Sri Lanka come out on top with flying colors in the 45th Chess Olympiad

Both the Sri Lankan Open and Women’s teams performed exceptionally at the FIDE Chess Olympiad with both teams securing podium places in their respective categories following their performances in the final round. The open team finished 1st in the D category while the women’s team finished 3rd in the C category.

The Open team faced the strong Thailand team in the final round, entering the last round ranked 2nd in the Category. Despite being outrated in 3 out of the 4 boards, Sri Lanka showed admirable fight to secure a 2-2 draw, which could even have been a win under more fortunate circumstances. IM Ranindu Liyanage secured a draw against IM Prim Laohawirapap on board 1 and despite Kosala Amaratunga losing on board 2, KK Dinujaya Kodithuwakku kept up his impressive performance in the tournament to even the scores with a win over Jonathan Bodemar. Danushka Bandara secured a draw with FM Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit.

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With that draw Sri Lanka emerged on top of the D category with 11 match points, ahead of Liechtenstein and Pakistan. All 4 members of the open team performed exceptionally throughout the tournament with IM Ranindu Liyanage having a 2414 rating performance and KK Dinujaya Kodithuwakku performing at a 2220 level on the way to a 7/11 score. The other members of the team also performed well above their ratings.

The Women’s team capped off an exceptional tournament with one final victory against North Macedonia by a 2.5-1.5 margin. WCM Sandula Dahamdi secured a solid draw on board 1 against WFM Monika Stojkovska. A loss for WCM Tharushi Niklesha was balanced out by two convincing victories on the last 2 boards for WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie and WFM Devindya Oshini Gunawardena led Sri Lanka to 13 match points securing third place in the C category behind Turkmenistan and Malaysia.

WCM Sandula Dahamdi and WFM Devindya Oshini Gunawardena were the standout players for Sri Lanka during the tournament with Sandula scoring 5/7 on board 1 on the way to a 2192 rating performance while 12-year-old Oshini put up an outstanding score of 8.5/9 on board 4 for a rating performance of 2230. Both Tharushi Niklesha and Ehsha Pallie also performed at a 2000+ level during the tournament.

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India were the standout performers during the tournament winning gold medals in both the Open and Women’s categories for the first time in their history. The United States of America and Uzbekistan came 2nd and 3rd in the open section while Kazakhstan and the USA did the same in the Women’s section

FIDE Chess Olympiad – Results

Open

1. India
2. United States of America
3. Uzbekistan

Women

1. India
2. Kazakhstan
3. United States of America

Sri Lanka team

Open (1st place – Category D)

1. IM Ranindu Liyanage (Läufer Chess Club)
2. Kosala Sandeepa Amaratunga (Mayor Chess Club)
3. KK Dinujaya Kodithuwakku (Rahula College – Matara)
4. Danushka Bandara (Kandyan Lions Chess Club)

Women’s (3rd place – Category C)

1. WCM Sanudula Dahamdi (Museaus College – Colombo 07)
2. WCM THD Tharushi Niklesha (University of Kelaniya)
3. WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie (Visakha Vidyalaya – Colombo 05)
4. WFM Devindya Oshini Gunawardena (Wycherly International School, Colombo)
5. Janandani Abeysinghe (Hatton National Bank)