James Grant Chester (born 23 January 1989) is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Starting at Manchester United, he later went on to play for the likes of Hull City, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Derby County. He also won 35 caps for the Wales national football team.

Chester began his career with Manchester United but made only one appearance for the club. He had spells on loan at Peterborough United, Plymouth Argyle and Carlisle United before joining Hull City in January 2011 on a permanent contract. He spent three and a half years there before signing for West Bromwich Albion in 2015. After only one year with West Brom, Chester joined Championship club Aston Villa in the summer of 2016. Chester helped Villa gain promotion to the Premier League after winning the 2019 EFL Championship play-off final. He joined Stoke City on loan in January 2020 before making it permanent in August 2020. He would leave Stoke in July 2022 and joined League One Derby County, however left in 2023 after an injury hit spell. In September 2023, he signed a deal with League Two Barrow. At the start of the 2024–25 season, Chester signed for League Two Salford City, but retired in February 2025 after difficulties with injuries.

He made his international debut for the Wales in June 2014. Chester played at UEFA Euro 2016 where Wales progressed to the semi-final of a major international tournament for the first time in the team's history.

Chester was born in Warrington, and attended Birchwood Community High School. He began his career with his local club, Winwick Athletic. At the age of eight, he joined the Manchester United Academy, and signed a trainee contract at the age of 16 in July 2005. At the end of the season, he played in the teams for both the FA Youth Cup and Manchester Senior Cup finals. However, the teams lost both finals, losing to Liverpool on penalties in the former and to Manchester City in the latter.

In July 2007, Chester signed his first professional contract with United. After being named as a substitute for the first team's 1–0 win over Bolton Wanderers on 17 January 2009, Chester was again selected as a substitute for the League Cup semi-final second leg against Derby County. With United 3–0 up at the time, Chester came on as a 67th-minute substitute for Gary Neville. Although Derby pulled two goals back, United ended up winning the match 4–2, meaning that they won the tie 4–3 on aggregate and qualified for the 2009 League Cup final.

On 2 February 2009, Chester joined League One club Peterborough United – managed by Alex Ferguson's son, Darren – on a one-month loan. He made five appearances for the Posh before returning to Manchester United on 2 March. Towards the end of the season, along with Tom Cleverley and Corry Evans, Chester was nominated by reserve team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær for the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year award.

On 18 September 2009, Chester joined Championship club Plymouth Argyle on a three-month loan along with his Manchester United teammate David Gray. However, in his third appearance for the Pilgrims, Chester suffered cartilage damage that would rule him out of action for 10–12 weeks, beyond the scheduled end of his loan spell. He therefore returned to Manchester United on 13 October 2009.

On 3 August 2010, Chester joined League One club Carlisle United on loan until 3 January 2011, after impressing in a trial match against Hibernian on 1 August. He made his competitive debut on 7 August, starting at centre-back in Carlisle's 2–0 home win over Brentford on the opening day of the league season. Over the course of his loan spell, Chester scored four goals for Carlisle in 23 appearances in all competitions, including the winning goal in Carlisle's 3–2 FA Cup second round win over Tamworth.