A BOY aged eight yesterday became the youngest person to beat a Grand Master at chess.

David Howell, of Seaford, East Sussex, beat Grand Master John Nunn in a five-minute game at the Mind Sports Olympiad at Olympia, London.

Sidonie Henbest, spokeswoman for the tournament, said: "It's certainly quite unprecedented. The previous record holder was two years older than David is now."

But David, the British under-nine and under-10 chess champion, was said to be "as cool as a cucumber" about his victory. "He gave it 10 seconds' thought and went to the next game," Ms Henbest said. "He's well on the way to becoming a Grand Master himself."

The competition was a Swiss tournament, a "blitz" game in which players have only five minutes throughout the match to work out all their moves.

This puts the players under extra pressure because they have less time to consider their tactics.

David will go to Greece next month to play in the European Championship, followed by Spain for the World Championship.

In July he came seventh out of 264 players of all ages in the World Open at Philadelphia.