Sri Lanka win 7 Medals in Commonwealth Classical Chess Championship

GM S.P Sethuraman (India) emerged as the champion of the Commonwealth Chess Championship scoring 7/9 points. GM NR Vignesh (India) came in second place while Sri Lanka found their way on to the podium through IM Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage who showed an exceptional performance to win the bronze medal after a hard-fought draw against the eventual winner in the final round.  

Other notable performances from the Sri Lankan contingent included those by Dishal Nimsara Weerasekara (Sri Chandananda Buddhist College – Kandy) and B Janukshan (Jaffna Hindu College) both of whom scored 5.5/9 points. 

Sri Lanka’s most remarkable success in the tournament came in the U10 section with both the winner and runner up in the category representing Sri Lanka. Both Chenitha Karunasena (Nalanda College – Colombo 10) and Thehas Kiringoda (Ananda College – Colombo 10) fought all the way until the end, with both players finishing on 8/9 points, Chenitha just edging into first place based off tiebreaks. 

Overall Sri Lanka had 7 players finish in the top 3 in their respective categories, accumulating a total of one gold, two silvers and four bronze medals. The Sri Lankan medal winners are given below, 

• Chenitha Sihas Dinsara Karunasena (1st place – U10 Open, Nalanda College – Colombo 10) 

• Thehas Rithmitha Kiringoda (2nd place – U10 Open, Ananda College – Colombo 10) 

• Nethumi Dihansa Perera (2nd place – U08 Girls, Polymath International School) 

• Liyanage Pesandu Rashmitha (3rd place – U18 Open, D S Senanayake College – Colombo 07) 

• Theruni Jayasundara (3rd place – U14 Girls, St. Paul’s Girl’s School – Milagiriya) 

• Sethumlee Devhara Palliyage (3rd place – U12 Girls, Sanghamiththa Balika Vidyalaya – Gampaha) 

• Eleesha Warnakulasuriya Fernando (3rd place – U08 Girls, Holy Family Balika Primary School – Wennapuwa) 

The most successful nation across the entire tournament was India who won 12 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 9 bronze medals to be crowned as the dominant team in the tournament. Sri Lanka won 7 medals while Singapore were also able to win a solitary silver medal. 

Full Winners List 

Open 

1. GM SP Sethuraman (India)
2. GM NR Vignesh (India)
3. IM Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (Sri Lanka)

U18 Open 

1. Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy (India)
2. FM Gaurang Bagwe (India)
3. Pesandu Rashmitha Liyanage (Sri Lanka)

U18 Girls 

1. WCM Datta Rajanya (India)
2. Leah Rice (Singapore)
3. Siya Sagar (India)

U16 Open 

1. IM Ethan Vaz (India)
2. S Rohith (India)
3. Goyal Daksh (India)

U16 Girls 

1. WFM Shubhi Gupta (India)
2. Mallick Mrittika (India)
3. AFM Yashvi Jain (India)

U14 Open 

1. Viresh Sharnarthi (India)
2. M Mridav (India)
3. V Raghav (India)

U14 Girls 

1. WCM Arshiya Das (India)
2. G Hipparagi Shreya (India)
3. J M Theruni V Jayasundara (Sri Lanka)

U12 Open 

1. Mayukh Majumder (India)
2. Sri Akhil Prasad (India)
3. Poonja Siddhanth (India)

U12 Girls 

1. WCM Bordoloi Pratitee (India)
2. Rao Siddhi (India)
3. Sethumlee Devhara Palliyage (Sri Lanka)

U10 Open 

1. AP Chenitha Sihas Dinsara Karunasena (Sri Lanka)
2. Thehas Rithmitha Kiringoda (Sri Lanka)
3. Amit Agarwal Advik (India)

U10 Girls 

1. WCM Aaradhya Das (India)
2. Bijesh Devi (India)
3. Pungavanam Samhita (India)

U08 Open 

1. Ayaan Phutane (India)
2. ACM Sarbartho Mani (India)
3. Hriday Garg (India)

U08 Girls 

1. M Harshika (India)
2. S Nethumi Dihansa Perera (Sri Lanka)
3. Warnakulasuriya Eleesha Fernando (Sri Lanka)