Player Profile: Harshana Thilakarathne

Full Name: G M Harshana Thilakarathne

Peak FIDE Rating: 2446 achieved in 2018

Federation: Sri Lanka

Player Description:

One of the finest to come out of Sri Lanka, Harshana Thilakarathne started his career at a very early age and is trained by Dmytro Komarow. Earlier, he had been trained in the sport by veteran Chess player Romesh Weerawardane.

Thilakarathne started his career brightly as he won a Bronze medal in the Under-7 age category at the 2009 Asian Schools Chess Championship, which was held in the Island Nation. He did not stop there as he won the Gold Medal in the Under-11 age category in the 2014 World Schools Chess Championship. Soon after, he was awarded the title of Candidate Master. 

Continuing his great career, Thilakarathne won the Silver Medal in the Under-13 category in the 2016 World Schools Chess Championship, which was held in Sochi, Russia. He had another Silver Medal to his name in the Under-15 category in the same tournament in 2018. Medals kept on rising as he earned another Gold medal, this time in the Under-16 category in the 2018 Commonwealth Chess Championship, held in New Delhi. 

Harshana was awarded the FIDE title in 2018 and then participated in the 43rd Chess Olympiad, where he scored 6 points out of 10. Thilakarathne won his first National Championship at the age of 16 in 2019 and was the captain of the 12-member Sri Lankan contingent in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad in 2020. 

For his excellent performances, Harshana was awarded the prestigious International Master title in October 2020 by the World Chess Federation. He was the second Sri Lankan player, after Romesh Weerawardene, to be awarded the title. In September 2021, he won the Under-18 category of the 2021 Western Asian Online Youth Chess Championships. Lately, he has also been involved in Coaching. 

Career Scorecard:

Games Played: 1366

Games Played as White: 692, Won: 296, Lost: 116, Draw: 180

Games Played as Black: 674, Won: 335, Lost: 161, Draw: 178

National Championships:

• Thilakarathne won his first major National Championship in 2019 at the age of 16. 

Tournaments Won:

• Asian Schools Chess Championships 2009 (Bronze medal)

• World Schools Chess Championships 2014 (Gold medal)

• World Schools Chess Championship 2016 (Silver medal)

• World Schools Chess Championship 2018 (Silver medal)

• Commonwealth Chess Championship 2018 (Gold medal)

• National Championship 2019

Best Games:

• Harshana Thilakarathne vs Igor Naumkin: The Sri Lankan had just won the National Championship, and he was set to face the Grandmaster Igor Naumkin in the Chess Sinhala game 2. The had its ups and downs, and it was eventually the Sri Lankan who came out on top.