Suneetha gets Fide Master title after 20 years
Suneetha Wijesuriya has been awarded the Women Fide Master title for her performance at the Chess Olympiad in Manila 1992. This was revealed in a statement from Luxman Wijesuriya, the Secretary of Chess Federation of Sri Lanka, on Sunday.
In the Chess Olympiad, in 1992, Suneetha Wijesuriya won the Gold medal, claiming 6.5 points out of 8 points possible. The courageous lady received a golden prize for her untiring work towards the success of Chess in Sri Lanka. She celebrated the 20 years of winning the Gold medal at the Chess Olympiad couple of days ago, at Colombo Hilton, felicitating 20 highest Chess performers in Sri Lanka. Self-motivated Suneetha has been conducting various chess promotional work with the help of Russian Centre in Colombo. She was the founder and the long standing president of Sri Lanka Chess Foundation, well supported by the Russian Centre in Co- lombo. Suneetha would have been Sri Lanka's first Women FIDE master since she deserved the title with a Gold medal in 1992 and 7 wins out of 11 Games in the Chess Olympiad 1996 in Yerevan, Armenia.
She was awarded the WFM title after world chess federation was notified by Sri Lanka Chess Federation of the new rule change.
The Chess Federation offers their gratitude to Dr. Sisira Amarasinghe for reminding of the new rule.Dr. Amarasinghe is a chess arbiter, residing in the United States, and also was former chess player too.