Four players to compete at Asian Continental Chess Championship 2021

Chess Federation of Sri Lanka will field four players led by National Champion Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage of Ananda College for the Asian Continental Chess Championship which commences today. The major championship which will also select the continent’s top eight players for the FIDE Chess World Cup will be played in Hybrid Format using the Tornelo Platform.

Liyanage, who is in top form after winning the Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021 has already qualified to compete in the Chess World Cup 2021 to be held in July in Russia.

Minul Sanjula Doluweera, one of the best chess player produced by Royal College in recent years, 15-year-old Nalandian L.M.S.T. de Silva, who is the youngest in the team and Theekshana Denuwan of Ananda College are the other players taking part in the championship.

Doluweera won the silver medal at this year’s National Championship and was also the silver medallist at the Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021. He was the National Champion in 2017.

De Silva was the bronze medallist at the National Championship and was the winner of the Chess Grand Prix 2020 and the recently held CFSL National Youth Under 18 Championship.

Denuwan was the third runner up at the last National Championship and won a bronze at the Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix 2021.

An event is categorized ‘Hybrid’ when it is conducted from different venues as an online competition. The event which is conducted by the Asian Chess Federation according to the Swiss System in nine rounds will be monitored from the ACF headquarters in AL Ain, UAE. The players of all participating countries will be monitored by the chief arbiter and supporting arbiters at their respective venues. The Sri Lankan players will log in to the competition at the CFSL Headquarters, Delkanda, Nugegoda.

The Asian Chess Federation is offering US$ 16,000.00 as cash awards to the winners. The top eight players of this event will qualify to compete at the FIDE Chess World Cup in July.

The Asian Continental Chess Championship is the most prestigious individual chess event in Asian and 80 formidable chess players from 16 countries have registered for the competition. Players from Australia, Bangladesh, China, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are participating in the event. Unfortunately, India, probably the strongest team of the region is not in a position to field their players due to the pandemic situation there.