This time England didn't even make the quarters!

Despite my workload, I've been keeping up with events in the chess world. The 2nd World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk has provided me with a good deal of entertainment. As an England fan it was sad to see Michael Adams go out in the fourth round, but in being beaten by Magnus Carlsen it made my task easy as to who to support for the rest of the event!

As an avid chessbase website follower, it has been possible to follow the progress of prodigies right from the very beginning of their international playing careers. I was aware of Magnus from the age of ten and when he was first splashed all over the media after Wijk aan Zee 2004, I was not surprised.

Since then, I have simply been astounded by not only his progress, but also the way he plays the game. Unlike most prodigies of the computer era, he has the capacity to play excellent positional chess as well as being a tactical whizz.

I have also played again myself in the last week, when I turned out for my home town in the annual York-Lancaster Roses Match. I have not played in the event for three years, which has been a great disappointment because it is without doubt my favourite match of the year. The County Roses Match is indeed special, but it somehow feels to me that playing in a match where one can only be a member of two chess clubs in the whole world is even more so.

Despite playing like a drain in a mainline Spanish, I nonetheless succeeded in drawing after my opponent generously agreed to split the point in a position where he was slightly better and could torture me with good knight versus bad bishop. This was a bit of a disappointment because I normally make a big effort to get fire up for the match, which has led to some pleasing performances in the past. However, as a relative veteran of nine fixtures, I was pleased to be one of the few players to maintain a healthy unbeaten record of + 5 = 4.

However, what my own game lacked in excitement and cutting edge, the match more than made up for. York went into an early 4-1 lead in the nine board fixture, only to be pegged back to 4-3. Richard Larkin then drew after a heroic defensive effort to guarantee a share of the spoils. This though was nothing compared to the extreme drama and tension surrounding the board one encounter.

Yorks' Jos Woolley had outplayed his opponent Bob Newton all game long, but his clock handling had left a lot to be desired. With a couple of minutes versus half an hour Jos steadfastly kept control in an advantageous position with mutually exposed kings. He eventually managed to swap off to a position where he had rook and g-pawn against Bishop h and g pawns, which from the match perspective suited us fine.

However, with only seconds left on the clock it looked certain that he would be flagged and no-one had much of a clue what to do if Jos had tried to claim a draw. It was at this point that Bob Newton wrote himself into the folklore of this great fixture forever by agreeing to a draw, 'in the spirit of the match'. This gave York an extremely narrow 5-4 win, but the real winners that day were chess and the indomitable spirit of friendly rivals.

Bob Newton, Caissa and the chess-playing fraternity of York salute you!