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Northern (Northern, North Central & Eastern) Open event and Southern (Galle, Matara & Hambanthota) – Women’s event

Rishiikaran and Minudi win outright!

Rishiikaran Sivaskaran (photo above) of Jaffna Hindu College displayed excellent performance, just giving a draw to 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 (above left) of Jaffna Hindu College and Sajeev K (above right) of 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.

Minudi Devindi Ranasinghe (photo above) of Dharmasoka College was crowned as the winner of the Southern Women’s event. Except fourth round in 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 led the way until the last moment.

Sethumli Devhara Palliyage (above left) of Sangamittha BV, Galle placed second and out of three players who obtainer 5.5 points, Namya Dinethmi Thilakawardana (above right) of St. Tomas Girls High School, Matara was able to win the third place according to tie-braker. Nethuni Pehasara(Sujtha Vidyalaya, Matara) and Sinali Weeraratne(Sujatha Vidyalaya, Matara)  had to satisfy with 4^th and 5^th 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.

The event details are available at the following links:

http://chess-results.com/tnr571519.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=4

http://chess-results.com/tnr571517.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=4

The Wayamba (Open) and the Sabaragamuwa (Women) events of the Inaugural Sri Lanka Online National Rapid Chess Championship Cycle 2021 will be held on 7^th and 8^th of August 2021 at the chess.com flatform. Follow the Chess Federation FB/ or the Web for registration.

Indian boys won the gold medals in the Under-7, 9 and 15 divisions while Iran won Under 11 and 13 divisions, and Mongolia won the Under-17 age group in the Asian Schools Chess Championships held over the weekend of 29-31 July on Tornelo. Visit chess-results.com for round by round standings and to download games. See story of team results. See story of Girls Championships.

Here is Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Tally of Girls and Boys events combined for all 12 events U-7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17.

In a portent of the future, six Indian boys finished in the top 6 places in the youngest Under-7 age group. Chauhan Avirat (above left) scored 8 points for the gold medal, conceding only one loss to compatriot Upadhyaya Advik who finished in a tie with Bathula Aarush (above center) and Ramakrishnan Rahul (above right) at 7.5 points each. Aarush won silver and Advik the bronze by tie break.

In the Under-9 division, Saxena Apaar of India (above left) scored 8 points from 7 wins and 2 draws to finish alone in first place for the gold. Chen Jun-Wei (above center) of Chinese Taipei and Ganguly Aryaman (above right) of India tied with 7.5 points each for silver and bronze, respectively, by tie break.

Sina Movahed of Iran (above left) also scored 8 points for gold in the Under-11 division followed by compatriot Armin Gholami (above center) with 7.5 points for silver. Four players tied with 7 points each. Krishna Goutham (above right) of India won the bronze by tie break over Steven Tan of Indonesia, Rajkhowa Mrinmov of India dn Rustam Borzov of Kazakhstan.

Hossein Mohammadi Akbarabadi of Iran (above left) scored 8 points to win gold in the Under-13 division followed by Singh Sahib of India (above right) for silver and Bakhrom Bakhrillaev of Uzbekistan for bronze in a tied with 7.5 points each.

International Master M. Prahesh of India (above left) and teammate Shubh Kapur (above center) scored 8 points each in the Under-15 division. Pranesh won gold by tie break over Shubh. Compatriot FIDE Master S. Harshad (above right) scored 7.5 points for the bronze.

Candidate Master Nyamsuren of Mongolia won gold in the Under-17 division after winning the tie break in 3-way tie at 7.5 points each. Alireza Bosagh Zadeh of Iran (above left) won silver and Kamotra Soham of India (above right) won the bronze.

Awards ceremonies will be held on Saturday, 7^th August for individual and team awards.

Indian teams won the Under-7, 9, 11 and 15 age categories while Uzbekistan won the Under-13 age group and Iran won the Under-17 age group in the boys division of the Asian Schools Chess Championships over the 29-31 July weekend on Tornelo. Close to 900 boys and girls from 25 countries saw action. See report of Girls Division. Visit chess-results.com for round by round results and to download games.

