The Maldives is known as ’The Tropical Paradise’ for its beauty. The sea covers 99 percent of the Maldives and it is where you can see beautiful corals and fish. It is one of my favourite countries.
I was so lucky to get Maldives for my first chess tour when I was selected to the National Chess Team to represent Sri Lanka in the ‘Western Asian Chess Championships 2022’.
The tournament was held from June 16 – 22..There were 22 National Chess Players from the Under 8 to the Under 18 categories to go to the Maldives to participate in this event.
Two instructors, Upali Amaratunge (Asst. Director of Sports) Ministry of Education and a women official, Washini Chamithri (an arbiter) were a part of this contingent. They were to guide the team.
We started our journey from Sri Lanka to the Maldives on June 15. When we arrived at the Maldivian airport, a strange thing I saw was that the airport was surrounded by the crystal-clear sea. It was a really unusual experience. I had read books about this but this was my first time in seeing it in reality.
From a distance I could see the city of Male. It felt like heaven. There was a great welcome and a treat at the Maldives airport for our players.
Ukulhas
We went to our island Ukulhas on a boat and it was an exciting and bumpy ride.
From the Maldives airport to Ukulhas it took about one hour. It was about 12 midnight when we arrived at Ukulhas. It reminded me of the story, Madol Duwa of Martin Wickramasinghe as I was landing on this beautiful Island. Ukulhas was a really small island with a population of 1000.
The hotel staff and the tournament organisers welcomed us warmly and they took us to the hotel in a buggy. Riding on a buggy for the first time was a good experience. We could walk without a mask cause it was a safe country minus Covid-19.
Ukulhas, one of the inhabited islands of the Alif Alif Atoll, is a unique, environmentally friendly island in the Maldives.
It is well known for its cleanliness and well maintained waste management system. The island is 72km away from Male. The length of the island is 1.025km. There is much tourism.
It is an island that stands out for its paradisical beach. The island looks like a pearl that is surrounded by lagoons. It has many hotels and guest houses along the beach. This breathtaking island stretches for about 0.25 square kilometres.
The tournament
The next day, the Opening Ceremony was held in the Ukulhas Convention Centre with the participation of all the players, the Chief Arbiter, Arbiters and Organisers.
One of the ministers in the Maldives arrived for the ceremony as the Chief Guest.
He gave a warm welcome to all the players who represented the different countries in the West Asian region.
After that, we had a Rapid Tournament which we played as a warmup event.
The next day the Main event (Classical Event) started. There were nine rounds, each game had a 4 hours (1hour 30 minutes 30 second bonus per move) for each player.
The first round was a really hard game against a 1197 rated Uzbekistan player. Finally, I won the game and it was a great pleasure.
When I was playing in the tournament I felt that I had a real big responsibilty representing my country. My coach, Yasiru Mihiranga, helped me a great deal during the games by motivating and encouraging me. The event was really tough with hard games in each round against the top players in each country. I won five games out of nine rounds and gained the ninth place in this tournament.
The blitz event
The last event was the blitz event and it was held on the beach. It was really exciting and fun playing these blitz games with a very short time control (3 mins plus 2 seconds) for each player. It was a new experience playing a chess match on the beach. The people are very friendly and simple in the Maldives. There aren’t many vehicles and no air pollution. People mostly use motorbikes and buggies for travelling and transportation.
The only four-wheel vehicle I saw was the ambulance. There was a health centre in this island with an ambulance.
The shops were open till midnight. The schools aren’t very big. There is a single power house to provide electricity to the whole island.
We went around the island in a buggy which is an electric vehicle. I had great fun going in it.
The weather was very hot and sunny but the fresh air felt so good.
At the beach
Between the tournaments they gave us two free afternoons to relax and enjoy. During that time the Sri Lankan team and the instructors went to the beach. The sand was white in colour
I was awe-struck when I saw the beautiful teal water. I had so much fun playing in the sand and swimming. The water wasn’t that rough or deep so it was really easy to swim. I found many beautiful seashells. The coral reefs were really colourful.
I made sandcastles with my bestie, Hansadie and watched the sunset.The free time was really important to relax and let go of the tournament stress as the tournament was really tough. The free time helped greatly.
At the end, we had the Closing Ceremony and the Prize-Giving. The next day we arrived at the the airport in a boat at dawn. Since it was dawn, the ride was not that bumpy and I saw more things than I saw the day we went to Ukulhas.
We all said goodbye to the Maldives and boarded the plane and came back to our motherland.
It was really a proud moment in my life when I set my foot on my motherland after doing my best for my country. There was a grand welcome for us at the airport.
Loving support
I learned much from this tournament. I would like to thank my mentor, Yasiru Mihiranga, for supporting me and guiding me to achieve this level of success. I am grateful to my parents and my brother for their loving support.
I appreciate the help given by the President of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka, Luxman Wijesooriya, my first coach Rasika Samaranayake and the school coach Ashan Dharmasiri.
I am grateful to everyone who supported and encouraged me.
As a young writer this experience is gold for my writing career too. This experience I got from this tournament is very important for my future events,’ The Youth World Cup 2022’ in Georgia and ‘Asian Youth Chess Championship 2022’ in Indonesia.
H. G.Sasmi Sithumsa
Grade 5 C
Lyceum Inyernational School
Ratnapura