Scottish Open team - Dresden 2008

This is a vastly experienced squad which has notched up literally hundreds of wins over titled players each of the team has defeated players rated over 2600.

Board 1. Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson

Scottish Grade (1 July 2008): 2622

Scottish ranking, of eligible Scots, in active Scottish list: 1

FIDE Rating (1 July 2008): 2596

Scottish ranking in active FIDE list: 1

Scottish club: lives in London

Jonathan is Scotland's strongest player of modern times, a well known writer on chess and an experienced chess tutor. He is author of "The Seven Deadly Chess Sins", "Understanding The Grunfeld" and "Chess for Zebras" as well as maintaining regular columns for New in Chess and The Herald. He won silver at the European U18 Championship in 1995 and European U20 in 1997. In 2002 Jonathan shared first at the World Open and in 2004 he won the Hastings Premier. He followed this with domination at the British Championship from 2004 to 2006. Jonathan is Scotland's 3rd GM and has won the Scottish title 3 times. After degrees at Oxford (a first in PPE) and Harvard, he is currently exploring the precursors of 'wisdom' in young people for a PhD at Bristol. 

*****

Board 2. Grandmaster Jacob Aagaard

Scottish Grade (1 July 2008): 2551

Scottish ranking, of eligible Scots, in active Scottish list: 2

FIDE Rating (1 July 2008): 2531

Scottish ranking in active FIDE list: 2

Scottish club: Bearsden

Jacob was born in Denmark, but now lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with wife Anne and daughter Cathy. In 2004, Jacob switched to Scotland and promptly made three GM norms and the title. He is a professional chess writer and trainer. His most famous book is Excelling at Chess, which won the chesscafe.com book of the year 2002 award. Early books include Excelling at Chess Calculation, Excelling at Technical Chess, and Experts vs. the Sicilian which he co-edited and contributed 4 chapters to. However he is more proud of recent publications i.e. "Practical Chess Defence" and "Attacking Manual Vol 1" from the "Quality Chess" publishing house he runs with John Shaw. Jacob is the only one of the squad yet to be Scottish Champion. Although he did finish first at the 2005 tournament in Oban he was ineligible to win the title at the time. He has since gone on to win the British Championship in 2007.

*****

Board 3. Grandmaster John Shaw

Scottish Grade (1 July 2008): 2509

Scottish ranking, of eligible Scots, in active Scottish list: 3

FIDE Rating (1 July 2008): 2469

Scottish ranking in active FIDE list: 3

Scottish club: Polytechnic

John graduated from Strathclyde University with a BSc (Honours) degree in Economics and Engineering. After spending many years achieving his goal of the GM title he now primarily spends his time writing, editing and proofreading for Quality Chess. He previously wrote two well-received "Starting Out" opening books for Everyman Chess and writes a regular Saturday column for The Scotsman. He also has great experience of teaching chess, having been National Coach of Chess Scotland for almost ten years. John has been Scottish Champion three times, and has represented Scotland at both Olympiads and European Team Championships.

*****

Board 4. Women Grandmaster and International Master Keti Arakhamia-Grant

Scottish Grade (1 July 2008): 2468

Scottish ranking, of eligible Scots, in active Scottish list: 4

FIDE Rating (1 July 2008): 2448

Scottish ranking in active FIDE list: 5

Scottish club: Edinburgh West

A biography of Keti was posted when she became Scottish in January 2008. Keti was tantalisingly close to a last round win in the EU Individual Championships in Liverpool, during September, which would have given her a third and final GM norm.

*****

Board 5. Grandmaster Dr Colin McNab

FIDE Rating (1 July 2008): 2450

Scottish ranking in active FIDE list: 4

Scottish Grade (1 July 2008): 2454

Scottish ranking, of eligible Scots, in active Scottish list: 5

Scottish club: Dundee & Victoria

Colin is by far Scotland's most capped Olympiad player, having attended 13 previous Olympiads, and he will hope to be first Scot to hit the "150 Olympiad caps" milestone in Dresden. One half of Dundee's dynamic duo (along with Paul Motwani) he became one of Scotland's first two Grandmasters back in 1992. His other major successes include being crowned Commonwealth Champion in 1992 and Scottish Champion on four occasions. Colin excels at chess problem solving being a past World Team Champion and he also works for "Quality Chess".

Team Captain. John Dempsey

John Dempsey is an experienced player and organiser. He is the new Executive Director for Chess Scotland and runs the Glasgow Congress.