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The chess champion whose title was falsely “stolen” by Rachel Reeves has been revealed. An academic who has represented England and Britain at chess said claims the Chancellor was Under-14 girls’ champion were false, identifying the true winner.

Ms Reeves told The Guardian in July 2023: “I am – I was – a geek. I played chess. I was the British girls under-14 champion.” But Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School, posted on X that Ms Reeves’ claim to the title was “false” and she had come 26th out of 34.

Professor Edmans said the claim had been repeated widely as part of an “appealing story” that Ms Reeves would be a “great” Chancellor because chess in part enables people to evaluate risks, maintain a long-term strategy and think several moves ahead.

He added: “If chess really shaped her approach, it’s hard to see it on the board.”

In response to an accusation from a fellow X-user that he was mistaken, Professor Edmans identified Emily Howard as British under-14 girls’ champion in 1993, pointing to a listing on the BritBase chess archive.

He told Sky News that Ms Reeves had instead shared a different title – the title of British Women’s Chess Association Girls’ Championships in February 1993 with three others.

Ms Howard went on to become a composer and is Professor in Composition and Head of Artistic Research at Royal Northern College of Music.

According to a biography listed on the college’s website, Ms Howard’s music has been performed at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival and Manchester International Festival.

Reports of Ms Reeves’ claim to being Under-14 girls’ champion have been dismissed by a Treasury source, who told Sky News: “This story is absolute nonsense.”

It comes after questions were raised over the Chancellor’s CV. Ms Reeves told Stylist magazine in 2021 that she spent 10 years as an economist at the Bank of England when her LinkedIn profile said she was at the BoE from September 2000 to December 2006.

In 2023, Ms Reeves admitted she “should have done better” after it emerged parts of her book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, had been lifted from elsewhere.

After the Budget last month, she was accused of telling porkies about the state of Britain’s public finances, which she denied.

She escaped an ethics probe called for by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and brushed off a call for her to resign from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mrs Badenoch said on Wednesday: “We now know the black hole was fake, (Ms Reeves’s) book was fake, her CV was fake, even her chess claims are made up. She doesn’t belong in the Treasury. She belongs in la la land.”