Iran team-A won the under-17 team championship with 26 points for the gold followed by India-B with 25 points for silver and Philippines-A with 23 points for bronze. India-A finished with 24 points but regulations state that a country can win only one team trophy per category.

The Iran team-A is composed of Alireza Bosagh Zadeh, Hamed Behroozi Moghaddam, Mahan Ramezani and Arian Baradaran Tamadon. India Team-B is composed of Kamotra Soham, L. Srihari, Vedant Nagarkatte and Chouhan Vrashank. Philippines team-A is composed of Jeremy Marticio, jave Mareck Peteros, Robick Vohn K. Villa and Jasper Faeldonia.

India-A won the under-15 age category by a wide margin with 29 points for gold followed by Indonesia team-A with 23.5 for silver and Iran team B with 23 points for the bronze. Actually India-B garnered 24 points but shared the award of India Team-A. The India Team-A is composed of IM M. Pranesh, Kapur Shubh, FM S. Harshad and Shiv Shome.

In the Under-13 category, Uzbekistan team-A won gold with 27 points followed by Iran-A with 25.5 and India team-B with 25 points. The Uzbek team-A is composed of Bakhrom Bakhrillaev, Akbarali Abdulkhakimov, Miraziz Kuziev and Shakhrombek Karimov.

India team-A dominated the under-11 category with 26 points for gold followed by Iran team-A with 23.5 points for silver and Kyrgyzstan with 21.5 for bronze. The India team-A is composed of Krishna Goutham, Rajkhowa Mrinmoy, G. Aakash and Ethan Vaz. The teams of India-B scored 24 points and Iran-B scored 22 points and share the awards of their sister teams.

India team-B won the under-9 category with 26 points followed by Mongolia with 24.5 and Iran-A with 23.5. The India team-B is composed of Ganguly Aryaman, Pranav Mithun, Arpit Shah Aarav and Akhil Prasad Sri. India-A tied at 24.5 points and shared the award of their sister team.

India team-A won the under-7 category with 28 points for gold followed by Iran-A with 21.5 for silver and Philippines-A with 20 points for bronze. The India team-A is composed of Chauhan Avirat, Ramakrishnan Rahul, Arun Isshaan and Johari Tanush. India-Ba finished with 26.5 points and shares the award with their sister team. Iran-B finished with 20 points and shared the award of their sister team

by Marlon Bernardino
MANILA, Philippines—Jerlyn Mae San Diego (above right) of Dasmarinas City, Cavite and Woman National Master Jersey Marticio (above left) of Cabuyao City, Laguna defeated their last round opponents, respectively, to share the top honors at the conclusion of the Selection Event for 2021 FIDE Online World Chess Olympiad – Grand Finals (Girls) Division Wednesday held online at Chess.Com Platform.

The 16 year old San Diego, one of the top players of Dasmarinas Chess Academy put up by Rep. Elpidio “Pidi” Barzaga Jr. and national coach FM Roel Abelgas toppled Kate Nicole Ordizo of Alaminos City, Pangasinan.

The 14 year old Marticio, on the other hand, under the care of Cabuyao City Mayor Atty. Rommel “Mel” Gecolea, Sports Director of Cabuyao City Mr. Jerome Paul Lualhati, Cabuyao City Chess Committee Head and Philippine Executive Chess Association President Dr. Fred Paez, routed Woman National Master Kaye Lalaine Regidor of Santa Rosa City, Laguna.

With the win, San Diego and Marticio both finished 8 points apiece in nine outings and will thus lead the country’s girls team to the second FIDE Online Olympiad slated August 13 to September 15, 2021.

Also making the team were IM Paulo Bersamina and GM Darwin Laylo for the men’s, WNM Francois Marie Magpily and WGM Janelle Mae Frayna for the women, IM Michael Concio Jr. and FM Alekhine Nouri for the boys.

Tournament director is FST/GM Jayson O. Gonzales while Chief Arbiter is IA Reden Cruz.

