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

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player. He is

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

'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 Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

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 quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

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 ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

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 e-mail, email. Les ...

since 1993 and International Master of

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

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 2020 and ...

s between 1980 and 2016, and won the Scottish Chess Championship 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 ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of many " hypermodern" ...

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

King's Indian Defence The King's Indian Defence 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 is consid ...

, and co-authored a book about the

Pirc Defence The Pirc Defence (pronounced ) 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 ...

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 forme ...

. He is renowned as an expert on the

endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

and has written a regular column for

Scottish Chess Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

magazine for a number of years. McNab is a doctor of Mathematics, having studied for a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a 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 world's second-oldest university in contin ...

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