Kandy YMCA hosted World Challenge Chess 2020 event digitally for the first time. It was a great moment for World YMCA to celebrate its 176th anniversary in 2020 on a grand scale. World YMCA played a big role to support in taking the World Challenge digitally. They challenged YMCA members across the globe digitally to connect/reconnect with their members while also enjoying global digital content. Altogether 9 teams were seen in action in the final round and it was judged by a well reputed judge board. This was a great event organized to interconnect Sri Lankan youths during this corona pandemic.
World YMCA’s 176th anniversary was a successful event. Online chess was held in Kandy on the first weekend of this month. Theme of this year’s event was to connect its members worldwide digitally. This year many of our YMCAs was closed on the Birthday or trying to re-establish themselves with thousands of YMCA members still potentially on lockdown or having their movement restricted due to Covid-19.
To commemorate the YMCA Birthday the Kandy YMCA the oldest active chess club in Sri Lanka organized a series of online chess events and results are. This Open Blitz championship was won by CC Weerasinghe and the junior event was won by Senuja Timeth.
The main event was the Chess Super League challenge which was held on the 6th June on YMCA”s birthday. This was the 3rd edition of the monthly series of events of YMCA Chess Super League Championship 2020 - edition 3
It was nice to see eight super league clubs take invited to take part in this 3rd edition. Unlike the round-robin team tournaments, the players were selected randomly, and competitively paired players of the competing teams. A total of twenty players were allowed to field from each team and points of the first eight players were counted for the final ranking. Organizers encouraged to include two foreigners per team.
It’s pleasing to note that almost all the invited teams participated in this Online arena except Maroons and Navy CC. The entire standard of the tournament was elevated to greater heights as Anandians Chess Club fielded an IM, Kandy YMCA included a CM and Super Knights fielded with IM and FM. Further, established clubs such as Blue and Gold, Jayawardenapura Chess Club, Grand Prix Chess Club, Pera Knights Chess Club and Nf3 Chess Club fielded their full-strength teams and an intense competition was witnessed. After a fierce battle, Super Knights Chess Club became the Champions beating Anandians Chess Club in the Chess Super League Championship 2020 - Edition 3.
The final results are Champions – Super Knights Chess Club, first runner up - Anandians Chess Club, second Runner up - Jayawardenapura Chess Club. The best player of the finals was I. M Abdisalimov (Super Knights Chess Club) Kandy YMCA was placed fifth in this highly competitive tournament with some superb performances.
Strict anti-cheating policy shall be in place with the support of lichens domain. Some attractive prizes for winners of the above tournaments will be are set to awarded on date yet to be announced. Kandy YMCA Chess Club would like to extend our appreciation to all the local players, foreign players and team captains who made this event a success. Special and sincere gratitude goes to all teams who brought down International players to this tournament with short notice, you have done a great service for Sri Lankan Chess. This series of tournaments was organized with the leadership of Rev Saman Perera the president, Ishan Wiratunga board member, Lalantha Jayasinghe, Capt. of Chess Shiraz Liaquatha and the chief Arbiter/Organizer Sanka Galagamaarachchi of Kandy YMCA.
Kandy YMCA Chess Club started operating as a formal club in 1976 and it was the only outstation chess club up to mid-1990s. Kandy YMCA won the National Inter Club Chess Championship in 1994. After lapse of few years Kandy YMCA Chess Club was revived in 2015 and has become one of the formidable teams in the chess arena. They came 2nd in the Super League Chess Championship 2019. They gave a big hand to make this World YMCA’s 176th anniversary tournament a success.
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