Rishiikaran and Minudi wins outright!

Rishiikaran Sivaskaran (Jaffna Hindu College) displayed excellent performance, just giving a draw Janukshan and winning all other 7 games with Methiyugan Kavinaya, Keishan Deijan, Rithika Shamy, Sanjey Haneshkumar, Perinpanayagam Loghi, Vathmira Geesan and Nuwana Chamara respectively to score an unbeaten 7 ½ points to win the Championship in the SL National Online (Novices Division Chess Championship 2021 – Northern Open event. His performance broght him the Gold Medal with the entry to the Major Division as number 1 player from Northern Region. Adshayan Senthilnathan (Jaffna Hindu College) and Sajeev K(Jaffna Hindu College) are placed as second and third respectively after obtaining 7 points out of possible 8 games not because of different in total score but due to the tie-brake system.

Meanwhile, Minudi Devindi Ranasinghe of Dharmasoka College crowned as the winner of the Southern Women’s event. Except fourth round which she shared the game with Sethumsa, she was able to defeat all other opponents, Onaya Chenuthi, Nithuni Pehesara, Sanuli Dulanya, Dinuli Nimansa, Esandi Sinhansa and Sethumlee Devhara who lead the way until the last moment. Sethumli Devhara Palliyage(Sangamittha BV, Galle) placed second and out of three players who obtainer 5.5 points, Namya Dinethmi Thilakawardana(St. Tomas Girls High School, Matara) was able to win the third place according to tie-braker. Nethuni Pehasara(Sujatha Vidyalaya, Matara) and Sinali Weeraratne(Sujatha Vidyalaya, Matara) had to satisfy with 4th and 5th places.

From the start of the day the tournament looked so interesting. At the end of the Fifth round of Northern Open event, Nuwan Chamara maintained in the peak by winning against Mihisara Senhas while Rishiikaran and Wihanga Dilantha followed him by defeating their respective opponents. In the sixth round, Nuwan Chamara was able to push Wihanga Dilantha to the third place and Rishiikarana climbed to the second place by defeating Vathmira Geesan. In the next round two top runners, Nuwan Chamara and Rishiikarana were paired and Rishiikaran was able to move to the front by defeating Nuwan Chamara. Meanwhile Dilantha who was in the third place at the end of the sixth round had satisfied with 5 points with the second consecutive lost in the tournament against Mathuka Tharuka and with that win Methuka Tharuka move to the third place. At the end of the seventh round, Rishiikaran required only half a point and he was able to successfully achieve that target by sharing his game against Janukshan B in the last round. Meanwhile Adshayan and Sajeev K was able to steal the second and third spots in the leader board from ones who were in those spots at the end of the seventh round.

At the end of the Fifth round Sethumlee was able to take the lead of the Southern Women’s event by defeating Esandi Sihansa while Nemya Dinethmi and Minudi Devindi followed her with 4.5 points. In the sixth round, Sethumlee was able to protect her throne by defeating Namya Dinethmi while Minudi was able to climb to the second place by defeating Esandi Sihansa. At the end of the seventh and the last round, Minudi was able to steal the throne from Sethumlee and Dinethmi Namya climbed to the third place by defeating her respective opponent.

The Novices Division of the Sri Lanka Online Rapid National Chess Championships 2021 is planned to have in 7 regions, Western I (Colombo District), Western II (Gampaha and Kaluthara District), Central Province, Wayamba Province, Southern Province, Sabaragamuwa region (Sabaragamuwa and Uwa Provinces) and Northern Region (Northern, Eastern and North Central Provinces).

Top 29 players of the Northern Region Open and the Top 17 players of the Southern Province Women’s events will be qualified to the appropriate Majors Division Chess Championships to be held from late August 2021.

The Inaugural Sri Lanka Online National Rapid Chess Championship Cycle 2021 consists of 4 stages. The Cycle is started with the Novices events in 7 regions followed by the Major Division Events in the same regions. The Top players will join with the selectees from Major Division events in the National B event. The Top 14 players of the National B will join the current National Chess Champion and the Top rank player in the 15 round, Round Robin event in the 1st stage of the finals while a knocked out of top four players of Round Robin event will be played as 2nd stage of the finals. The same structure will be followed in the Women Event as well.