We report on the performance of a recently introduced commercial chessboard
method using 12 antisera, in comparison with that of the 55-antiserum pane
l used in determining the serogroups and types (SGTs) of Streptococcus pneu
moniae, both of which were carried out by a coagglutination technique. Of a
total of 150 strains of S. pneumoniae studied, 135 (90%) belonged to the S
GTs represented in the 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine; of these, 130 (96.3%
) were identified as the same SGTs by both typing methods. The remaining fi
ve strains showed cross-reactivity with more than two pools by the chessboa
rd method, but could be assigned to a single SGT by the Quellung test. The
96.3% concordance of the chessboard method suggests it can be adopted for d
etermination of the SGTs of S. pneumoniae in laboratories.