The Farsons Chess Preliminaries, currently underway at the Chess Premises in Sliema, have now reached the sixth and penultimate stage. There are six places at stake and the contenders for a place in the Championship

Candidates, due in July, are Jessica Aguilar, Matthew Saliba, Noel Grima, Ayman Ibrahim, George Caruana, Alex Farrugia, Clarence Psaila and Michael Cuschieri. A.Muscat Baron and S.Attard are hot on their heels and this round might see them move further up the table for the final clash of round seven.

The surprise of the competition is outsider J.Aguilar who is also carrying the female flag in this competition. Aguilar, who is joint first, has dropped only two half points, one of which was practically a give-away draw in an end-game with one piece up. In round three Aguilar managed to upset M.Saliba who won the competition in 2005.

N. Grima is also having a good tournament winning four games against M.Grech, D. Saliba, C. Psaila and S. Attard. His only loss came at the hands of M. Saliba in round two.

The pairings for round six are the following: N. Grima vs J. Aguilar, G. Caruana vs M. Saliba, A. Ibrahim vs M. Cuschieri, A. Farrugia vs A. Muscat Baron, C. Psaila vs S. Attard, A. Xuereb vs D. Gauci, K. Crockford vs D. Saliba, J.J. Borg vs M. Grech, R. Saliba bye.

Classification

1-3 J. Aguilar, M. Saliba, N. Grima 4 pts; 4-5 A. Ibrahim, G. Caruana 3½ pts; 6-8 C. Psaila, A. Farrugia, M. Cuschieri 3 pts; 9-10 A. Muscat Baron, S. Attard 2½ pts; 11-14 K. Crockford, D. Saliba, A. Xuereb, D. Gauci 2 pts; 15-16 M. Grech, R. Saliba 1½ pts,17 J.J. Borg 1 pt.