries have confirmed participation in the Women’s event.