Oneli, Sethum shine at FIDE Youth Chess Tourney

On Aug 4, 2021

Two promising players Oneli Vithanawasam of Lyceum, Wattala and Sethum Samaraweera of Richmond College performed well at the FIDE Online World Cup Youth and Cadet Chess Championships.

Both players were in front after the halfway mark of this event and they were also able to beat high-ranking players during the tournament.

Oneli obtained four points after six games and tied in 13th position in the Under-18 Girls’ event.

She was able to beat Ahmed Walijah (top seed from Bangladesh), Kazi Zarin Tasnim (Bangladesh), Chua Jia-Tien (Malaysia), drew with Ilyina Lada and Sai Divyaand and lost to Pipia Ekaterine (Georgia) in six games.

Meanwhile, Samaraweera scored 3.5 points out of six games in the Under-10 Open event.

He started with two defeats against Isai Alveraize (Bolivia) and D. Altensoyombo (Mongolia) but came back strongly to win against Daniel Efraim (Estonia), Kim Listratov (Russia) and Rashid Rayan (Bangladesh) and drew against Data Qulabegashvili (Georgia).

The FIDE Online World Cup 2021 – Youth and Cadets Tournament was conducted by the International Chess Federation and organised by the Georgian Chess Federation.

A total of 227 players in the Under-10 Open and 104 players in the Under-18 Girls’ event from 108 countries participated in the event.