Michael Stean

Michael Francis Stean ( born September 4, 1953 in London ) is an English chess player.

He belonged to the secondary Dante team of Viktor Korchnoi in the period from 1977 to 1981, has always been considered great opening connoisseur. In 1975 he was awarded the IM title and two years later he became an International Grandmaster.

He took part in 1974 for the English team at five Chess Olympiads. Immediately on his first Olympic participation in 1974 in Nice, he was awarded a prize for the best game of the tournament in his match against Walter Browne. Stean could even celebrate but only a few tournament victories, such as 1979 in Vrsac, 1980 in Smederewska Palanka and 1982 in Beer- Sheba. It almost would even have enough time to an English Championship, he finished in 1974 but the first place. He then lost the playoff due to George Botterill. At the age of 29 years, Stean 1982 retired from tournament chess. He is a tax consultant today.

His current Elo rating is 2500 ( as of November 2010), but is listed in the World Chess Federation FIDE since 1982 as inactive.

He has published two books Chess: Sicilian Najdorf (London 1976, ISBN 0-7134-0098-6 ) and Simple Chess (London 1978, ISBN 0-571-11215-3 ).