Is online gaming ruining chess? Players say it’s not quite as black and white as that

A young boy wearing his sun hat takes part in ChessFest, the UK’s largest one-day chess event, at Trafalgar Square in central London - (PA Wire)

To his competitors, Joseph Francis was considered something of a chess prodigy. He can’t count how many games he’s played, but he knows he’s won the vast majority of them.

He said: “I ended up playing a huge amount of chess and because I could play chess quite well, it’s sort of ridiculous really, but I was considered a prodigy.”