Ranindu takes the lead as top seeds collide, Nethmi unbeatable

As the opening weekend of the National Chess Championships comes to an end, the second seed Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (Ananda College) came on top by holding the top seeded Susal de Silva to draw in a double rook ending using a French defense. Liyanage then went on to win against Maheesha Dabarera (Maliyadeva College) who was leading the championship at the start of round five through a game where Maheesha opted for Sicilian Kan variation, but Ranindu used a sacrificed exchange in the late middle game to gain an attacking advantage which brought himself to the top of the points table.

Earlier in the day, two former National Chess Champions Minul Doluweera and GC Anuruddha faced off each other in a Caro-Kann set up and a blunder by Minul gave the veteran Anuruddha a comprehensive win on the 26th move of the game.

The evening round gave Anuruddha another favorable result in a match up against Dhanushka Bandara from his club Kandy YMCA where he made a ferocious king side attack in the early stages of the game to have one of his pawns in the 7th rank of the opponent by the 15th move. While Minul was held off for a draw by Theekshana Denuwan (Ananda College) using a Semi Slav set up.

Further in the mid table battles, Buddika Amarasinghe from Jpura Chess Club had a strong finish to the week by scoring 2 wins against Rasika Samaranayaka from Peradeniya University and S Sivathanujan from Grand Prix Chess Club by winning with and against the Sicilian defense. While wins were scored today by IM Romesh Weerawardane and Maheesha Dabare to move them up on the standings.

At the end of the fifth round Ranindu leads the championship by one full point while Minul and Maheesha are stacked behind him to round off the top three according to points.

The start of day 3 for the senior contingent of the Women’s Chess Nationals was not according to plan as reigning champion Sayuni Gihansa faced defeat against the unbeaten Nethmi Fernando from Girls High School-Kandy whereas Ashvini Pavalachandran defeated the strong WIM Sachini Ranasinghe and young Ehsha Pallie won against the experienced Thilini Koswatte. The 4th round did not see any drawn results while Nethmi Fernando finished with a one-point lead after round 4 with Hashara and Ehsha at 3 points.

In the 5th round Nethmi again kept her unbeaten streak in tact by winning against WCM Lasandi Wickramsinghe to finish the day at the top of the table. The chasing group lead by Ehsha and Hashara also scored full points against their opponents to keep the title battle open when both of them will face off against Nethmi in the following 2 rounds. Sachini came good against Niklesha to score a vital point in an effort to push herself towards the upper half of the table while defending champion Sayuni had to settle for a draw against the young Ashvini who was 4th in the ranking table after the end of the 5th round.