YORK chess aces have helped Yorkshire win the Open County Championship for a third successive year with an 11-5 victory over Middlesex.

The White Rose side, a third of whom came from York, the 2016 champions of the Yorkshire Woodhouse Cup, became the first county to achieve such a hat-trick since Middlesex in 1985-87.

Captain Mark Birkin was unavailable but he put together a very strong line-up with an average grade of 209, Rupert Jones acting as captain for the day.

Matthew Webb got the scoring going with a lethal king-side attack, winning inside 30 moves.

Alan Walton’s game sprang into life with a complicated tactical sequence and he found a crucial nuance to open up all the lines to the stranded king.

Jim Burnett found an amazing winning move to put Yorkshire firmly in the driving seat, and two draws followed courtesy of York's Paul Townsend and Iain Gourlay.

Matthias Gantner then scored Yorkshire’s fourth victory on the White side of a Sveshnikov, before Middlesex bagged their first win to cut the gap to 5.5-2.5 at half-time.

Jonathan Nelson’s game was a typical opposite-side castling bloodbath, Nelson’s attack always coming quicker with tactics working in his favour as his opponent’s king was forced out into the open.

David Adams, from York, then won a see-saw battle with Middlesex's Dimitar Mogilarov and fellow Yorkie Jean-Luc Weller’s draw left Yorkshire on the edge of victory with an 8-3 lead.

Richard Palliser - an International Chess Master from ace who has has won all four of his games for the White Rose this season - nursed a pawn advantage to ultimately confirm Yorkshire’s victory in the match.

Andy Drabble showed excellent technique to win a same-coloured bishop ending a pawn up, before Middlesex bagged consolation points in the last three games. Gavyn Cooper, who bagged a draw, and Simon Ansell were other York aces involved.

*THE national Chess in Schools & Communities charity, which "seeks to improve children's educational outcomes and foster their social development by introducing them to chess", have begun teaching the game at Tang Hall Primary School, one of 300 state schools in which they work. Any other interested schools can phone Dan Staples on 07766 330389 or email dan@chessinschools.co.uk.