Dimuth wins Inaugural Youth Chess Grand Prix

Dimuth Indeepa Samarweera of D.S. Senanayake College made history by winning the Inaugural Sri Lanka Youth Chess Grand Prix at the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka Headquarters at Nugegoda on Tuesday. Dimuth who was performing extremely well from the first round had no hesitation in beating his schoolmate, Senuka Ahangama 1 ½ – ½ at the super finals. He drew his first game and won the second game convincingly. Samarweera was awarded the Championship Trophy, gold medal and a cash award of Rs. 25,000.00.

Samarweera beat one of his schoolmates, Pesandu Liyanage in the semi-finals on Monday.

Ahangama had to be satisfied with the runner up position and received the silver medal and a cash award of Rs. 15,000.00. Ahangama became the champion in Group ‘X’ earlier and came to the final after a strong battle with Shenal Gunathilake of Royal College in the semi-final.

Liyanage edged out Shenal Gunathilake in the consolation finals and was placed third. He received the bronze medal and Rs. 10,000.00.

A total of 20 top Under 14 chess players participated in this championship conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka. It was the first time that a Grand Prix was held for the youth.

The event is conducted in a new format with 20 players of equal strength divided in to two groups. The round robin (9 rounds) events were played on August 8, 9, 15 and 16. Then the champion and the runner up in the groups played knocked out matches to decide the finalists.

The knockout stage had two games for each match with different colours and tie breaks were two games with rapid play in two colours followed by two blitz games and if still tied, a sudden death game.

Luxman Wijesuriya who is the General Secretary of the South Asian Chess Council and a Vice President of Asian Chess Federation was the Chief Guest at the prize distribution ceremony while Chief Arbiter Dayal Siriwardena and Erosh Jayasinghe, the Treasurer of CFSL were also present.

The Inaugural Sri Lanka Youth Chess Grand Prix for girls will commence on August 29.