Theekshana Denuwan defeated Kazakhstan Women’s Grandmaster Dauletova Gulmira in round six of the Asian Continental Hybrid Chess Championships, continued yesterday.
Theekshana’s victory was more significant as his opponent Gulmira has a standard rating of 2,285 and is an Olympic Bronze Medallist having more experience.
Theekshana obtained three points with this result and also climbed to the 46th position.
Meanwhile, Skipper Raninidu Liyanage also recorded a victory in this sixth-round while Susal de Silva and Minul Doluweera had to be satisfied with a draw in their respective games. However, Susal was able to steal half a point with a draw against Chinese International Master Lou Yiping (2,472) who participated even in the Chess World Cup 2013.
Susal collected 3.5 points out of six games and has already moved to rank 24 which is the best from the four Sri Lankan players.
Liyanage played a nice game with the Philippine player Bayangat Arije and beat him adding one more point to his total which is now 2.5.
The former national champion Doluweera drew his game with Mongolian Fide Master Chinguun Sumiya (2,269).
At the end of round six, Liyanage is presently ranked 50 while Doluweera is ranked 55.
A total of US$ 16,000 will be awarded to the winners as cash prizes by the Asian Chess Federation giving US$ 5,000 for the winner.
Also the top seven players of the event will qualify to play in the FIDE World Chess Cup to be held in Russia in July.
