View source for Luke McShane

{{Short description|English chess grandmaster (born 1984)}}
{{About|the English chess player|the English footballer|Luke McShane (footballer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name = Luke McShane
| image = Luke McShane 2013.jpg
| caption = McShane at the 2013 European Chess Team Championship
| birthname = Luke James McShane
| country = England
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1984|1|7|df=y}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date = 
| death_place = 
| title = [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] (2000)
| rating = 
| peakrating = 2713 (July 2012)
| peakranking = No. 29 (November 2012)
| FideID = 404853
}}

'''Luke James McShane''' (born 7 January 1984) is an English [[chess]] player. A [[chess prodigy]], he was awarded the title of [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] by [[FIDE]] in 2000, at the age of 16. McShane has become one of England's leading players and a member of the national team. He also worked as a trader in London's financial sector, and has previously been described as the world's strongest amateur chess player.<ref>{{cite web|url =https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/aug/14/luke-mcshane-worlds-top-amateur|title =Luke McShane finds balance to cement his place as world's top amateur|first =Leonard|last =Barden|website =The Guardian|date =14 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url =https://www.ft.com/content/41ca41ec-fd47-11e8-ac00-57a2a826423e|title =Chess: can you do better than the speed expert Hikaru Nakamura?|first =Leonard|last =Barden|website =Financial Times|date =11 December 2018}}</ref><ref>[https://chess24.com/en/read/players/luke-mcshane Luke McShane player profile] chess24.com</ref>

== Early career ==
[[File:McShane,Luke 1992 Duisburg.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Luke McShane, 1992 at Duisburg]]
McShane won the World Under 10 Championship in [[Duisburg]] at the age of eight. Shortly afterwards he found a sponsor in the form of computer company [[Psion (computers)|Psion]] and played [[Garry Kasparov]] at a [[simultaneous exhibition]] in 1995. At sixteen he became the youngest ever Briton to achieve the title [[International Grandmaster|Grandmaster]], gaining the three results required ("[[Norm (chess)|norm]]s") in tournaments in Germany, [[Iceland]] and the [[Politiken Cup]] in [[Copenhagen]], Denmark. He held the record until [[David Howell (chess player)|David Howell]] broke it in January 2007. In January 2004 McShane was ranked second in the world among junior (under 21) players behind [[Teimour Radjabov]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fide.com/ratings/toparc.phtml?cod=59|title=Top 20 Juniors January 2004|publisher=FIDE|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011203449/http://fide.com/ratings/toparc.phtml?cod=59|archivedate=11 October 2007}}</ref>

== Grandmaster ==
Among McShane's more notable results are joint first in the 1998 Bunratty Masters in Ireland with [[John Nunn]], winning five of his six games, and joint winner with [[Stuart Conquest]] and [[Bogdan Lalić]] of the [[IONA Technologies|Iona Technologies]] International Masters in [[Kilkenny]]. McShane led the 2002 [[British Chess Championship|British Championship]] in [[Torquay]], and was in a good position in the final round before blundering and losing to the tournament's winner, [[Ramachandran Ramesh]]. McShane finished tied for fourth.

From around 2002, McShane has been facing stiffer opposition, including players from the world's top ten. He played for England in the [[35th Chess Olympiad|Chess Olympiad in Bled]], scoring 6½/11 points, and won the silver medal at the [[World Junior Chess Championship|World Junior Championship]] in [[Old Goa|Goa]]. In 2003, he finished fifth in the Hrokurinn tournament in [[Reykjavík]], finishing ahead of Britain's number one player [[Michael Adams (chess player)|Michael Adams]] and drawing games against [[Viktor Korchnoi]] and [[Alexei Shirov]]. Shortly afterwards, he beat Shirov in a Reykjavík blitz tournament. In the 2003 Sigeman & Co tournament in [[Malmö]], he finished third with a score of 5½/9, drawing his game with the tournament winner, [[Vasily Ivanchuk]]. Also in 2003, McShane finished 27th out of 207 with 8/13 in the [[European Individual Chess Championship|European Individual Championship]] in [[Silivri]] in Turkey, 1½ points behind the winner, [[Zurab Azmaiparashvili]]. Shortly afterwards, he tied for first with [[Alexei Dreev]] and [[Krishnan Sasikiran]] in the [[North Sea Cup (chess)|North Sea Cup]] played in [[Esbjerg]] in Denmark with 6½/9, finished tied for second in the Politiken Cup in [[Copenhagen]] with 8½/11 and won the Malmö Masters with 7½/9, a point and a half ahead of his nearest rival. In 2009/10, he tied for first through fifth place with [[Eduardas Rozentalis]], [[Pavel Ponkratov]], [[Radosław Wojtaszek]] and [[Igor Lysyj]] at the 39th Rilton Cup in [[Stockholm]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/39th-rilton-cup-2009-10|title=39th Rilton Cup 2009–10|last=Crowther|first=Mark|date=5 January 2010|publisher=Chess.co.uk|accessdate=7 January 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318190017/http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/39th-rilton-cup-2009-10|archivedate=18 March 2012}}</ref> In 2010, he won the third Remco Heite tournament in [[Wolvega]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theweekinchess.com/html/twic838.html#3|title=The Week in Chess 838: 3rd Remco Heite 2010|last=Crowther|first=Mark|date=29 November 2010|publisher=London Chess Center|accessdate=13 November 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130212062426/https://chess.co.uk/twic/twic838.html#3|archivedate=12 February 2013}}</ref>

McShane is a strong [[blitz chess]] player. He won the 136-player [[Kuppenheim]] tournament in 2003 ahead of [[Vladimir Epishin]] and former German blitz champion [[Robert Rabiega]], finishing with a score of 50½/53 points. In this tournament, he played his games over the Internet, while all other participants were in the playing hall in Germany. In 2003, he won the British Blitz Championship held at [[Uxbridge]] with a score of 14½/16 and the [[Greenland]] Open rapid tournament with 8½/9.

