The Harvard chess team tied for second place along with six other teams in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship held in St. Louis, Missouri December 26 to December 30.

The Harvard team returned to Cambridge with the fifth place trophy after a tie-breaker separated the six teams deadlocked in second place behind the first place finisher, University of Penn-sylvania.

The tournament consisted of eight rounds played according to the Swiss pairing system. The Crimson started off poorly, with a draw and a loss to weaker teams, but finished by gaining 31/2 out of four possible points. Paul Clarke '78 said. "We were pleased to tie for second after our early bad play."

Freshman Gerome Bono played the first table for Harvard and won six of his eight matches. Hugh Tobin, a student at the Law School, played the second table and ended the tournament 4 1/2-3 1/2. At the third table, Clarke finished 7-1. Mitch Tobin played the fourth table for a 51/2-2 1/2 margin.

Sixty-one schools competed in the five-day tournament open to all university chess teams from North America or South America. Penn won the tournament with a 71/2-1/2 score. The final order of the six teams tied for second place with 6-2 was decided by the overall scores of their opponents. The final order was University of Toronto, University of Texas, Columbia, Harvard, Louisville and Princeton.

Two years ago the Harvard team tied with the University of Nebraska for first place. Last year the Crimson did not field a team.