Sri Lankan Female Chess Masters

From The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka f/k/a Ceylon) January 3, 2009 Pramodaya first woman Master Pramodaya Senanayake of Musaeus College Colombo was the first Sri Lankan woman FIDE Master after competing in the 37th Chess Olympiad held in May-June 2006 in Italy. She scored six out of nine points to achieve this feat. She was attending school in that year and had also won a bronze medal at the Asian Schools Chess Festival held in Singapore in December 2005. Thereafter, Nirmala from Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo too had achieved the title of woman FIDE Master a few years later. Besides these two women, the latest girl to achieve this feat is Supeshala Thilakawardane also of Musaeus College. She achieved this title when participating in the Chess Olympiad held in Germany in November last year. It was inadvertently published by Daily Mirror that Thilakawardane was the first woman FIDE Master in Sri Lanka. We regret this error as credit must go to Pramodaya Senanayake who was also a student of Musaeus College. This fact was brought to the notice of Daily Mirror by G.S. Dissanayake who was the secretary of the Chess Federation for ten years since being elected in 1975 for the first time. R. Bodhinagoda was the president at that time. (TBR)