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You may recall the old Maldives Chess Federation which was inactive for many years and did not have any FIDE rated tournament. A group of Maldivians complained to the Ministry of Sports which ordered fair elections last year for the reorganized Maldives Chess Association. Hussain Shiyan was elected president, shown above left with Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan. With the support of the Asian Chess Federation and other sponsors, the Maldives Chess Association has achieved phenomenal growth.

As part of the Asian Chess Federation’s drive to follow up on the programs of development of the game in various Asian countries under the precautionary measures of the pandemic Covid 19, in accordance with the directives of Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa bin Shakbut Al Nahyan, President of the Asian Game Federation, Hisham Ali Al-Taher, Secretary General of the Asian Chess Federation, held a Zoom meeting with the Maldives Chess Association in the presence of Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, Treasurer of the Asian Chess Federation. Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa bin Shakhbut Al Nahyan, President of the Asian Chess Federation, has directed towards providing appropriate support in recognition of the outstanding activity of the Maldives Chess Association.

Shiyan narrated how he organized the following Executive team:

They focused on development of chess as a sport in Maldives.

They introduced the following local tournaments in Maldives • Tournaments for Kids and Youth • Tournaments for Adults and Professionals Chess players • Tournaments for cooperate organization • Support member club to organize tournaments • Have FIDE rated tournaments in Maldives

They nurtured Arbiters and Chess Trainers to develop chess in Maldives • Organize Arbiter program to certifies chess arbiter • Organize Trainers program in Maldives

They coordinated with the Ministry of Youth and Sports to get a dedicated hall for Chess Development.

• DGT Boards was introduced.
• Total of 20 DGT boards was sponsored by Male’ Water and Sewerage Company
• With this had taken chess tournaments at a different level, where spectators were able to enjoy live chess tournaments .
• One of the greatest achievements
• Male’ Water and Sewerage Company sponsored 15 DGT Boards to Maldives Chess Association.
• Development program also was conducted with collaboration registered club.
• Tournaments were conduct in the regionals
• Cooperate Office inter office tournaments
• 1st street chess championship tournament was organized support by MCA conducted by “CLUB CHESS MATES”

Sanidula Dahamdi of Musaeus College won the Crown of the Inaugural Sri Lanka Youth Girls Chess Grand Prix 2020 convincingly at the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka yesterday. In the grand finals, she scored 1 ½ points to ½ against Chanethma Marasinghe of Girls High School Kandy. In the 1st game Sanidula won with white pieces and was fortunate to face the center counter defense where she got positive play in the Queens side. She just needed a draw in the 2nd round with black pieces where she managed to get it in only 25 moves.

Dahamdi (in action above) was awarded the Inaugural Youth Girls Grand Prix Champion title, Trophy, Medal and Rs. 20,000/= in cash. Chanethma (photo below) had to be satisfied with the Silver Medal and a cash award of Rs. 10,000/=.

Esha Pallie of Visakha Vidyalaya (in photo below) beat Oneli Omaya Wilvalaarachchi of Gothami Balika Vidyalaya in the consolation finals to win the Bronze Medal with Rs. 6,000/= while Oneli was 4th with a cash award of Rs. 4,000/=

In the semifinals, Sanidula beat Esha Pallie in the tie break Rapid Chess games 2-0 on Saturday after tying the points 1-1 in the semifinals. Chanethma beat Oneli Omaya Wilvalaarachchi (in photo below) 1½ – ½ to qualify for the finals.

The Inaugural Sri Lanka Youth Girls Chess Grand Prix 2020 conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka with a Rs. 40,000/= prize fund was started on Saturday the 29th of August 2020 with total 24 top youth Girls Chess players in under 14 category. The event is in progress till 6th of September at the CFSL Hq, Gangodawila, Nugegoda.

The event is conducted in a new format where the 24 players are divided to two groups with equal strength and two leagues are played with 11 games. Then the top two players in each group will play a knocked out event, Semifinals (A-Winner X Vs Runner up Y & B-Winner Y Vs Runner up X ) and the Consolation finals and the Finals to find the winners. Two games each as Black and white is given to each player in the knocked out stage and if there is a tie two Rapid Chess Games will be played giving 15 Minutes + 10 seconds. If still a tie Two Blitz Chess Games are given with 3 minutes + 2 seconds and still 1-1, a sudden death game is played giving extra minute to white and Black wins even the game is drawn.

Sanidula Dahamdi of Musaeus College won the Oneli Omaya Wilvalaarachchi of Gothami Balika Vidyalaya and Esha Michela Pallie of Visakha Vidyalaya won the Group X and Group Y Round Robin league Championships of the Sri Lanka National Youth Girls Chess Championships 2020. Oneli Omaya tied with Sanidula Dahamdi of Musaeus College with 10 points each and won the 1st place with better tie breaker. Esha Pallie was outstanding to win all games in her group to score 11 points out of 11 games.

