Thehas Rithmitha Kiringoda made further history for Sri Lankan chess with an outstanding 2nd place at the U-10 Boys Asian Youth Chess Championship held in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Entering the tournament as 32nd in the starting rankings, Thehas scored 7/9 points winning his last two games to clinch a spot on the podium.
He lost only two games enroute to the silver medal including a loss against top seed Alimzhan Zhauynbay of Kazkhstan. Entering the last round in 4th place on 6 points, Thehas faced the decisive encounter against Turbat Todmunkh from Mongolia. His hard-fought victory in the game coupled with a loss to the second placed player made Thehas go up in the standings to second place behind winner Nurali Bolashakov (Kazakhstan) and ahead of Tsogtbileg Anand (Mongolia).
This was the prodigy’s second victory at the global stage, having previously come away with the gold medal in the U-09 Open Category at the World Schools Chess Championship in 2023 held in Rhodes, Greece. A student of Ananda College, Colombo, Thehas is just one of a new crop of young Sri Lankan talent emerging on the chess scene including 18 other players who participated at the Asian Youth Chess Championships. Apart from Thehas, most of the other players also outperformed their starting ranks with DDLN Dandeniya scoring 6/9 points to finish 7th in the U-14 open category after starting 41st and Vinuka Duhain Wijerathna scoring 6/9 points to finish 12th in the U-16 Open category.
The Asian Youth Chess Championship was held in Almaty Kazakhstan under 12 categories from Under 8 to Under 18. The tournament saw the participation of 643 players from 33 countries across the Asian continent. The host, Kazakhstan emerged as the team champions of the event with 10 medals including 5 golds. Players under the FIDE flag won 4 gold medals while India, Iran and Vietnam came away with a gold medal each.
The tournament was eventually completed on the 20th of June with the Asian Youth Blitz Championship with Thehas once again showing off his accomplishments with a creditable 6th place (6.5/9 points) in the Blitz tournament. Vaneesha Oshini Gomes also had an outstanding performance in the Girls U-10 blitz scoring 7/9 points to just miss out on a podium place, eventually finishing as 5th. KM Dahamdi Sandula was Sri Lanka’s other top 10 finisher in the Blitz tournament with a 9th place finish in the U-18 Girls tournament. Kazakhstan also emerged as the champions of the Blitz tournament with 3 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals.
The standout performances of the Sri Lankan youngsters continue a wave of up and coming young talent in the Sri Lankan chess scene. One can hope that it also signals the arrival of a golden era for Sri Lanka in the sport similar to the boom that India has experienced across the past decade.
