Sri Lanka Junior National
Yasas Kalana Kuruwitage of Royal College and Supeshala Thilakawardena of Musaeus College dominated the 7 round Junior National Chess Championship held from the 28 th to 31 st January 2011. The Chess Federation organized this Under 20 Chess Championship held over 7 rounds, which was held at Royal College and the Duplication Reception Hall. Both tournaments were FIDE Rated. The prize giving was held after the event.
Yasas Kalana Kuruwitage
WFM Supeshala Thilakwardena
The Boys' section had 121 entrants on the first day including 29 Internationally Rated players. The fifth seed Yasas Kalana lead from the start and a win with the Black pieces over Udith Jayasundara crowned a fine triumph for this Royalist. He finished with 6.5 points out of the seven rounds with a solitary draw in the 06 th round to Vidyartha College's KAPM Ariyawansa.
Shehan Senevirathne from Ananda College with the better tiebreak results bagged the silver and Chatura Rajapakse from Dharmaraja College, Kandy finished with the bronze with both getting 6 points. Lahiru Munasinghe from Ananda College had to settle for the 4 th place after also finishing with 6 points.
Shehan drew two games with the other two players who tied with him while, Chatura was held to a draw in the fourth round by a teammate, J. M. Weerasoriya and Lahiru dropped a half point to Mike Francis in round 04. S. Harishman from Royal College finished 5 th with 5½ points. Several unrated players did exceptionally well to finish ahead of the more established players in this event.
The Girls section had 31 players including 10 International Rated players. This section was highly competitive despite the absence of several talented players. The number 3 seed and WFM Supeshala Thilakwardena dominated the event from the start, overcoming the highest ranked player Sachini Ranasinghe in round 4 and then holding the co-leader Irindu Basnayake to a draw in round 06. In the last round she beat Manisha Gunarathne with the black pieces to be outright first with 6.5 points out of 7. Sachini Ranasinghe also from Musaeus College finished runners-up after defeating Irindu Basnayake in the last round and reaching 6 points. Irindu, from Girl's High School Kandy was joint leader until the very before falling at the final hurdle. She finished with the bronze medal after scoring 5.5 points. 5 players finished with 4.5 points to share fourth to eighth places.
By, Naditha Amarakoon
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