The national Chess tournament for the vision impaired 2014 was
organized by the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. This was my first tournament in
Chess. I started to learn Chess in end of 2013 and I had to face this
challenging tournament in January 2014. Before the tournament I had some
practice games with students from Rathmalana School for the blind and with my
team members of The SLCB. I was able to win against them. The biggest challenge
for me was to play against the Army team. Mr.Rathnayaka from Army was the
previous champion and Mr. Indrajith was another strong player who was
consistently among the top 3 VIP chess players in the island.
The competition was a knockout tournament. Where my first two games
I played against Mr. Priyantha and Mr. Waruna. I was able to win those two
games. There were about 32 players. The opponents were selected by picking up
numbers randomly by players and I got number 7 for a start, where I thought it
was a lucky start for my chess tournament career. In my 1st game I moved my
Queen only once in the entire game, that is to deliver a checkmate in “d” file.
The road to the top 8 was not so difficult. Then I had to play with
Mr.Vichithran, a good chess player. Both played well but I was able to trap his
Knight and win a piece up and win the game. In the semi final, my opponent was
Mr. Ashanth. I sacrificed aRook to win the game. In the finals I lost to
Mr.Indrajith, a player from the Army team.
I couldn’t be the champion in my 1st All Island Chess Tournament,
but I’m happy I played well with experienced players. 1st place was Mr.
Indrajith from the Army team, I placed 2nd from the SLCB and Mr, Nuwantha
placed 3rd from Rathmalana School for thee blind.
