Mr. Luxman Wijesuriya has been unanimously elected President of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka at the Annual General Meeting of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka. The AGM of Sri Lanka was held 11:00 am on 29th of August 2020 at the CFSL Headquarters. The Neutral Election Committee elected at the CFSL Special General Meeting in 2019 December, Mr. Upali Gunasekara (Chairman), Mr. Aruna De Silva and Mrs. Nadeeka Perera conducted the CFSL Elections.
There were no other nomination for each post where a single nomination each was posted for 19 posts in the CFSL Executive Committee (see photo below), giving full authority to Mr. Wijesuriya’s team to take the Chess in Sri Lanka to next level
Mr. Malith Akalanka of Sri Lanka Army was elected as the Secretary General and former Sri Lanka National Player Deepthi Hewageegana was elected as the Deputy President.
Luxman Wijesuriiya (above photo with FIDE President) was the Sri Lanka National Chess Champion in 1996 and 2000. He has represented Sri Lanka in National level for 25 years from 1983 to 2008 including eight Chess Olympiads which is still the highest among Sri Lankan players. He won a Gold medal at the Asian Team Championship 1995 in Singapore. He is an International Arbiter and has officiated as an arbiter in most of the top World Chess events such as FDE Chess Olympiad, Women’s World cup and FIDE Men & Women Grand Prix.
Luxman being a leading Chess administrator in Chess after his retirement from the game,has done a great service to Chess in Sri Lanka during last decade. The number of Registered Chess players has reached 170,000 in the country. CFSL organizes around 150 Chess Events per year. There are 11 International Ranking Events which gives more than 400,000/- cash awards in a year. Even the last year National Chess Champion was awarded with Rs. 100,000/=. A foreign Grand master was brought as National Coach in 2018 period which changed the level of Chess in a big way. Harshana Thilakarathne managed to win the IM Title from FIDE and Sasith Piyumantha won the Asian Under 16 Championship during last two years due to this development. He managed to get at least one Asian/ Commonwealth Chess event per year. Last year CFSL organized the biggest Chess Event in Asia, the Asian Youth Chess Championship with around 300 foreign players from 23 Asian Countries.
He is working as the General Secretary in both South Asian Chess Council & Commonwealth Chess Association. He is a Vice President in the Asian Chess Federation as well. Luxman is shown in photo below with Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan.
Malith Akalanka, the Hony. Secretary is also a long serving Chess enthusiast who worked hard to promote Chess in the country. He is also and International Arbiter and one of the founding members who started the Dhamso International Chess Championship. He is a distinguished officer of Sri Lanka Army.
Mr. Deepthi Hewageegana who is the CEO of a leading company in Colombo, United Tractors, also played for the National Chess team which participated in Asian Chess Championships in Dubai, 1996 and in Genting Island, Malaysia 1989. He was continuously serving in the National Selection Committee for Chess and coming to the bigger position this year.
We have no doubt that the new team with a lot of young blood will do the best for the Chess in the Sri Lanka.
The Executive Committee Elected:
President -Mr. G Luxman Wijesuriya
Deputy President – Mr. Deepthi Hewageegana
Vice President -Mr. Dayal Siriwardena
Vice President – Mr. Dharshana Hewawasam
Vice President -Mr. Rajendra Kalugampitiya
Vice President – Mrs. Sandya Kumari Aviruppola
Vice President – Mrs. Buddhi Nirukshi Panagoda
Vice President – Mr. Buddhi Alahakoon
Vice President – Mr. Thushan Wickramaarachchi
Vice President (Appointed by Schools Chess association) – Mr. Ranjith Thilakarathne
Hony. Secretary – Mr. Malith Akalanka
Hony. Treasurer – Mr. Erosh Sampath Jayasinghe
Hony. Tournament Secretary -Mr. Jagath Ketalawala
Hony Asst. Secretary -Mr. Sumal Horawalavithana
Hony. Asst Treasurer No Nomination
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Chinthaka Weerasinghe
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Vidura Koggala
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Buddhini Wackishta
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Akila Fernando
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Kanishka Welipitiya
Executive Committee Member – Mr. Jude Dorison
Executive Committee Member (Appointed by Schools Chess ass.) – Mr. Ranjith Wickramaratne