A budding chess star aged 11 has played his way to the top of a London competition.

Jake Liang won the London U12s Junior Chess Championship after nine rounds of chess played in a nerve-racking three days.

The youngster started playing chess for fun with his father four years ago and, when he started at Hampton School in September, joined the chess club and started playing in tournaments.

He said: “Before I begin I can get very anxious because I have no idea how the game is going to go and it’s easy to lose the game very quickly if you don’t get a good start.

“I take a drink of water to calm down and try to concentrate. Once the game has started, though, I feel much better because it is a lot of fun.”