The university indoor gymnasium was completely a different place from the other days. It was calm and quiet where the great minds of the freshers’ were sitting and do the thinking, playing the beautiful game of chess. From first move to the last, every move showed the beauty of the game, competitiveness and the character of the player. This was the enthusiasm at the Freshers’ Chess Tournament which was held on the 7th of April 2019, at the University Gymnasium from 8.00 a.m. onward.
The tournament conducted under two main categories as; Men’s category and Women’s category. Talented teams of Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo School of Computing, Faculty of Management and Finance, Faculty of Nursing, Faculty of Technology participated this event. All of them were equally competitive throughout the tournament. Most of the faculties had two teams for each category (Team A and Team B). There were 13 teams in the women’s category and 14 teams in the men’s category. All together 27 challenging teams were present.
The tournament carried according to the Swiss System. Each team went through 5 competitive rounds with a time control of 10 minutes. Every minute was important, enjoyable for all the players and every one was eagerly waiting for the games to start. Starting from the beginning, all the rounds were fairly drawn without any problem as it was done by a computerized system. The first round was paired according to the alphabetical order. A team was consisted with 5 players including 1 reserve player. Each team from one faculty competed the other. The round winner was decided by a two-third win. First the total game wins were taken in the account in calculating the overall ranking. If the total round wins were tied the total match wins were considered. If it was also tied the normal standard FIDE chess tie-breaks were used. All the basic chess rules were applied for games and everyone fairly played all 5 rounds.
It was an unpredictable event as all the members of each team had a tough fight till the end. It was unbelievable to see how enthusiastic the players were during the tournament.
Results
After a long day at the end, the unbeaten Faculty of Science Team A secured the Championship in the men’s category. They became 1st by winning 9 match points (4 wins and a draw) and 14 game points. The University Of Colombo School Of Computing was lucky to win both the 2nd and 3rd places. The Team B of UCSC became the 1st Runner Up by scoring 8 match points (4 wins and a loss) while the Team A of UCSC became the 2nd Runner up by scoring the same match points according to the FIDE tie break system. 4th place was secured by the Faculty of Medicine Team A by winning 6 match points.
Not only in the men’s category but also in the women’s category the unbeaten Champions were the girls of the Faculty of Science Team A who did an amazing job in winning. They had a proper lead and scored 9 match points (4 wins and a draw). The Team A of the Faculty of Medicine became the 1st Runner Up by 8 match points. The University of Colombo School Of Computing became the 2nd Runner Up by getting 7 match points. 4th place was secured by the Faculty of Management Team A by tie breaks.
The most talented chess players in the Faculty of Science chess team proved themselves that they have both chess Kings and Queens and took the overall championship of chess to their faculty. This marked the end of the Fresher’s Chess Tournament for the year 2019. FOS media we, congratulate all the winners of the chess tournament and also thank all the participants for their energetic enthusiasm throughout the tournament.
Written By: Chandula E.D.S
Image courtesy: https://www.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/chess.jpg
