Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (born 2004) is a Canadian chess grandmaster who won the 2022 World Under 18 Chess Championship.[2][3] He completed all requirements for a Grandmaster title in 2023 at the age of 19, and was officially awarded the GM title in January 2024.[4][5] He is the youngest grandmaster in Quebec's history.[6]
Chess career
Son of Isabelle Rodrigue, Shawn learned to play chess at age 6 at an after school program and quickly fell in love with the game.[6] In his first event, at 6, he won five straight games,[7] and at 12, he had a FIDE rating of over 2000.[8] He became an International Master at 18 and a Grandmaster at 19.[8]
He finished an international tournament with 9 straight victories, no losses and a performance rating of 3037. By becoming the World Youth Chess Champion in the under 18 section, he earned his first grandmaster norm, became only the second Canadian to win a World Youth Chess Championship and the first Canadian over 14 to win the Youth Chess Championship. In November 2023, he earned his final GM norm at the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023, where he defeated a number of higher-rated grandmasters including Benjamin Gledura, Max Warmerdam, and Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Playing style
Nakamura vs. Rodrigue-Lemieux, Toronto 2022
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Final position after 25.Rxa5. One of the few games where Nakamura was held to a draw in the event.[9][10]
In 2022, Rodrigue-Lemieux played 2 exhibition games against Hikaru Nakamura and was one of the few people to hold him to a draw in one of his games.[11][12]
An unorthodox player, Rodrigue-Lemieux is known to use uncommon openings with regularity, most notably Anderssen's Opening.[13] He has stated that his use of uncommon openings throws opponents off, and might be useful in getting well prepared players out of book early on. His favourite player is Magnus Carlsen whom he hopes to beat in the future.
His 3037 tournament performance where he won 9/9 created a social media buzz, drawing attention from popular streamers like Gotham Chess.[14]
Personal life
Rodrigue-Lemieux is a French-Canadian residing in Montreal. He first discovered his interest in chess in Grade 1 where he saw his classmates playing and signed up for chess classes.[15]
