Claire Clarke, Contributor

Volume 2. No.1

The high school chess tournament is moving along in earnest, and early qualifiers into the esteemed round of 16 for the various geographic areas have already been chosen from some sections across the island.

From the Middlesex zone, defending rural and all-island champions St Jago A, rural champions for 2011 Glenmuir A, and another former rural champions, St Catherine A, have all topped their zones to move forward to the final 16 who will continue play next year.

The top qualifiers from these three was Glenmuir, who only dropped half a point in their games, to win their zone with 15.5 points from a maximum of 16. St Catherine A won their zone with 18.5 points from a maximum of 20. St Jago A won their zone with 18 points from a maximum of 20.

These top teams will be joined by two of the team that have made it to the pre-round qualifiers playoffs. Teams in this playoff are: Glenmuir B, Clarendon College, Denbigh High, Charlemont, St Catherine B, and St Jago C from games that were completed this week. It is of interest to note that the three top teams all have teams in the pre-round qualifiers playoffs.

Even though there are still two teams from Clarendon in the competition, organisers of the competition have declared Glenmuir High the Clarendon Parish Champion because all teams in the parish have played each other. The parish champions for St Catherine are yet to be determined as all the St Catherine teams have not yet met.

Games in the Corporate Area zones of Kingston and St Andrew should be wrapped up today. However, qualifiers for those final 16 so far are Kingston College and Camperdown, who topped their zones.

Advancing to the pre-round playoffs are Excelsior, St George's, Wolmers' Boys and Kingston College B.

Results from the zones in the west have not yet been supplied.

Upcoming tournaments

High School Chess tournament preliminary rounds continue

National Junior Club Championships: December 15-16, St Jago High School, St Catherine

NB: ChessMate today celebrates it first birthday and would like to say a special thanks to all of you who read, critique, comment and generally engage chess through this column, in this paper and online. Your feedback has been invaluable. Keep reading and enjoying chess.

Email feedback, send in your games or upcoming tournaments to yourchessmate@yahoo.com and join the facebook page chessmate. Claire Clarke is a former Women's National Champion, three-time Jamaica Women's team Chess Olympiad representative, trained journalist and editor.