Royal College retains the crown at the 24th 'Battle of the Kings' International Rated Chess Championship

19 April 2020

The 24th 'Battle of the Kings' International Rated Interschool under 20 Team Chess Championship took place on the 3rd, 4th and 5th January. This prestigious event is organized by the immense effort of Royal chess players each year. It is the longest continuously held tournament, which first saw light in 1996. Since 2016 this tournament has been recognized as an International Rated tournament by the World Chess Federation, in fact, the only interschool tournament to achieve that status, which proves the grand scale of this tournament. 

This event attracted 44 teams from all around the island, including multiple teams from Jaffna. Polonnaruwa, Ampara, and Batticaloa, that spent dozens of hours in buses and trains to grace this event with their most welcome presence. In addition to facilitating the nerve-wracking competition of the event, Royal College pays special attention to ensuring the comfort and contentment of the participants, going to the extent of providing free accommodation and transport to any and all outstation schools that make such requests, at the expense of funds from their own pockets. This has made the Battle of the Kings an event enthusiastically anticipated by the outstation schools, in particular, one that they would undoubtedly not miss.

Many strong teams consisting of reputed international national level players went head to head over the 5 rounds of the event. In fact more than half the playing field, precisely 166 players were rated. Inevitably there was tough competition throughout the 3 days of the tournament. But the Royal College senior chess team led by Minul Doluweera and his vice CharangaGamage, lived true to their expectations as the top seed, securing an unbeaten victory amidst all other competitive schools. Nalanda College and Isipathana College clinched 2^nd and 3^rd respectively. Very impressively Mahamaya Girls College Kandy strived through a very close competition to emerge as the best among girls, ending a 5-year dominance by Dharmasoka Girls College, Ambalangoda.

The student organizing committee was guided well by the Principal of Royal College, Senior Games Master, Teachers in charge, coaches, Advisory and Management Committee, the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka and parents in maintaining the extremely high standards that society expects of a school of the caliber of Royal. The comments shared by participants, coaches, parents and all other stakeholders of the Chess community certainly prove that their efforts paid off in terms of experiences, memories, and bonds that would hopefully last through the ages.

by Minul Doluweera (FIDE Master)

Senior Chess Captain Royal College Colombo 

Former National Champion