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Sunday, 16 August 2009

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Ravana International Chess Championship to attract top Grandmasters and International Masters

CHESS: Sri Lanka will be organizing the biggest ever Chess Tournament to be held in Sri Lanka in September (12th-20th 2009) at Ceylon Continental Hotel in Colombo, with 25-30 International Grandmasters (GMs) and equal number of International Masters (IMs) expected to compete for a total prize fund of US$ 15,000.

The tournament, organised by the Blue and Gold Chess Club with the support of Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL) has already received the endorsement of the Presidential Secretariat and the Ministry of Tourism. The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Muditha Hettigama said that already 12 GMs and 3 Women GMs have confirmed participation. Although such tournaments held in South Asia usually attract mostly top players from the region, the Ravana International has already attracted GMs from Belgium, Hungary, Russia, Georgia and Ukraine, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan in addition to Bangladesh and India.

Hettigama said that with one whole month to go for the tournament, this number is extremely encouraging and attributes it to the peaceful environment that prevails in the country subsequent to the eradication of terrorism. He added that the Ministry of Tourism has already contacted diplomatic missions in Germany, France, the United Kingdom. Canada, United States, Iran, China, Indonesia, Vietnam requesting support in securing the participation of additional GMs and IMs.

The organizers expect 150 foreign players to be in Sri Lanka to participate in the event which will be held over a period of 9 days. Secretary of CFSL, Luxman Wijesuriya said that this is a unique opportunity for strong local players to gain valuable experience and even secure norms towards IM titles.

He pointed out that alternatively, local players have to pay inordinate sums of money to play in similar tournaments overseas, not to mention the fact that this involves a net outflow of money.

The event has been advertised in all International chess websites and more information can be obtained at http://blueandgoldchessclub.com/Ravana/.GMs who have already confirmed participation, with country and FIDE rating, are as follows:

1. Dimitri Komarov Ukraine 2550, 2. Vadim Malakhatko Belgium 2570, 3. Eldar Gasanov Russia 2536, 4. Horvath József Hungary 2567, 5. Merab Gagunashvili Georgia 2574, 6. Mikheil Mchedlishvili Georgia 2592, 7. Niaz Murshed Bangladesh 2415, 8. Neelotpal Das India 2474, 9. Amon Simutowe Zambia 2481, 10. Filippov Anton Uzbekistan 2595, 11. Anuar Ismagambetov Kazakhstan 2531, 12. Tigran Kotanjian Armenia 2580.Confirmed Women Grandmasters: 13. Anna Zozulia Belgium 2371, 14. Tania Sachdev India 2423, 15. Saumya Swaminathan India 2309.

 

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