Final Standings: (Girls Division)
8 points—Jerlyn Mae San Diego, WNM Jersey Marticio
5.5 points—Kate Nicole Ordizo
4.5 points—WNM Mary Joy Tan
4 points—WFM Allaney Jia Doroy, WIM Kylen Joy Mordido
3.5 points—WNM Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian, Jarel Renz Lacambra
2 points—WNM Kaye Lalaine Regidor
WIM Kylen Joy Mordido, Jarel Renz Lacambra, Marielle Agne Juzeia

The Indian teams lead the Under-7, 9 and 15 groups of the Asian Schools Chess Championships for boys being played in the weekend of 29-31 July on Tornelo.

Iran leads the Under-11 and 13 groups while Singapore is the surprise leader in the Under-17 groups. Visit chess-results.com for round by round standings and to download games.

by Marlon Bernardino

MANILA, Philippines—Woman National Master Jersey Marticio of Cabuyao City, Laguna solidified her position on top of the Selection Event for 2021 FIDE Online World Chess Olympiad – Grand Finals (Girls) Division after scoring a victory over Kate Nicole Ordizo of Alaminos City, Pangasinan Tuesday held online at Tornelo Platform.

The 14 year old Marticio,  an incoming Grade 9 student of Pulo National High School, Cabuyao City, Laguna improved to six points in this single round robin tournament, applying 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment.
She also scored victories over Woman FIDE Master Allaney Jia Doroy in the first round, Jarel Renz Lacambra in the second round, Woman International Master Kylen Joy Mordido in the third round, Woman National Master Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian in the fourth round, Woman National Master Mary Joy Tan in the fifth round before beating Kate Nicole Ordizo in the sixth round.

Marticio is fresh from winning the Asian Schools Chess Championships Under-15 Girls Division held online at Tornelo Platform last July 25, 2021.

Marticio’s local and international chess campaign was made possible by the undying support of Cabuyao City mayor Atty. Rommel “Mel” Gecolea, Sports Director of Cabuyao City Mr. Jerome Paul Lualhati, Cabuyao City Chess Committee Head and Philippine Executive Chess Association President Dr. Fred Paez.

Standings after round 6:
6 points—WNM Jersey Marticio
5 points—Jerlyn Mae San Diego
4 points—Kate Nicloe Ordizo
3 points—WNM Mary Joy Tan
2.5 points—WIM Kylen Joy Mordido, Jarel Renz Lacambra
2 points—WFM Allaney Jia Doroy, WNM Kaye Lalaine Regidor
1.5 points—WNM Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian, Marielle Agne Juzeia

The Asian Schools Girls Chess Championship ended Sunday with Indian teams dominating the team competition while individual players from Philippines, Bangladesh and Iran also grabbed titles in the individual championships. Visit chess-results.com for round by round individual and team standings, and to download games.

Watch interviews of players

Interview with Sara Davari during Asian Schools Chess Championship 2021

interview with WCM Meilin Hoshino from Japan during Asian Schools Chess Championships 2021

Noshin Anjum comments on her game in round 3 of Asian Schools Chess Championships 2021

Interview with Dahamdi Sanudula from Sri Lanka during Asian Schools Chess Championships 2021

Please support Asian Chess Federation video intervies and click .

Individual Championships

Jerlyn Mae San Diego of the Philippines won the Under-17 division with a convincing 8.5 points out of 9 rounds, a full point ahead of second running WCM Mukherjee Bristy of India with 7.5 points. In third place is WFM Prachiti Chandratreya of India with 7 points.

In the under-15 division Jersey Marticio (photo above) of the Philippines won with 7.5 points followed by Saravanan Nithyashree of India with 7 points and WFM Kai Ni Agnes Chong of Malaysia with 6.5 points who prevailed in the tie break over five other players.

Mallick Mrittika of India won the Under-13 division with a stellar 8.5 points. Three players tied with 7 points each. Jain Sachi of India prevailed in the tie break for second place followed by Kay Yan Eden Pang of Singapore in third. Also finishing with 7 points but with lower tie break score was Aiana Abaeva of Kyrgyzstan.

