Colin Anderson McNab (born 3 February 1961) is a Scottish

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player. He is Scotland's second player to be awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM), fulfilling its requirements in 1992 just after Paul Motwani. After achieving his three

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

s, he strained to get his rating up to the required 2500 level, and is possibly unique among Grandmasters in only achieving a published

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of a metric (e.g. quality, quantity, a combination of both,...). Rating or rating system may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness ...

of 2500 some six years after being awarded the title. The

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

regulations in force at the time stated that an 'intermediate' rating at any stage during an event would suffice, and that ratings between 2498.5 and 2500 would be rounded up, which is indeed what happened in 1992. He is also an International Master of

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

since 1993 and International Master of

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is t ...

solving since 2007. McNab played for Scotland in eighteen

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s between 1980 and 2016, and won the

Scottish Chess Championship The Scottish Chess Championship is organised by Chess Scotland, formerly the Scottish Chess Association. It has been running since 1884, and nowadays takes the form of a nine-round tournament played over two weekends and the week in between. Auxili ...

in 1983, 1991, 1993 and 1995. He was also the Commonwealth champion in 1992. In 2012 and 2013 McNab won the British Problem Solving Championship. His opening repertoire is noted for its seemingly quiet

fianchetto In chess, the fianchetto ( or spelling pronunciation ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of man ...

systems, and he has written a book on the fianchetto variation of the

King's Indian Defence The King's Indian Defence (or KID) is a common chess opening. It is defined by the following moves: : 1. d4 Nf6 : 2. c4 g6 Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6 (the Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead and ...

, and co-authored a book about the

Pirc Defence The Pirc Defence ( ) is a chess opening characterised by the response of Black to 1.e4 with 1...d6 and 2...Nf6, followed by ...g6 and ...Bg7, while allowing White to establish a with pawns on d4 and e4. It is named after the Slovenian grandmaste ...

with

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was form ...

. He is renowned as an expert on the endgame and has written a regular column for Scottish Chess magazine for a number of years. McNab is a doctor of

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, having studied for a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

under the supervision of Peter Neumann.

Books

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Notable games

Garry Kasparov vs Colin Anderson McNab, Cagnes sur mer 1977, Modern Defense: Suttles Variation (B06), 1/2-1/2John Nunn vs Colin Anderson McNab, Marbella zt A 1982, Pirc Defense: Classical Variation (B08), 0-1Colin Anderson McNab vs Murray Chandler, Bath (England) 1987, English Opening: King's English (A28), 1-0Colin Anderson McNab vs Mika Karttunen, EU Union Ch 2006, Formation: King's Indian Attack (A07), 1-0

References

External links

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profile at Chess Network Company * {{DEFAULTSORT:McNab, Colin 1961 births Living people Scottish chess players Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Scottish non-fiction writers British chess writers British male writers Alumni of the University of Oxford Writers from Dundee Sportspeople from Dundee