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Atop the world

School girl Nirmala Chandrasiri has become the first world champion from Sri Lanka.

By Jeevani Pereira

Nirmala Chandrasiri has a chess board open in front of her and with deft hands begins a game that has made her a world champion. This quiet, unassuming girl holds the title for being the first Sri Lankan woman to become a World Champion in any sport at any level and the second Sri Lankan to do so by winning the World Amateur Chess Championship last year.

Nirmala has made her mark in history

Held in Tripoli, Libya, 17-year-old Nirmala was among 99 male and female players from 17 countries who took part in the Championship. “I got into the last round by beating an Iraqi Professor,” she smiled. “That was a pretty exciting moment.”

Her father is the first to have taught her the game when she was a child. “I really didn’t like the game then but when I joined my school, Visaka College, team in grade four and I realized that playing for school you had to do well and I automatically started liking it,” she said.

Taking part in the Anatoly Karpov All Island Chess Tournament in 1999, Nirmala came 4th while she continued to take part in tournaments from then on, inevitably she continued to come on top. Her first international tournament was the Asian Junior Chess Championship in 2003 where she came out in the 20th position.

2005 was the ideal year for her coming out first in several provincial Inter-school and all-island inter school championships.

It was during the 2006 all island Under 18 Championships, where as the Visakian Captain, she became the 1st Runner up and was equal on points with the Women’s National Champion Yashodha Methmali. Based on this performance she was nominated by the Chess Federation to take part in the Commonwealth Chess Championship.

However, Nirmala had opted to play in the WACC which was for unrated chess players and players with a rating less than 2000. “I guessed I had more of a chance to improve my rating,” she said adding that with the help of the Libyan Embassy and permission of the Sports Ministry she started preparing for the tournament of a lifetime.

“There tournament was in an open format and in the beginning we played mixed and then according to our ratings we were divided according to gender to play in the respective categories,” she explained.

Practice makes perfect. Nirmala hard at work

“I won my first game against a female player and my opponents in the next 10 games were male players. Out of the 11 games I won 5, lost 3 and drew 3 and had a 6.5 point average, the highest among the females,” she said.

As an overall player Nirmala was ranked 28th in the championships and then beat the Libyan Women’s National Chess Champion Rahal Mawada to take the first place in the women’s category.

“Chess is like a meditation,” she went on adding that with the game lasting for more than four hours, concentration was key. She continued that reading up on the game and a lot of practice has helped her get this far. “There is a lot you can get off the internet as well,” she said.

“You have to be able to calculate properly because making the smallest mistake can cost you a game,” she explained adding that beating the Iraqi player before the last round made her confident of her win in the next.

Nirmala scored enough to win the Women FIDE Master title with a rating of 2050 which will be ratified in the next FIDE congress. This title is the first of three, reaching the Grand Master title (with a rating of 2300 minimum) would open up avenues to go for the World Chess Championship itself.

She raised her eyebrows at the thought of getting to the World Championships. “That is serious stuff,” she said adding that in order to reach the Grand Master level more international exposure was necessary.

“There is hardly any recognition for the sport in the country,” Nirmala remarked adding that there were many good outstation players that could do justice to this game of the mind.

Her motto is to take things slow however, and working her way up to becoming a part of the Sri Lankan Team is her biggest hope for now. So what does she wish to do with her education? “I want to become an architect,” she smiled in confidence adding that her focus was mainly on her education.

Pics by Kumara Dayawansa Nanneththi