Luke McShane

Luke McShane (born 7 January 1984) is an English chess Grandmaster.

Luke McShane
Luke McShane (2013)
Full name	Luke James McShane
Country	England
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2680 (December 2024) 2706 (#39 in the May 2012 FIDE world rankings)
Peak rating	2706 (May 2012)

Luke McShane: rated 2664 on the FIDE list, January 2011.

Luke McShane, 1992 at Duisburg

A former World Youth Champion, he is one of England's leading players and a member of the English Chess Olympiad team. He has also been a trader in London's financial sector.

Early career

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. At sixteen he became the then youngest ever British grandmaster.

In January 2004 McShane was ranked second in the world among junior (under-21) players behind Teimour Radjabov.

Grandmaster

From around 2002, McShane has been facing stiffer opposition, including players from the world's top ten. He played for England in the 2002 Chess Olympiad in Bled, scoring 6½/11, and won the silver medal at the World Junior Championship in Goa.

In 2009/10 he tied for first through fifth place at the 39th Rilton Cup in Stockholm.

In December 2010 McShane participated in the 8-player London Chess Classic Tournament, which included Viswanathan Anand (reigning World Chess Champion), Magnus Carlsen (rated #1 for most of 2010), Vladimir Kramnik (former World Champion) and Hikaru Nakamura (US 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 game. Undefeated, his event performance rating was 2838 – higher than Carlsen's or Anand's. In the January 2011 rating list, he overtook 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 tournament, winning on tie break.