The Sri Lanka chess team is set to participate in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 that is now in progress hosted by the Polymath College International, Navinna.
A new format has been introduced to this event. Two male, two females and two juniors (one male and one female under-20) will compose the team. A country may include the same number of reserves as well.
The Sri Lanka team is captained by Harshana Tillekeratne the Chess Fide Master from Maliyadeva College Kurunegala while 14-year-old Susal de Silva from Nalanda College, who won the men’s Grand Prix recently and WIM Sachini Ranasinghe who was the women’s Grand Prix champion recently are also included in the team.
The event will be conducted in five stages. Sri Lanka is in the third stage because of the recent ranking. Ten teams including Scotland, Nigeria, Angola, Tajikistan, Portugal, Botswana, UAE, Chinese Taipei, ICPA and Sri Lanka are competing in the third stage while the top three teams are qualified for division two.
The team: Nethmi Fernando, Devnethmi Dahampriya, Ashvini Pavalchandran, WCM Tharushi Niklesha, FM LMST de Silva, CM Dilshan Liyanage, FM Minul Doluweera, FM Chinthaka Galappaththi, WIM Sachini Ranasinghe, FM Rajendra Kalugampitiya (Coach), WCM Gihansa Jayaweera, FM Harshana Tillakaratne (Captain) and FM Isuru Alahakoon