Asian Youth Online Chess Championship 2021

Oshini Devinya Gunawardena of the Furguson High School, Kandy won the Bronze medal at the Asian Youth Online Girls Under 10yrs Chess Championship 2021 on Sunday, the 24th of October 2021. Oshini being the World Youth Online Girls Under 10 years Champion dropped 1 ½ points early in 1st four rounds but managed to recover by winning all other games. She scored a total of 7 ½ points out of possible 9 games to win the 3rd place. She beat Deysarka Genessa(India), Anaisha Pinkesh(India), Ann Le Minh (Vietnam), Aadhya Jain (India), N Pavithra (India), Zol-Uchral Erdeneseikhan (Mongolia) and Pratyasa Jena(India), drew with drew with Vinai Advika (Singapore) and lost to Anshika Dongre of India to bag the Bronze Medal.

Arundi Beminiwatte of Defense College, Colombo was really unlucky since she lost her 7th round game in under 10 Girls event due to an internet disconnection while she was leading the event. Finally she scored 7 points and placed 7th on the tie breaker after tying with 3 other players.

Sanudula Dahamdi of Museus College played strong Chess and became the sole leader in the under 14 Girls event after the penultimate round. But, she could not complete her task because she lost her final game to Nguyen Le Cam of Vietnam who won the Silver medal. Finally Sanudula tied for the 3rd place with 7 points but had to satisfy with the 4th place on the tie breaking points.

Esnadi Newansa of Dharmasoka College also has a good score of 6 points after the penultimate round but lost in the last round and placed 15th in the under 12 years Girls Category.

Ardra Pradeepkumar of Gateway College, Badulla also performed well in under 8 Girls event to score 7 points out of 9 games. After a poor start losing 2 games in 1st three rounds she managed to win 6 games in a row to finish on the 5th place.

The Asian Youth Chess Championships 2021 is the most prestigious Chess tournament in Asia for the Youth Chess players. The Indian Chess Federation is organizing the event on behalf of the Asian Chess Federation this year. More than 1000 players have registered in this event which is held according to the Swiss system at Tornelo Platform. The time control is 15 minutes + 10 second increment per each move played and a total of 9 rounds are played in each category. The Girl’s events were held on 22nd, 23rd & 24th October 2021 while the Open events will be held on 29th, 30th and 31st October in the same manner.