Oshini bags historic world youth chess title

On Sep 7, 2021

Oshini Gunawardena clinched the Girls’ Under-10 title at the 2021 Online FIDE World Youth Chess Championship, which concluded recently.

The nine-year-old student of Ferguson High School, Ratnapura defeated Megan Paragua of the US in the final to take the historic world title.

This is the first time a Sri Lankan chess player has won a world title. There have been occasions where Sri Lankans had excelled at world schools chess championships.

But this is the first time a Sri Lankan player has won a world title in a championship conducted by FIDE.

The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL) presented a cash award of Rs. 100,000 to Oshini while a cash award of Rs. 50,000 was presented to her coach Akila Kavinda.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa congratulated Oshini in a Twitter message.

“What an amazing performance by Oshini Gunawardena to become the Under-10 Girls’ online world youth chess champion.”

“Defeating players from over 100 countries was a great achievement and she has the potential to become a future Grandmaster,” the Minister added.