Pesandu Rashmitha Liyanage of Super Knights Chess Club and WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie of Visakha Vidyalaya won the titles of the National Amateur Open and Women’s Chess Championships (2022) conducted by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka.
The Championships were held from October 6 to 9 at the Public Library Auditorium. The tournaments consisted of a total of nine rounds each and played in standard time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment from move one. The winners were awarded trophies, medals, certificates and a total of Rs 250,000.00 in cash awards. The champions of open and women’s categories were entitled for cash awards of Rs 40,000.00 and Rs 25,000.00 respectively.
In the Open championship, 231 players competed. Pesandu Rashmitha Liyanage won the championship scoring 7.5 points where he only lost one game in round six and drew in the second round. For the first runner-up position, nine players were tied on seven points. But with better tie-breaks, Vinuda Shenal Gunathilake of Royal College and CM A A C B Amarasinghe of Super Knights Chess Club settled for the first and second runner-up positions respectively.
In the Women’s championship, 82 players competed. WCM Ehsha Mishela Pallie won the championship scoring eight points. She drew two games in the seventh and ninth rounds. For the first runner-up position, two players were tied with seven points each. But with a better tie-break, Prathibha Nethsarani Bandara of Horizon International College became the first runner-up and Dehansa Nisanduni Sandanayake of St. Paul’s Girls’ School became the second runner-up.