Sri Lanka Army Chess Committee has made arrangements to conduct the first ever Chess Team Championship from August 30 to September 02 at the newly built ‘Nelum Pokuna Hall’ at the Sri Lanka Army Diyatalawa Army Marksman and Sniper Training School premises. The Championship is named as the ‘Fox Hill Chess Fiesta - 2019’ as it is staged around the famous ‘Fox Hill’ area said Chairman of the Sri Lanka Army Chess Committee Chairman Brigadier GMCKB Ekanayake addressing a media briefing at the Media Center for National Security in Colpetty on Wednesday.
Speaking further he noted that soldiers who were disabled due to the ethnic war for nearly 30 years are the personnel who needed some sort of action to keep them involved in sports that they could engage to gain the maximum relaxation and also to bring honour through sport to country as well as to the Army. With this intention Army formed the Chess Committee three years ago and continued it by conducting the first tourney which attracted only 138 players.
But with the hard work done by the Committee the number of players to the sport has increased to 5,000 said Brig Ekanayake. Last year’s tournament among Army personnel saw Lt. Col. Dushyantha performing well to qualify to represent the country at the Asian Para Games last year. He was competing in the category meant for visually impaired persons. Out of a total of 34 teams 18 are from Sri Lanka Army while the balance sixteen teams include Universities, Banks State Institutions and other reputed organizations said Brigadier Ekanayake.
A team consists of five players with one of them serving as a reserve player.
Winner in the Men’s category will receive a Trophy plus a cash award of Rs. 80,000, while the two runners up get cash awards of R, 30,000 and 20,000 respectively. Winning Women’s team too gets a Trophy and cash to the value of Rs. 50,000, with two runners up collecting Rs. 30,000 and 20,000 each. Matches are to commence at 11.00 a.m. on the first three days and the final days matches are to start at 7.00 a.m. On the final day the Award ceremony is to take place at the same venue with Commander Security (West) Major General L. M.Mudalige as chief guest.
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