KINGSTON, Jamaica — St Jago High on the weekend walked away with their fifth title as chess champions after an impressive performance in the 2014 staging of the National High School Chess Championships.

The All Island Finals saw a keenly contested match with Calabar High School but the St Catherine team continued their dominance of high school chess with a 3.5 – 0.5 margin victory.

Winning for St Jago were Boards 1-3: Alistair Walker, captain Roderick Clifford and Michael Christie against Shreyas Smith, Ajani Domville and Oshane Francis. On board 4 Akeem Brown of St Jago and Malik Curriah of Calabar High played to a draw.

St Jago previously won the competition in 1984, 1986, 1987, and 2012.

“The team stuck to the plan and was relentless in their pursuit for victory,” said St Jago coach Mikhail Solomon, who won best coach award in the competition.

Solomom believes the win is just the beginning of a dynasty he hopes to develop at St Jago.

“This victory is a gift to St Jago on their 270th anniversary,” he said.

The third place playoff between dethroned champions Glenmuir High and Corporate Area finalist Ardenne High, after four hours of battle, ended in a 2-2 draw.

Registering victory for Ardenne High was Alejandro Burke, while Glenmuir’s Samuel Haywood also won his match.

All other games were drawn requiring a play off to decide the third place team.

Horace Sinclair of Ardenne was up against Tahj Davis of Glenmuir. The heated four-game playoff also ended 2-2. The tension continued as two more matches were added. Davis managed to win the final two blitz games, resulting in Glenmuir High claiming the third spot.