From better to way better

The Los Angeles Lakers held a 3-1 lead over the Portland Trailblazers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs when the brutal shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin derailed the season. It is not certain if the Lakers will return to the court.  

At that point the Lakers looked quite the champion team they were expected to be after hiring Anthony Davis. And yet, on January 3, 2020 the Lakers lost to the Blazers on a night that LeBron James shot 9-for-22 and had five turnovers. All of that went unnoticed for it was the first time the Lakers played after Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna tragically died in a helicopter crash along with seven others.

The 4th game of the series against the Blazers was played on August 25th, a couple of days after what would have been Kobe’s 42nd birthday. The team had a moment before the game.  

It was just 24 hours after ‘Kobe Bryant Day’ declared as such by Los Angeles and Orange County in honor of the two numbers Kobe wore during his career, 8 and 24. The Lakers also watched Nike’s latest spot, titled ‘Better’ where rapper Kendrick Lamar describes ‘Bryant's incessant drive to achieve self-actualization through constant improvement.’

Better. That’s a word to remember. Giannis Antetokounmpo may have not watched the Nike spot. He knew of Kobe (who in the NBA did not?) though. On Kobe Bryant Day, coincidentally, Antetokounmpo was declared the NBA’s ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ in a landslide vote.

Antetokounmpo believes that this has been his best year. He believes however that he can get better.

‘Obviously, I think I can get way better. I can be more active. I can block more shots. I can be in the passing lanes more…but you can always get better. You can always improve.’ Kobesque. 

It brought to mind a television interview I watched way back in 2006. A girl was featured in a sports program. She was the runner up at that year’s National A Chess Championship. Sachini Ranasinghe was barely 14 at the time. All I remember from that interview is Sachini expressing the view that she was not happy with the outcome. She wanted to be better. She wanted to be champion and not runner up.  

Now someone might have thought the kid was being a tad arrogant, but she had the right mind set. She had her ups and downs, coming third the next year and eighth in 2008. Between 2009 and 2013 she won the national title four times, coming second in 2010. She competed in the Men’s Nationals the following year. Since then Sachini’s performance has been checkered: fifth (2015), fourth (2016), tenth (2017) and eighth (2019. She was second in 2018 though and this year she won the Women’s Grand Prix title quite comfortably. 

 

What’s creditable is that she has consistently made it to the National A and has already represented Sri Lanka in 4 Chess Olympiads: 2010 (Russia), 2012 (Turkey), 2016 (Azerbaijan) and 2018 (Georgia). She would probably have made the team in 2014 too had she opted to play in the Women’s National A. She also holds the distinction of being Sri Lanka’s first Women’s International Master (WIM).

She’s not done. She competes fiercely. She takes victories in her stride and is quite gracious in defeat. She simply wants to be better. Back in 2016 she was already challenging herself. She still does. That’s what Kobe did. That’s what Antetokounmpo does. That's what separates the good from the great.

In a sense it is a simple enough formula: go from better to way better. Sachini is already a veteran in a field where most of the competition comes from players still in school. Sachini, like Vineetha Wijesuriya (who won in 2006, by the way) and her older sister Suneetha, just don’t give up. They fight. They always aimed for ‘better.'

Other articles in the series titled 'The Interception' [published in 'The Morning']

 

Namal and Mahela: how about starting the innings with an audit?

Conflict of Interest

The debate over sports

You can leave the butterflies for later

Get the point for the team!

Michael Holding always comes to the party

The madnesses that must stop

Error cuts down heroes, humility resurrects

Paul Robeson didn't scream 'BLM' but he knew what mattered

The plus, minus and equal of improvement

The 'never give up' of sports

Those who kneel are actually standing

Do you have a plan? Strengths and weaknesses

Wait, it's a strategy

The virtues of risk-free generosity

Thinking and out-thinking in sports

Read, locked-down people, read!

The team, the team!

Who should take the last shot?

It's all about partnerships

There are no Tommie Smith or John Carlos t-shirts brother

'The done thing' is rarely done

'Practice, lots of practice'

Special, always and forever

The shortcut to greatness

It's healthy to retire the braggadocio 

Money talks, gold rules: are we ok with that?

Sometimes if you don't stand up, you fall

Selections and the political economy of disappointment

So who is the GOAT?

Predecessors are great teachers

When things go wrong check the fundamentals

There's always only one more game left

Mind games are part of the sporting story

Those nervous ninetiesOut-think the opposition
School sports and parents

The importing mania in school cricket

Sportsmen and sportswomen beware: your accounts will be hacked soon!

