A BUDE teenager was left pinching himself in amazement after taking on a chess grandmaster at his own game at a famous London venue.

Route 39 Academy pupil Theodore Slade joined the great and the good of the chess world in descending on Olympia recently, as the sixth London Chess Classic got underway.

First up was the Super Rapidplay Open, which gave members of the public like Theodore the chance to chance to take on one of 30 grandmasters.

The 14-year-old went up against American Hikaru Nakamura, currently ranked number nine in the world, and unsurprisingly was not able to get one over him — but the Bude teenager admitted he had still loved every second of the experience.

"I felt like it was a lot easier than I expected and I felt I was holding my own for most of the game — obviously it got harder as time went on, but it was a great experience anyway."

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week's edition of the Post.