Rosha Akbari of Iran won the undr-11 division with 8.5 points followed close behind by compatriot Melika Mohammadi with 8 points for second place and Gurvanbaatar Urangoo of Mongolia with 7.5 points for third place.

Khusbu Warsia (photo above) of Bangladesh won the under-9 division with 8 points, prevailing in a tie with Sana Shadanpour of Iran who placed second followed by Enkhmunkh Gegeenee of Mongolia with 7 points for third place.

In the youngest group, Pungavanam Samhita of India won the under-7 with 8 points and better tie break over compatriot A. Charvi also with 8 points in second place and Gaye Thalia Ventura of the Philippines with 7.5 points for third place.

Team Championships

Indian Girls dominated the team competition of the Asian Schools Girls Chess Championships, winning the gold medal in the Under-7, 9, 13, 15 and 17 divisions and ceding only the Under-11 division to a very strong Iranian team.

In the Under-17 division, the India-A team and Philippines finished in a tie with 26 points each but India-A won first place with better tie break of 21 points based on the top three players, half a point ahead of the Philippines which finished second. The India-A team is composed of WCM Mukherjee Bristy, WFM Prachiti Chandratreya, Ankita Sahoo and WCM Kotwal Arushi.

Iran-A got the bronze certificate with 19 points. Actually India-B scored 23.5 points but regulations state that a country can win only one team award.

In the Under-15 division, India-A won convincingly with 24.5 points, ahead of Philippines with 22.5 points for second place and Malaysia in third with 22 points. The U-15 India-A team is composed of Saravanan Nithyashree, Vedanshi Pandey, Tanisha Boramanikar and V. Renganayaki.

India-B surpassed India-A to win the Under-13 division. India-B scored 24.5 points. India-A and Singapore tied with 23 points each but the second place award went to Singapore since a country can win only one team award. Iran-A took third place with 22.5 points. The U-13 India-B team is composed of Mallick Mrittika, Bapu Kutwal Anushka, Mankna Debriya and Upadhyay Aashi.

Iran-A won the Under-11 division with a convincing 27.5 cumulative score, ahead of India-A in second with 22 points and Mongolia in third with 20 points. Actually Iran-B got 23 points and India-B scored 22 points but shared the award with their sister team.

In the Under-9 division, India-A won first place with 24 points followed by Iran-B and Mongolia-A with 23.5 each. Iran-B prevailed in the tie break for second place. The India-A team is composed of Velmurugan Sreekanthika, Shah Hanya, Dongre Anshika and Reya Banker.

Finally in the Under-7 division, India-A absolutely dominated with 29.5 points followed by Iran-A with 20 points for second place and Mongolia-A with 19.5 points for third place. The U7 India-A team is composed of Pungavanam Samhita, A. Charvi, Rishitha Narayanan and Bohara Ira.

by Marlon Bernardino

Filipino players dominated the International Chess Day Blitz Tournament 2021 held at the Dubai Chess & Culture Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last July 24, 2021.

The Filipinos occupied the top four positions and eight of the top 10 finishers in the seven-country face-to-face over the board chess tournament using the time control of 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment that feature 31 players.

International Master Oliver Dimakiling defeated Woman Grandmaster Mahri Geldiyeva of Turkmenistan in the ninth and final round to clinch the title. Dimakiling tallied 8.5 points in nine outings. John Vincent Cayaba came second with 7 points.

Arena Grandmaster Dandel Fernandez, Nelman Lagutin and Kush Devnani of India were tied with 6.5 points, but Fernandez claimed the third place honors by virtue of a superior tiebreak output of 47.5 points applying the Bucholz system. Lagutin got only 45 points, followed by Devnani with 43.5 tiebreak points.

