An eight-year-old Ukrainian boy stunned chess players in County Durham after he won a competition just four days after arriving in the UK.
Maksym Kryshtafor won the minor tournament of the Durham Chess Congress and bagged the £400 prize - despite starting as 55th seed out of 58 players by rating. Until recently, Maksym lived in Odesa, western Ukraine, but he and his mum Iryna had fled to Romania shortly after the war broke out in February.
And just days before the annual competition was held, they were brought to the UK by North Yorkshire chess enthusiast Paul Townsend as part of the UK Homes for Ukraine scheme. They are now living with Paul and his family near Harrogate and Maksym has been enrolled in a local primary school.
