Champion chess players are keeping their fingers crossed as they gear up to compete at an international tournament in Slovenia.

Saravanan Sathyanadha, Ravi Haria and Tarun Malhotra, pupils at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, in Butterfly Lane, Elstree, were selected to enter the annual World Youth Chess Championships by the English Chess Federation.

A-level student Saravanan, 18, said: “We are really determined to win and will not let anything get in our way.

“We know we are capable of succeeding so we will just put our minds to it, and hopefully that will help us get to the top.”

The tournament in Slovenia will see the students compete against hundreds of people across the world during a two-week event, in the hopes of being crowned a winner for England.

The boys, who have taken part in the international contest before but have never won, are hopeful their luck will change this year.

Ravi, 13, who started playing chess when he was seven, said: “Now we know what to expect, we can divert our energy from being nervous to winning our game.”

The trio were part of a team of 12 players from the school, who won a tournament at Millfield Sports School, Somerset, last week.

But they say they are now focussing their efforts on practicing for the international games in November.

Tarun, 13, said: “We are really excited. I just hope we can win it this time, that would be such an honour.”