Sri Lanka brings back many positives from Chess Olympiad
Friday, 08 October 2010 00:00
The Sri Lankan teams return home from the Chess Olympiad held over the past two weeks in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia after a very encouraging performance in both the Open and Women’s categories.
National Champion Dinushki Premanath scored 6 points out of a possible 9 to secure a Women FIDE Master (WFM) title. She becomes the 4th Sri Lankan to hold the WFM title after Pamodya Senanayake, Nirmala Chandrasiri and Supeshala Thilakawardena.
Former National Champion Sachini Ranasinghe won a Women’s Candidates Master (WCM) title as did Sajith Peiris and W.S.V.K. Koggala (both of the Men’s Team). Young Trinitian Chamika Perera playing on the top board and facing by far the stiffest opposition did well to collect 4 out of 9 points. He defeated on International Master and drew with another.
Ukraine won the Olympiad, pushing the fancied Russians to second place in the Open section. Israel came third. In the Women’s section, Russia prevailed over China and Georgia.
Sri Lanka, seeded 115th out of 147 teams, ended 104th, winning 4 matches, drawing one and losing 6 in the Open Category. The Women’s team, ranked 83rd out of 115 teams, was placed 75th, winning 5 matches and losing 6.
Source: http://www.dailymirror.lk
The goal is to break the top 75 next olympiad.