CHESS grandmaster Nigel Short proved he still had all the right moves when he went back to his old school - and took on 23 pupils simultaneously in a match.

The Bolton School old boy was aiming to inspire the next generation of chess players, so he challenged pupils from the junior and senior school, age from eight to 18.

Three junior boys, six junior girls, ten senior boys and four senior girls took their seats in the Arts Centre main hall to play against Mr Short. After the first hour, all pupils were still playing.

But shortly after that, the first few began to fall. After 90 minutes the chess whizz had halved his pool of opponents.

Ultimately the grandmaster’s wealth of experience proved too much for the next generation, and after two and a half hours, the last two players – Year Six pupil Vibhav Sugumar and Year 10 pupil Sharon Daniel, a talented chess player – were defeated.

Mr Short who became the then youngest grandmaster in the world at the age of 19 in 1984, said: “The people who seem to play effortlessly, it’s not effortless; it only looks effortless because people have practised a huge amount.

“I am a big believer in improvement. We all have the capability of improving within us, and even when you’re at an extremely advanced stage like myself there’s room for improvement. Last month, I defeated the world number two, Fabiano Caruana, in Gibraltar. You also have to work. I think learning, in whatever field you end up in life, is something that just goes on: it doesn’t stop. It should be something that you work on continually.”

Mr Short, 51, who was presented with colours for Chess by headmaster Philip Britton, was just 14 when he became the youngest International Master in chess history and was famous for the World Champion title match against Gary Kasparov in London, 1993.

Sharon said: “Before the game I didn’t expect to win but rather I was trying to make sure that I played to the best of my potential. Nigel Short is one of my inspirations as I recently watched him play in the World team Olympiad at Baku, Azerbaijan. I learnt a lot from watching him play and I am hoping to play for the women’s team at the same competition.

“I was honoured to be playing a grandmaster; it’s not every day that you get to play one of the world’s best players and to be the last player standing showed that I am able to compete at a higher level. This is a wonderful experience that I will never forget.”

Year 12 pupil Luke Cavanaugh added: “Having had the fantastic opportunity to play Nigel while I was in primary school, I had a score to settle this time round. Facing a grandmaster, particularly one widely accepted to be one of the best players Britain has ever produced, was never going to be easy, but I felt more confident this time round as I now have a lot more experience and maturity. Certainly, I was more tactically aware this time, and had some attacks of my own rather than simply defending against what he did, but in the end it was inevitable that I would lose.”