Luke McShane facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Luke McShane |
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McShane at the 2013 European Chess Team Championship
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| Full name | Luke James McShane |
| Country | England |
| Born | 7 January 1984 London, England |
| Title | Grandmaster (2000) |
| FIDE rating | 2680 (June 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2713 (July 2012) |
| Peak ranking | No. 29 (November 2012) |
Luke James McShane (born 7 January 1984) is a famous English chess player. He was an amazing chess player from a young age, often called a "chess prodigy." He earned the special title of Grandmaster from FIDE in 2000, when he was just 16 years old. Luke McShane has become one of England's top chess players and is a member of the national team. He also used to work as a trader in London's financial world. Because of this, he has sometimes been called the strongest amateur chess player in the world.
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Early Chess Adventures
Luke McShane started his chess journey very early. He won the World Under 10 Championship in Duisburg when he was only eight years old. Soon after, a computer company called Psion became his sponsor. This allowed him to play against the legendary Garry Kasparov in a special event in 1995.
When he was sixteen, Luke became the youngest British player ever to achieve the Grandmaster title. To get this title, players need to achieve certain high scores, called "norms," in three different tournaments. Luke got his norms in tournaments held in Germany, Iceland, and Copenhagen, Denmark. He held this record until David Howell broke it in 2007. By January 2004, Luke McShane was ranked second in the world among junior players (those under 21). Only Teimour Radjabov was ranked higher than him at that time.
Becoming a Grandmaster Star
Luke McShane has had many impressive results in his chess career. In 1998, he tied for first place at the Bunratty Masters in Ireland. He won five out of his six games there. He also tied for first at the Iona Technologies International Masters in Kilkenny. In 2002, he led the British Championship in Torquay. He was in a great position to win in the final round but made a mistake and lost. He ended up tied for fourth place.
Since about 2002, Luke has played against some of the world's very best chess players. He represented England at the Chess Olympiad in Bled. He scored 6½ points out of 11 games there. He also won a silver medal at the World Junior Championship in Goa. In 2003, he finished fifth in a tournament in Reykjavík, even beating Britain's top player, Michael Adams. He also drew games against famous players like Viktor Korchnoi and Alexei Shirov. Later, he even beat Shirov in a fast-paced game called a blitz tournament.
In 2003, Luke continued to do well in many tournaments. He tied for first place with Alexei Dreev and Krishnan Sasikiran in the North Sea Cup in Denmark. He also tied for second place in the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen. He won the Malmö Masters by a large margin, finishing a point and a half ahead of the next best player. In 2010, he won the Remco Heite tournament in Wolvega.
Excelling at Blitz Chess
Luke McShane is especially good at blitz chess. This is a very fast type of chess where players have only a short amount of time for all their moves. In 2003, he won a big blitz tournament in Kuppenheim, Germany. He scored an incredible 50½ points out of 53 games! What's even more amazing is that he played his games online from a different location, while everyone else was in the playing hall. In the same year, he won the British Blitz Championship and the Greenland Open rapid tournament.
London Chess Classic Success
Luke McShane took part in the London Chess Classic in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, he won the "best game" prize for his win against Hikaru Nakamura. The 2010 tournament was very strong, featuring players like Viswanathan Anand (the world champion), Magnus Carlsen (the world's top-ranked player), and Vladimir Kramnik (a former world champion).
In this tournament, a win gave 3 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss 0 points. Luke McShane finished tied for second place with Anand, just behind Carlsen. Luke even beat Carlsen in their individual game! He was undefeated in the tournament, and his performance rating was very high, even better than Carlsen's or Anand's. In January 2011, he briefly became the second-highest ranked player in the UK, after Michael Adams.
Recent Achievements
In 2011, Luke McShane tied for first place in the 'B group' of the Tata Steel tournament. He won on a tie-break, which meant he qualified for the main 'A group' in 2012. However, he couldn't play because of his work commitments.
In June 2012, Luke played in the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Even though he was ranked last, he surprised everyone by beating Levon Aronian, who was the world's second-ranked player at the time. He also won against Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik. People had voted online for him to get a special spot in this tournament, and he showed why he deserved it!
Luke was very active in the USA in 2015. He won the DC International tournament in June. In October, he played in the Las Vegas Millionaire Chess event. He just missed out on the final knockout rounds but finished tied for first in the Open event with other strong players like Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana.
At the 2015 London Chess Classic, he won the Super Rapidplay Open. He scored 9½ points out of 10, finishing a full point ahead of the second-place player. In 2017, he won a silver medal at the European Blitz Championship in Katowice. He finished ahead of many highly rated players.
In 2019, Luke McShane was part of the English team at the World Team Chess Championship in Astana. The English team won the silver medal, and Luke also won an individual gold medal for his performance on board two.
Education and Balancing Chess with Work
Luke McShane went to Westminster Under School and then City of London School. After that, he studied philosophy and mathematics at University College at Oxford University starting in 2003.
After graduating in 2007, he started working as a trader at Goldman Sachs, a big financial company. For a while, he played less chess because of his full-time job. He even had to turn down an invitation to the British Championship in 2011 because of work. However, he still plays chess when he can. Because he balances his professional career with his high-level chess, he is often called the world's strongest amateur chess player.
Chess Columnist
Since October 2019, Luke McShane has been writing a chess column for The Spectator magazine. He shares his thoughts and insights on chess with readers.
Images for kids
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McShane at the 2013 European Chess Team Championship
