A Croydon chess star's claim her father raped her was part of a "premeditated strategy", a court was told.

In an interview played to Guildford Crown Court, Ian Gilbert told police Jessie Gilbert may have planned her allegations as though "playing chess" against him.

Mr Gilbert, 48, denies five counts of raping her between 1995 and 2000.

Jessie, 19, a former pupil of Croydon High School and a member of Coulsdon Chess Club, fell to her death from a hotel window in the Czech Republic in July.

Mr Gilbert, a Royal Bank of Scotland director, suggested his daughter may have deliberately fed false information about the alleged abuse to family and friends before she contacted police.

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard Jessie told police the first rape had taken place when she was eight, at her home in Woldingham, Surrey.

On his third day of giving evidence Mr Gilbert said chess had been "a terrible disruption" in their family life.

"Chess had been going on in her life from the age of eight and I know it was something which had been a point of friction in our family. Teenage girls have very strong feelings about things," he said.

The court heard before Mr Gilbert wrote Jessie a letter in which he called her his "special girl".

"She was, she is my special girl," he told the court. "I thought she was superb, a fantastic person."

Jessie had been working towards becoming a women's international chess master and was due to study medicine at Oxford University. The trial continues.