‘Yesss! Felix! You won!’ Jake rushes from nowhere and nearly knocks me off my feet. ‘You won, Felix!’ he shouts in my face. ‘You won! Unlucky beardy,’ he says, turning to my opponent.

‘I won,’ I whisper to myself. ‘I won!’

I clench my fist, see Rebecca beaming at me as she runs across the hall.

‘I won,’ I say, still not believing it.

‘You did,’ she says, hugging me. ‘You did! See, I told you you could do it.’ I try to tell her I can’t believe it, but my body is shaking so much that no words come out.

‘Congratulations, Felix.’

I spin around and Mr Keytes is smiling so much he’s almost laughing.

‘Well done, Felix.’ I think that was Chris.

‘Well done, Felix.’ I think that was Tom.

So many people talking, so many people patting me on the back, I’m beginning to feel dizzy.

‘Well done, Felix.’ I don’t know who that was.

‘Well done, matey, that was—’

I spin around.

‘Mum, Dad, what are you doing here?’

‘As if we were going to miss this,’ says Dad, putting his arm around my shoulder.

I wait for Mum to say something, but she’s so excited that all she does is kiss me!

I wipe it away, but I’m so happy she’s here.

‘You were amazing,’ she says eventually. I wait for her to add something like ‘for once’ or ‘at last’, but she just repeats, ‘Amazing. Amazing!’ and then kisses me again.

‘When did you get here?’ I ask. ‘I never saw you come in.’

‘You were too busy playing chess,’ says Dad. ‘I’ve never seen you so still.’ He puts his hands on my shoulders like he’s going to hug me, but then he just ruffles my hair and says, ‘Well done, mate. Well done.’

‘Did you want to call Granddad?’ asks Mum, holding out her phone. ‘It’ll be late by the time you’re home.’

I think for a moment. I want to tell Granddad, but he hates the phone and I really want to see the smile on his face when he hears I won. I go to tell Mum this but Mr Keytes interrupts me, saying, ‘Felix, I’m sorry, but we have to move on. This is Mr Trent, the head of the UK Chess Association.’

‘Very impressive play, young man,’ says Mr Trent.

I shake his hand, then shake another person’s hand, then another. Mr Trent hands me the trophy and says something, but my head is buzzing with excitement and I can’t hear his words. I think I say thanks, but I can’t even hear myself. Then Mr Keytes turns me around and I face a wall of people taking pictures with their cameras and phones.

‘Smile, Felix.’

‘Hold up the trophy, Felix.’

‘This way, Felix.’

‘Kiss the trophy, Felix.’

‘Big smile.’