Seven year old Harshana Thilakarathne of Maliyadeva College, competing in the ‘Under 8 (OPEN)’ category at the recently concluded World Youth Chess Championship in Halkidiki, Greece, delivered the best score among the 18 young boys and girls representing Sri Lanka. He scored 7 points, the highest ever overall score by a Sri Lankan in what is considered the most prestigious youth chess event in the world. The previous ‘best’ was a 6.5 score by Tiumi Yashora of Dharmasoka, Ambalangoda in 2008 in Vietnam.
Harshana’s performance is highly creditable on two counts. First, he was competing in a field dominated by children one year older. Harshana won the Kurunegala District title at the age of 6 and went on to win the National Under 8 (Open) championship as well, thus qualifying to represent the country. Secondly, the team was forced to skip two rounds due to multiple reasons. Thus, whereas the eventual winner (Abdulla Azar Gadimbayli of Azerbaijan) scored 9.5 out of a possible 11, Harshana got 7 out of 9 and ended up tied for the 14th spot with 14 others in an overall field of 124 players, by any standards a remarkable achievement.
The youngest in a contingent of 17 players, Harshana showed the commitment and enthusiasm for training that must necessarily complement talent in order to generate good results,team coach Rajeendra Kalugampitiya said. ‘He exuded a kind of self-confidence that is of utmost important to succeed at this level. He was not intimidated by the name or country of origin of his opponents. This may be attributed to the innocence of age and not knowing enough about the power inequities in the chess world, but then again, that does not explain how other children his age have consistently showed poorer results.’
Harshana lost to Ivan Kharitonov of Russia and Ramirez Alejandro Casado of Spain, who ended with 6.5 and 6.0 points respectively. Had the boy not missed the first two rounds he may have pushed for a medal, some would argue. Regardless of the medal prospects, it is clear that Harshana was thoroughly enjoying the tournament. The coach was impressed by his games, which showed a talent that is rare among children of his age.
The performance does not surprised many in Sri Lankan chess circles. Harshana had earlier won the Bronze Medal in the Under 7 (Open) category at the Asian Schools Chess Championship (held in Colombo in December 2009). There was a slight dip in Harshana’s form at the Asian Youth Chess Championship held in China earlier this year, where he managed to score only 3.5 out of a possible 9, but he gave a good fight to finish with 6.5 out of 9 at the World Schools Championship in Turkey, just missing out on a medal on the tie-break.
Malinda Seneviratne, Manager cum Head of Delegation, who has performed these functions on numerous youth tournaments before said that despite the initial hitches, this was the most rewarding tournament as far as Sri Lankan chess is concerned. ‘Apart from Harshana’s stand-out result, all the players showed a lot of courage. They put back the handicap of losing two rounds and focused on the game at hand, round by round. Minul Doluweera of Royal College (6 out of 9) and Anjana Herath of Maliyadeva (5.5) were consistently good, doing justice to their talent and potential. Among the senior players, national player Chamika Perera of Triniy, Kavisha Amarasena and Oshadhi Kottahachchy (both of Royal) played extremely well against opposition that clearly enjoyed the advantage of being exposed to tougher players in the international arena.’
In previous years, Seneviratne said, the average score out of 11 rounds hovered around 4 points or even less. This year almost everyone improved on their international rating and the lowest score was 3.5 points.
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