Members of a chess club have paid tribute to "a great friend" who died after being hit by a car.

Erich Roland Spielman, 92, from Loughton, was walking to Loughton Chess Club on January 28 when he was struck by a car driven by another 92-year-old.

Despite reports he was "conscious and breathing" at the scene, Mr Spielman later died at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone.

Members of Loughton Chess Club in Eleven Acre Rise, described the father as "very active and always asking questions".

Mr Spielman, the nephew of the famous chess player Rudolf Spielmann, was born in Austria in 1923.

He fled in 1939 after his father was taken by the Gestapo.

Mr Spielman worked as a lumberjack in Canada before settling in Yugoslavia and becoming an engineer.

Upon retiring, he moved to Loughton and joined the the chess club, winning the club's championship several times. 

Mr Spielman would spend hours in Loughton Library researching various projects, with a particular interest in mathematics.

He won a poetry competition with a piece which lampooned Microsoft and invented an ankle exerciser to prevent deep vein thrombosis during long haul flights.

A spokesman for the Loughton Chess Club said: "It is with great sadness that we have lost a great friend and a life president.

"In the last decade or so he stopped playing match games, but still played friendlies against other members. 

"He developed the habit of saying 'oh dear, the position looks hopeless' just before making the winning move, while whistling 'maybe it's because I'm a Londoner'.

"His mind was very active and was always asking questions, most of which we did not know the answers to, causing us in turn to do research to find them.

"He was the president of the Loughton Chess Club for the last few years and we will miss him."