MOST teenagers spend their spare time on computer games or outside on their bikes and skateboards.

But for 13-year-old Jake Holton, who lives with his parents Angela and David in Eynsham, chess has proved to be a successful hobby.

He has beaten 28 fellow contenders to be crowned Britain’s Under-14 Chess Champion, at a gruelling two-week tournament at the University of Warwick.

The Bartholemew School student was seen as an outsider as he was ranked 16 out of 29 to begin with, but he trounced the competition to win five matches out of seven and draw another.

He said: “I’m very happy to win.

“I wasn’t really expecting to, but it was great to get to the final.”

The chequered champ began playing chess at Eynsham Community Primary School when he was seven years old.

He said: “There was a chess club at the school and there were school tournaments that you could take part in.

“That’s where it really started.”

The young maths enthusiast won his category back in 2009 and has now elevated himself to the national league.

Mr Holton said of his son: “It sort of started with me playing chess with him a bit, but the primary school competition was his real driving force.”

The 52-year-old scientific consultant said that his son showed incredible concentration and perseverance to make it to the finals and win the league.

The father-of-two said: “It was incredibly gruelling.

“Over the course of two weeks he must have played at least 50 hours of chess, and that doesn’t take into account preparation before matches.”

Grandmasters, the highest ranked players in the world, assimilate thousands of combinations in chess and predict their opponents next move in order to win.

One of the most noteworthy matches was between the USSR’s Boris Spassky and the USA’s Bobby Fischer in 1972.