Sanidula Dahamdi was leading from the beginning but lost to Oneli in the 5th round which resulted her to satisfy with the Silver Medal in Group X and Devindya Oshini Gunawardena(Furguson High School, Rathnapura) placed 3rd with 7 ½ points. Chanethma Marasinghe of Girls High School placed 2nd in the Group Y with 9 points out of possible 11 games. Chanindi Mewna Attanayake (Devi Balika Vidyalaya) after tying with Tharuli Ranganath (Yoshida International School) with 6 ½ points in third place won the Bronze Medal on the better tie breaker.

Mr Luxman Wijesuriya, the newly elected president of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka was the chief guest while CFSL vice President, Thushan Wickramarachchi & Secretary General, Mr. Malith Akalanka gave away the awards.

Dialogue wins the team Championship Praneeth Kumar the top

Dialogue Asiata team became the Champion at the Sri Lanka Mercantile/ Government Service Chess Championship 2020 conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka from 29^th August to 1^st September 2020 at SATHARA Hall, Maharagama on the tie breaker after tying with the Sri Lanka Army Team with a total of 14 points.

Dialogue Team led by of Ayodhya Liyanagedara a former Sri Lanka Women player with Massoran Rameez and HG Sahan Sachintha fought very strongly all scoring 4 ½ points each with the support of their 4^th players BVRMT Jayarathne (4 ½ points) to win the title. Sri Lanka Army with Dimuthu Abeywardena (5 ½ points), Tharanga TA (4 ½ points) and INT Dassanayake (4 points)also showed their strength to tie with winner with 14 points but, their number 4 had just a half a point behind to the winners number 4 which decided the Championship. Virtusateam was third with Akila Rathnayake, Ranura Dissanayake and Deepthi Deepamal scoring 12 points.

CMS Praneeth Kumara of 99X Technology team came to the supremacy by winning the individual Championship with 6 ½ points out of possible.

He led the event from the start and beat Dimuthu Abeywardena of Sri Lanka Army to achieve the Sri Lanka Mercantile/ Government Service Chess Champion 2020 title with the trophy, Gold Medal and Rs 40,000/- Cash Award. He just gave a draw to Akila Rathnayake of Virtusa in the 6^th round and beat all other 6 players, ThanushkaGamage, Hashini Himasha Perera, Nalaka Guruge, Ranura Dissanayake, Niranga Kandearachchi and Dimuthu in the final Game.

Akila Rathnayake of Virtusa won the Silver Medal with Rs 25,000/= again being unbeaten. He had two draws with the winner and Dimuthu Abeywardena and won all other games to score six points. Four players Dimuthu Abeywardena(SL Army), Niranga Kandearachchi(SL Customs), ILK Tennakoon(SL Customs) and Tharaka Alahakoon (Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha) tied for the third place with 5 ½ points and Dimuthu won the Bronze Medal with the better tie breaker.

Sri Lanka Mercantile/ Government Service Chess Championship 2020 was conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka from 29^th August to 1^st September 2020 with Rs 225,000/= cash fund. The event was 7 round Swiss System event where the result of best three players counted for the team Chess Championship. Though the participation was little less due to the prohibition of participation in sports by some of the leading companies eighty six players from 25 organizations took part I the event. The top five games were lively broadcasted in all rounds.

Nipuna Ekanayake (Road Passenger Transport Authority) won the rating category of under 1600 and RMNK Rathnayake of SL Army won the unrated category.

The newly elected CFSL resident, Deputy President and other officials were distributed awards to the award winners at the awards ceremony conducted just after the event.

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 29^th 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

With deep sorrow we learned of the demise of a long-time friend of chess, Mr. Emad Ghalayini.

Emad was one of the original founders of chess in the UAE. As Technical Secretary of the UAE Chess Federation, he helped start chess clubs around the UAE – in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah to start the chess movement here.

He made his mark in Asian and World chess. Emad thrice organized the Asian Cities Chess Team Championship in the 1990s in Dubai and he was Chief Organizer of the World Juniors Chess Championship 1985 in Sharjah and Chief Arbiter of the Chess Olympiad 1986 in Dubai.

Asian Chess Federation recognized his achievements in the first Asian Chess Excellence Awards in 2014. In photo below, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan and former FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov presented Emad Ghalayini the Meritorious Service Award together with Asian Chess Federation General Secretary Hisham Al Taher (right).

Sheikh Sultan extended sincere condolences to the family of Emad Ghalayini on behalf of the Asian Chess Community.