Royal seal of approval: England’s top junior Shreyas Royal joins Battersea

Shreyas Royal, one of the most exciting prospects in English chess, has joined Battersea.

The eight-year-old prodigy, who is the world’s youngest Candidate Master, will play for the club in the London Chess League and Central London League next season.

Shreyas, who attends the Pointer School in Blackheath, is England’s top junior and has represented his country at several international events.

He hit the headlines in April after it emerged a shocking decision by the Home Office had left his father Jitendra Singh facing a visa battle and the family were threatened with deportation.

Mr Singh has received the backing of the English Chess Federation and, of course, Battersea will do anything it can to help.

Shreyas joins fellow England junior Denis Dupuis, Boris and Viktor Stoyanov and Koby Kalavannan in an impressive cohort of young talent at the club.