Ever see a U.S. cabinet secretary at a chess tournament?

From Scotsman.com, the story of new U.K. Home Secretary Charles Clarke's visit to the Hastings International Chess Conference:

Charles Clarke broke off from his first official engagements as Home Secretary today – to visit a chess tournament.

Mr Clarke, who took over from David Blunkett three weeks ago, spent the morning meeting representatives from a crime reduction partnership at Hastings police station in East Sussex.

But before heading for Dover, in Kent, where he was due to visit immigration facilities this afternoon, the keen chess fan made an unofficial stop at the event.

I particularly liked this political "CYA" from the Home Office's spokesman:

"It's not organised by the Home Office because we obviously don't have responsibility for chess".