Sri Lankan girl wins country’s first chess gold

Promising Sri Lankan chess player Osini Devindya Gunawardena, who won a gold medal for the country for the first time at the World Youth Chess Tournament held in Egypt, returned home yesterday morning.

Chess exponents from 75 countries contested the championship from October 14 to 27 with Osini a grade six student of Wycherly International School in Colombo making history and giving Sri Lanka the first gold medal at a major international event.

A group of officials of the Sri Lanka Chess Association including its president Lakshman Wijesuriya, the principal of Wycherley where Osini is schooling, teachers and relatives including her mother Chandima were at hand to garland and welcome the heroine.