Osheen De Silva of SL Navy, who performed well in the Sri Lanka National Chess Championships 2021 once again in good form with four points out of possible five games at the 9th Sri Lanka Chess Grand Prix which is now in progress. Osheen was leading Group A while Vinuda Gunatilake of Royal College also shared the top spot with 4 points. Osheen beat Surath Wijerathne, Piyum Amaratunge, and Dinod Abeyratne and drew two games with Buddhika Amarasinghe and Malish Weeratunge while Vinuda beat Dinod Abeyratne, Buddhika Amarasinghe with a bye in the 5th round and got two draws with Malisha Weeratunge and Jayandi Bimansa.
Pesandu Liyanage of D.S Senanayake College is outstanding to score full 5 points out of possible 5 games at Group ‘B’. He outplayed all his opponents, S Sivathanuja, Sathini Liyanage, Kosala Amaratunge, Ginuri Kannangara and Menula Weheragoda so far. Kabinu Gunaweera is in the second spot with 4 ½ points to his account. Kavinu beat Sathini Liyanage, Kosala Amaratunge,Ginuri Kannangara with a bye in the 5th round had one draw with Menula Weheragoda in Group B.
Buddhika Amarasinghe is in third place in Group A with 3 ½ points out of 5 while Kosala Amaratunge and S.Sivathanujan are in third place with three out of five games in Group B.
The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka is conducting this tournament and is expected to offer Rs. 150,000/- as cash awards for the winners. (D.R)