An Elstree schoolboy has become the number one ranked chess player in the country in his age group.

Akash Jain, a student at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys school in Butterfly Lane, Elstree, claimed the number one spot after victories in a series of challenging games at a national tournament held in Wales.

Akash, 12, notched up six consecutive wins and a draw in the competition, held at the University of Swansea, to propel him to the number one ranking in the UK at U12 level.

He said: "It wasn't a pushover, they were all difficult games. It feels good to be the number one in my age group."

Supported by a family of chess players - his younger sister is representing Britain at the European Championships in Montenegro - Akash's ambition is to become a chess grandmaster. This is the highest title a chess player can attain and there are only 900 grandmasters worldwide.

In addition to his number one ranking, Akash also recently became the British U18 lightning' champion at speed chess.

He is part of a highly successful group of players to emerge from the school in recent years.

Sixth former Vedantha Kumar was part of the England team which recently won an international tournament in Krakow, Poland, beating off strong competition from teams from Russia, Norway, Germany and Estonia among others.

Saravanan Sathyanandha, a year eight pupil, has also represented England in a European Union U12 competition in Austria.

He said: "It was fun and exciting meeting other players from different countries."

The Elstree independent school has previously sent teams to the National Schools Chess Championship in Somerset where the U12 and U14 teams won their age groups and the U16s came runners-up.

A school spokesman said: "The competition was fierce and the pressure intense, but the boys played exceptionally well and this performance shows the strength in depth that the school has in chess."