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Indian A team won the Championship convincingly with a score of 15 Match points out of possible 18. They beat Kazakhstan 3 -1 and Indonesia 3 -1 and Lost to India B team 1 ½ – 2 ½ to get the honor. Basak Souhardo (above left) playing Board 4 for India had an excellent performance for India scoring 8 ½ points out of 9 games and International Master Bharath Subramanian (above right) also outstanding on Board 1 to score 8 points out of 8 games. India led the event from the beginning and finally earned the Gold Medal with the Championship Trophy and other awards.
Iran Girls Team A won the Girls division, prevailing in a tie with Mongolian Girls Team I, at 15 points each but with a tie break score of 26 against Monglia’s 24.5.
Asian Chess Federation General Secretary Hisham Al Taher attended the online awards ceremonies together with Sri Lanka Chess Federation president Luxman Wijesuriya, Hong Kong Chess Federation president K.K. Chan, ACF Arbiters Commission Chairman Mahdi Abdulrahim and Sri Lanka Arbiters.
The Silver medal for boys went to Iran Chess Team. Iran Team A played positive Chess from the beginning and ended up with 14 match points out of 18 possible to win the Silver Medal. They beat Palastine 4-0, Malaysia Avengers 3-1 and Mongolia Team I 3-1 in last 3 rounds. They even got a draw with winners, India in the 5h round. Movahead Jena scored the highest, 7 ½ points to Iran.
Iran Girls Team beat Sri lanka A 2 ½ – 1 ½ , India B 3-1 and Bangladesh 3 ½ – ½ in last three rounds. Though the 3rd place of both events were won by India B and Mongolia Girls Team II respectively, they were not entitled for the awards on the regulations stipulating one trophy per country.
The Malaysia Avengers scored 12 match points to win the Bronze Medal. They beat Oman A 4-0, Palestine3 ½ , Bangladesh 3-1, Indonesia 3-1, Sri Lanka A 3-1, drew with Philippines 2-2, Kazakhstan 2-2 and lost to India A and Iran A 3-1.
Sri Lankan Girls A team Gets the Bronze!
Sri Lanka Girls A team was having excellent performance on first two days where they beat five countries and drew with the winner Mongolia. Unfortunately they lost two consecutive matches to Iran Girls A team and Mongolia A Girls A teams in 7th and 8th rounds. They recovered well in the last round by winning against Kazakhstan in the last round 3-1 to win the Bronze Medal. The Captain of the team Sanudula Dahamdi played a responsible role for Sri Lanka Girls by scoring unbeaten 8 points out of 9 games with victories against the top two teams, Mongolia Team I and Iran Team B. This is the highest achievement of a team of Sri Lanka received so far.
The Asian Nations Cup for under 14 Years (Open and Girls) was organized by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka on behalf of the Asian Chess Federation on 27th, 28th and 29th of March 2021 at the Chess.com platform. As usual the event was in two categories, Open where Boys and Girls can participate and a separate event for Girls only. A team comprised of 4 players and a reserve and a country was allowed to field 2 teams in each section.
More than 50 teams from 20 Asian Countries participated in the event. Bahrain, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Maldives, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Thailand, UAE and Sri Lanka contested for the supremacy.
The Events was held on the Swiss System for teams in 9 rounds. Time control was 15 minutes for each player per game with 10 second increments for each move he plays. All precautions for preventing cheating were thoroughly activated. Players were allowed to use laptop/ Desktop computers only and they had to play along in a room facing a wall. A camera/Webcam was compulsory and they were informed to open their cameras and microphones in a zoom meeting in all times when they play. All players were required to share their screens in zoom. The arbiters were carefully observing the players while playing through this zoom meeting. All games were sent to experts for checking. The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka has offered medals and Trophies for the winners while a DGT Chess clock is awarded for the members of the winning teams.
A live streaming of the total event was arranged through the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka Youtube Chanel with commentaries by Grand Master Dymitro Komrov of Ukarine, Grand Master Pravin Thipsay of India and Sri Lankan National Chess Champions, Dulan Edirisnghe, Minul Doluweera, Harshana Thilakarathne and Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage.
Visit chess-results.com for round by round team and individual results.