HEREFORDSHIRE’S prospective Conservative candidate has met two former world chess champions and helped raise almost £2,000 for a cancer charity.

Jesse Norman welcomed Garry Kasparov to the Hay Festival before forming part of a 20-strong team that took on Boris Spassky – a world champion in the 1970s – in a match which raised £1,960 for Macmillan Cancer Relief. Jesse’s son, Sam, joined his dad in the team but both ended up on the losing side.

Meanwhile, Garry Kasparov, world champion between 1985 and 2000, was speaking at the Literary Festival as part of his current role as an opposition politician in his Russian homeland.

“Garry has long been famous among chess players for his tactical brilliance at the board,” said Mr Norman. “But even more remarkable has been his moral courage as a politician to stand up and say what he believes in.”