World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad - 2008

Oshadhi secures Bronze Medal, India retains title

Sri Lanka's Oshadhi Kottahachchy (Royal College), who scored 7.5 points out of 10 won the Bronze for the Second Board at the World Youth Chess Olympiad which was concluded in Mersin, Turkey on Sunday (24).

Indian International Master S.P. Sethuraman with 7 points out of a possible 8, won the Gold Medal for the Second Board over Azerbaijan's International Master Vasif Durarbeyli who scored 7.5 out of 9 games for the Silver Medal.

Oshadhi also won a Bronze Medal in last year's Youth Olympiad in Singapore for his performance on Board 4.

In the final round, Akhila Kavinda lost to Cankut Emiroglu; Kaveesha Amarasena lost a winning game to Atilla Koksal and Ushan Samarakoon did well to hold Mazhar Kutay Yargici to a draw. Oshadi played a brilliant ending to beat Kaan Komut and therby secure the Bronze Medal for his board.
India retained the Youth Olympiad title it had first secured in Singapore last year. India and Russia both finished on 28.5 points, but the former edged ahead on the tie-break. The Philippines came third. Sri Lanka ended 15th after losing to the strong Turkey-C team in the final round 1.5-2.5.

Team Manager, Sameera Gunasinghe said that Oshadhi played positively throughout the tournament and was never intimidated by big name players or big name countries in the chess world.

"He played to win and kept his confidence levels high. In fact the entire team played very well. They were focused throughout the tournament. This was actually our best performance so far in team tournaments.

"On previous occasions we tended to lose badly against strong opposition and therefore played at the bottom of the table with weak opponents for most of the tournament. In this case we fought hard and hurt the stronger teams by taking points off them. This also meant that we played only strong teams. On the two or three ocassions when we played weaker opposition we beat them comprehensively."

The team was coached by National Champion Athula Russell, who put the players through a strenuous training programme prior to their departure for Turkey.

Report from Mr. Malinda Seneviratne, Press Officer, CFSL

Photos from official website World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad - 2008

Back to Home Page