Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju has become the youngest-ever world chess champion after beating defending champion China’s Ding Liren in a dramatic turn on Thursday.

Dommaraju, 18, is four years younger than the former record-holder, Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he won the title in 1985.

The Chennai prodigy has long been a superstar in the chess world, having attained the status of chess grandmaster at the age of 12.

But he was seen as the outside challenger going into the final round of the FIDE World Chess Championship, held in Singapore this year.

Playing on black, Dommaraju won the game after Ding, who had been in a solid position, made a fatal move that gave up his last powerful piece.

His blunder delivered victory to the 18-year-old, who until now had been ranked fifth in the world and second in his own country.

The 14-game World Championship competition had been closely watched by chess fans around the world this past fortnight.

Sri Lanka’s new government has instructed state officials to expedite key educational projects including modernizing school education, improving teacher training, advancing secondary education,enhancing technical education, and developing information technology education,the President’s Media Division (PMD) said. 

All the projects discussed were initiated and implemented under previous governments in the past. 

“Both the President and Prime Minister instructed officials to expedite the implementation of these projects,” the PMD said in a statement.  

“Attention was also drawn to reorganizing the current school system to ensure that educational reforms are more accessible and effective for all children.”

The government’s instruction came at a progress review meeting of the Ministries of Education, Science, and Technology.  President Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the meeting emphasized the need to rebuild Sri Lanka’s education system in alignment with global demands to achieve the country’s educational goals. 

Dissanayake pointed out that that children must be equipped with knowledge to improve the nation’s human capital for Sri Lanka’s future progress and the responsibility of creating the workforce needed by the world over the next decade falls on education officials, stressing the importance of aligning educational projects with this vision, the PMD said. 

Government officials in the past have said most educational reforms were either slowed or stopped by trade unions affiliated to Dissanayake’s Marxists Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna (JVP) in the past. – ECONOMYNEXT

Sri Lanka and France signed a bilateral Agreement to establish a Regional Centre for Maritime Studies in Sri Lanka. The Agreement was signed by Secretary/ Ministry of Defence General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne and Chargé d’ Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of France in Colombo Marie-Noëlle Duris, at the Ministry of Defence in Colombo yesterday.

The proposed Regional Centre for Maritime Studies envisages to serve as a Centre of Excellence in the Indian Ocean for academic and training collaborations including maritime safety and security, preservation and conservation of the marine environment and marine pollution response amongst other areas.