Wigan man becomes a British chess champion

Paul Keevil from Hindley started playing chess at the age of just three and was taught by his dad when living in Cardiff.

He went on to play for Cardiff and Wales and taught chess in schools and counts a certain Gary Kasparov as one of his opponents.

In 2005 he moved to Wigan but was forced to stop playing face-to-face when Covid happened.

He turned to play Correspondence Chess online and, in 2022, was awarded the title of International Master by the games governing body.

Paul was invited to play in the British Championship, where 13 of his 15 opponents were rated higher than he was.

He played 14 games and scored eight points, beating two International Grand Masters to the title.

In recent years the game of chess has had a bit of a mini explosion thanks mainly to the Netflix series "The Queens Gambit" featuring Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon.