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Seventeen year old Royalist Minul Doluweera was crowned National Chess Champion on Thursday, 17 August 2017 at the Royal College Skills Centre.

Doluweera ended on 9.5 points, followed by Udith Jayasundara of the University of Colombo on 8.0 points, and four other players who ended on 7.5 points in the 13-round all-play-all tournament organized by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka.

He is the fourth Royalist to win the Sri Lanka Chess Nationals after Chris Parakrama who won it in the inaugural year of 1973, followed by Muditha Hettigama, the present Royal College coach, in 1994 and Nirosh de Silva in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

Doluweera was awarded College Colours for Chess in 2015. He is the Vice Captain of the College Chess team and has been awarded the Maalyn Dias Scholarship by the college, for the most outstanding emerging player in 2014. In addition to chess, he has also excelled in other extra-curricular activities, including debating and is the Chairman of the English Debaters’ Council of the College. He also obtained 9 A’s at the GCE O/L examination in 2016.

Another outstanding achievement of Doluweera, is that he is the first Royalist to be awarded the international title ‘FIDE Master’ by the World Chess Federation, in 2016

It is with a great sense of achievement that we announce the discovery of Principal Harward’s place of final rest.  A collaborative investigative effort by the QORA (Queensland Old Royalists Association) and RCOBAA (Victoria-based Royal College Old Boys Australia Association) has succeeded in locating Principal Harward’s grave in the cemetery of the Queensland country town of Warwick.

John Henry Harward was Principal, Royal College from 1892 to 1902. In retirement he moved to Australia, settling in the country town of Warwick, Queensland.

Early attempts by George Fernando, a resident of Victoria and a long standing member of RCOBAA, to locate the principal’s grave in Warwick were unsuccessful, despite a visit to the cemetery some years ago. Earlier this year, Inji Wijegunaratne (President) and George Fernando from RCOBAA alerted Rohan Jayaratne (Founder President, QORA).

QORA, having contacted the Warwick cemetery authorities, then organised a three-man expedition (Rohan Jayaratne, Shan Attygalle, Kalum de Silva) on 14th July to locate the grave, which, we are proud to announce, was successful.

RCOBAA and QORA plan to erect a small plaque on the grave.