“We are very happy about the results of the seven-country face-to-face over the board chess tournament using the time control of 3 minutes plus 2 seconds increment that feature 31 players because eight of the top 10 finishers are Filipino,” said Arena Grandmaster Dandel Fernandez, the pride of Novelty Chess Club of sportsman Sonsea Agonoy who is fresh from a tie for 3rd to 5th place in the just ended Executive Division of the 4th Annual National Chooks To Go Rapid Chess Championships.

Rounding up to the top 10 are sixth John-John Mendoza (6 pts.), seventh Abdulla Murad of UAE (6 pts.), eight Rocky Pabalan, ninth Winnie Felix (5 pts.) and tenth Francis Erwin Dimarucut (5 pts.).

Final Standings:
8.5 points—IM Oliver Dimakiling (Philippines)
7 points—John Vincent Cayaba (Philippines)
6.5 points—AGM Dandel Fernandez (Philippines), Nelman Lagutin (Philippines), Kush Devnani (India)
6 points— John-John Mendoza (Philippines), Abdulla Murad (UAE), Rocky Pabalan (Philippines)
5 points— Winnie Felix (Philippines), Francis Erwin Dimarucut (Philippines), Marvin Marcos (Philippines), WGM Mahri Geldiyeva (Turkmenistan),  Omer Sulaiman Moosa (New Zealand), Ahmed Ramadan Ashraf (Egypt), Danilo Reyes (Philippines), Glenn Salvado (Philippines)

The National Chess Champion is superior

The National Chess Champion, Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (photo above) of Ananda College showed excellent performance in the Selection Trials for the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 held on 24^th and 25^th at the Chess.com platform. Ranindu scored a total of 7 ½ out of 9 games to win the event unbeaten. He drew with the next 3 players Minul Doluweera, Susal De Silva and Isuru Alahakoon and beat all othe participants to win supremacy.

Minul Doluweera (above left) and young LMST De Silva (above right) were also exceptional to score 6 ½ points out of 9 games. Minul placed 2^nd according to the better tie breaker and Susal had to satisfy himself with the 3^rd place. Minul lost his game to AACB Amarasinghe, got three draws with Ranindu, Susal and S sivathanujan. Susal was also unbeaten with five draws with Ranindu, Minul, Isuru, AACB Amarasinghe and Samaranayake.

Dinushki Premanath and Sanudula Dahamdi had a fighting performance of 6 points out of 9 games  Dinushki having a bad first round won the Women’s Championship on the better tie breaker while Dahamdi had to satisfy with the 2^nd place. Dinushki lost to WMMN Wijesinghe and Tharushi Sandeepani on 1^st day but servived well w ith the wins against Ashvini Pavalachandran, Oneli Wilvalarachchi, Sachini Ranadsinghe and Esha Pallie with two draws with Tharushi Niklesha and Sanudula Dahamdi. Sanudula who was on top on the 2^nd day scored four wins against Ashvini Pavalachandran, Oneli Wilvalarachchi, WMMN Wijesinghe and Nethmi Fernando and Esha Pallie with four draws against Dinushki Premanath, Tharushi Niklesha, Sachini Ranasinghe and Sandeepani Tharushi. She lost only one game to Ashvini Pavalachandran. After having some poor performance in first five rounds, WIM Sachini Ranasinghe (photo below) made a strong comeback scoring 3 ½ points out of last four games to place 3^rd.

The National Selection Committee of Chess in Sri Lanka has decided to play a Selection trial between the top 7 players of the Sri Lanka National Chess Championships, The Top 3 players of the Sri Lanka Rapid National Chess Championships and the top 2 FIDE Rated players of Sri Lanka both in Open and Women sections. The event for selecting the Sri Lanka National Chess Team for FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 is conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka on the Rapid time control of 15 Minutes + 10 seconds per each move played is progressing on the Chess.com platform. The event was scheduled to be played on 23rd, 24th and 25th of July 2021 in two separate 9 rounds, round robin events for Open and Girls.

The teams for the Chess Olympiad will be announced in few days.

The details can be seen in the following links:

http://chess-results.com/tnr570880.aspx?lan=1&art=1

http://chess-results.com/tnr570879.aspx?lan=1&art=1&fed=SRI