In 2009 and 2010, McShane participated in the [[London Chess Classic]]. He finished mid-table at the tournament's inaugural showing and took the best game prize for his win against [[Hikaru Nakamura]]. The 2010 tournament included [[Viswanathan Anand]] (reigning world chess champion), [[Magnus Carlsen]] (rated number one for most of 2010) and [[Vladimir Kramnik]] (former world champion). Under a scoring system of 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss, McShane finished joint second with Anand, behind Carlsen, whom McShane had beaten in their individual encounter, and ahead of Kramnik. Undefeated, his event performance rating was 2838 – higher than Carlsen's or Anand's. In the January 2011 rating list, he briefly topped [[Nigel Short]] to become the UK's second-highest-ranked player (after Michael Adams).

In January 2011, McShane came joint first with [[David Navara]] in the 'B group' of the [[Tata Steel Chess Tournament|Tata Steel tournament]], winning on tie break and qualifying, with Navara, for the 2012 'A group' but did not play,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7632|title=Wijk aan Zee: Tata Steel tournament breaks records|date=25 October 2011|publisher=ChessBase|accessdate=29 October 2011}}</ref> owing to work commitments.

McShane participated in the [[Tal Memorial]] in Moscow in June 2012. Seeded in last place, he beat [[Levon Aronian]], then the world ranked number two, in a game where he sacrificed the exchange for the initiative.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1669470 |title=Levon Aronian vs Luke McShane (2012) |publisher=Chessgames.com |accessdate=8 December 2013}}</ref> He then followed up with wins against [[Alexander Morozevich]] and Vladimir Kramnik, his combative performances rewarding voters of the online poll responsible for securing his wildcard place, ahead of Alexei Shirov and [[Shakhriyar Mamedyarov]]. However, he finished last but one (tied eighth), after losing to Magnus Carlsen, [[Fabiano Caruana]], [[Teimour Radjabov]] and [[Alexander Grischuk]].

McShane was particularly active in the USA during 2015. In June, he won the (Arlington) DC International with 7/9. The following month, he finished the [[World Open chess tournament|World Open]] on 6½/9, a half-point behind the leading group. In October, he returned for the Las Vegas [[Millionaire Chess]] event, and narrowly failed to qualify for the knockout phase, but completed the Open event with 7/9, leaving him tied equal first with [[Wesley So]], Fabiano Caruana and [[Evgeniy Najer]].

He was booked to give a simultaneous display at the 2015 London Chess Classic, but also entered two of the Festival events. The first was the inaugural British Knockout Championship, where he was eliminated by [[Nick Pert]] in the semi-final. At the Super Rapidplay Open, in a field that included 33 grandmasters, he was the winner with 9½/10, a full point clear of second place.

In [[Katowice]] 2017, he took the silver medal at the European Blitz Championship, with a score of 17½/22, a half-point behind [[Sergei Zhigalko]]. McShane's finish placed him ahead of the highly rated [[Jan-Krzysztof Duda]] and [[David Navara]], with the total number of participants being in excess of one thousand.<ref>[https://en.chessbase.com/post/european-rapid-blitz-championship-2017-katowice European Blitz Championship 2017] Chessbase News</ref>

McShane participated in the 2019 [[World Team Chess Championship|World Team Championship]], held in [[Astana]], as a member of the English team. England took the silver medal and he also won the individual gold on board two.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/14/chess-england-win-first-medal-for-22-years|title=Chess: England win first major medal in 22 years with silver at world teams|last=Barden|first=Leonard|date=14 March 2019|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 April 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

== Education and part-time status ==
McShane attended [[Westminster Under School]] and then [[City of London School]], before entering [[Oxford University]] in 2003, where he read [[philosophy]] and [[mathematics]] at [[University College, Oxford|University College]]. In the summer of 2006 he interned at [[Goldman Sachs]] in FICC. After graduating in the summer of 2007, he worked there as a trader. A brief increase in his chess activity occurred when he subsequently left his job, but he was forced to decline his invitation to the 2011 British Championship when he later returned to full-time employment.<ref>''[[Chess Magazine]]'' – Vol. 76, August 2011, p. 5</ref> He continues to play in a reduced capacity and has been referred to as the world's strongest amateur.

== Columnist ==
McShane has been the chess columnist of ''The Spectator'' since October 2019.<ref>[http://britishchessnews.com/2019/10/16/luke-mcshane-is-chess-columnist-for-the-spectator/ Luke McShane article] ''British Chess News'', October 16, 2019</ref>

==References==
<references />

==External links==
* {{FIDE}}
* {{365Chess.com player|Luke_McShane}}
* {{OlimpBase player|wwgqauad}}
* {{Chessgames.com player|14287|Luke McShane}}
* {{Chess.com player|luke-mcshane|member=LMcShane}}
* [http://www.rochadekuppenheim.de/meko/meko2/mcshane.htm A short interview with McShane about his win at Kuppenheim, 2003]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050301165038/http://www.tsf.org.tr/english/goepresss/GM_McShane.htm An interview conducted by Geoffrey D Borg at the 2003 European Individual Championship] (retrieved from the [[Internet Archive|Internet archive]])

{{English GMs}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McShane, Luke}}
[[Category:1984 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Chess Grandmasters]]
[[Category:English chess players]]
[[Category:World Youth Chess Champions]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Chess players from London]]
[[Category:Chess Olympiad competitors]]
[[Category:Goldman Sachs people]]