Not all victories are recorded

malindasenevi@gmail.com

Read more

Romesh Weerawardena: Sri Lanka’s first International Master

It was way back in 1980 that Sri Lanka got her first Internationally rated chess player.  L.C. Goonetilleke, then an undergraduate at Colombo University did well enough in the first Rating Tournament held in Sri Lanka against a strong field of Sri Lankans as well as international players to win a rating.  The next target was to produce a FIDE Master (FM) and then an International Master (IM). 

The best bet at a title at the time was to win the Asian Junior, where the winner automatically became an IM.  Vajira Perera almost made it in the eighties on two occasions when he defeated eventual winner Vishy Anand who later conquered the world, a fact which gave Indian chess such a boost that it left other countries in the region far behind.  Harsha and Harinlal Aturupane were probably the best IM prospect. Both secured FM titles but retired from the game while still in their twenties.  A breakdown in chess during the violence of the late eighties handicapped Sri Lankan chess severely and players of great promise such as Nirosh Perera, the Amarawickreme brothers, Athula Russell and others were all lost to the game. 

The women did better.  A few FM titles were followed by Sachini Ranasinghe winning the Zonal event of the World Championship cycle last year, which result gave her a WIM title.  On Friday, though, a decades long dream, was realized when Romesh Weerawardena drew with Bangladeshi Grandmaster Niaz Murshed in the final round of the Asian Zonal Chess Championship (Zone 3.2). Romesh denied Murshed of a chance at the title and with it a chance to play in the World Championship (another Bangladeshi, Grand Master Ziaur Rahman with 7.5 points out of a possible 9 won the tournament) and ended with 6 points, a performance which secured him an IM title.  Incidentally, Nelunika Methmini (6.0) of Anula Vidyalaya got a WIM title, although she was behind the winner of the women’s event, WIM Liza Shamima Akter of Bangladesh and Sachini Ranasinghe.   Prasanna Kurukulasuriya and T.S.S. Peiris ended with FM titles.  Manisha Gunaratne (Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya) got a WFM title. 

Weerawardena has been among the top players for over a decade but someone who has consistently faltered at the finishing line, so to speak.  He has put together some remarkable performances but has had luck deserting him at crucial points.  It was only in 2010 that he made it to the national team which represented Sri Lanka at the Chess Olympiad.  In this event, however, he was at an all-time best, losing only to two Grandmasters while drawing with Akhila Kavinda and Murshed. 

An old boy of Ananda College, Weerawardena took to chess when he was 11.  His first coach, an old boy of his school, was Luxman Wijesuriya, a several times national champ and a man almost exclusively identified with Sri Lankan chess.  Romesh captained Ananda and was a member of the team that won the National Schools Championship in 1996.  He has also won 4 international rating tournaments held in Sri Lanka, although he acknowledges that these were not very strong tournaments.

Although Romesh first played in the Nationals in 1999, he never won the tournament.  His best result was in 2010 when he came third.  ‘The last decade and a half was dominated by a handful of players, especially Russell and G.C. Anuruddha, who won multiple national titles.  Chatura Rajapaksa, Prasanna Kurukulasuriya and Rajeendra Kalugampitiya are all extremely good players and it has always been an uphill task for me,’ Romesh said.

Romesh believes that his playing improved considerably during the time he was a student at Delhi University (where he read for a BSc degree).  ‘I played in the Parshanath International, which is a GM tournament; I gained a lot of confidence from my performance,’ he said.  Romesh has managed to draw with several GMs over the years, Murshed was not the first.  He has also scored wins against IMs.

After returning to Sri Lanka in 2004, Romesh decided to dedicate more time to chess, especially to coaching.  Nelunika and Manisha are both coached by Romesh incidentally. 

Romesh believes that this achievement had something to do with his performance at last year’s Zonal tournament when he (along with Chatura Rajapaksa) came very close to getting FM titles.  ‘This spurred me to do better this time’. 

Of the future, Romesh said that he has to perform even better and go for a GM title. ‘I have to justify the title, I have to justify the rating and I have to prove that this was not a lucky result,’ he said modestly. 

One of the more silent and self-effacing individuals in the chess playing community, Romesh is convinced that more opportunities against strong opposition will see more Sri Lankans coming through the ranks.  Players like Chamika Perea of Trinity (National Champ 2011), Udith Jayasundara (Nalanda) are two good players who have already made it to the national team and Romesh believes that if they get the kind of exposure players of his generation did not have 10 years ago, they will go very far. 

Read more