CFSL Online Under 16 Open Youth Rapid Chess Championship
9 May 2021
by Dr.Gamini Karunarathna
CFSL online Under 16 Open Youth Rapid Chess Championship was conducted successfully by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka on the 1st and 2nd of May 2021 via the Chess.com platform.
137 players from all over the country participated in this exciting event which was conducted for 8 rounds with the time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move played.
Kosala Sandeepa Amaratunge of JMC International School, Kaluthara won the Championship after three more players, Senuka Ahangama of DS Senanayake College, Bridjesh Saravanabhavan of Gateway International School, and SMMP Kulathilake of Sangabodhi Vidyalaya, Nittambuwa shared the highest points of 7 ½ out of 8 games at the above event.
Kosala Sandeepa who had the best tie break performance won the Gold medal.
Senuka Aswin Ahangama won the Silver Medal and Brijeash Saravanabhavan won the Bronze Medal on their tie break performances.
S M M P Kulathilake had to satisfy with the 4th place.
Kosala Sandeepa of JMC International School is also a leading member of the Super Fighters Chess Club.
He has been making waves in the Sri Lankan youth chess arena for the last few years.
He learned the game of chess under Mr.Madushan Sameera Dissanayake.
He came to competitive chess in 2018 and performed very well especially in online blitz and rapid events in 2020 and 2021.
The performance in National Amateurs 2020 gave him the chance to get a FIDE rating. After the National Amateurs, he was able to participate in the Under 14 Grand Prix tournament and his outstanding performance in Group X gave him 4th place.
Kosala and two other Super Fighters students had the opportunity to participate in the Under 14 Asian Nations Cup online team event representing Sri Lanka.
Kosala led the Super Fighters Chess Club C Team of CFSL online team championship and won 3rd place in Group D.
The Super Fighters Chess Club led by Mr.Madushan Sameera Dissanayake has been able to produce young talents including Kosala and Sri Lanka online Under 12 Girls Youth Chess Champion Anujana Hasandi as a result of a series of valuable programs for their students since 2020.
Group of Students of the Super Fighters Chess Club with the coach
Dr. Gamini Karunarathna is a Medical Officer – Psychiatry at the District Hospital Bandaragama. He is the present President of the Kalutara District Chess Association and also serves as the Hony. Secretary of the Super Fighters Chess Club. Dr.Gamini is a FIDE rated active chess player and a regular participant in the local rated chess events too. He is also an Arena FIDE Master (AFM).
Photograph by : Tharindhu Weerasekara
