From around 2002, McShane has been facing stiffer opposition, including players from the world's top ten. He played for England in the Chess Olympiad in Bled, scoring 6½/11 points, and won the silver medal at the World Junior Championship in Goa. In 2003 he finished fifth in the Hrokurinn tournament in Reykjavík, finishing ahead of Britain's number one player Michael Adams and drawing games against Viktor Korchnoi and Alexei Shirov. Shortly afterwards, he beat Shirov in a Reykjavík blitz tournament. In the 2003 Sigeman &amp; Co tournament in Malmö, he finished third with a score of 5½/9, drawing his game with the tournament winner, Vasily Ivanchuk. Also in 2003, McShane finished 27th out of 207 with 8/13 in the European Individual Championship in Silivri in Turkey, 1½ points behind the winner, Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Shortly afterwards he tied for first with Alexei Dreev and Krishnan Sasikiran in the North Sea Cup played in Esbjerg in Denmark with 6½/9, finished tied for second in the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen with 8½/11 and won the Malmö Masters with 7½/9, a point and a half ahead of his nearest rival. In 2009/10 he tied for first through fifth place with Eduardas Rozentalis, Pavel Ponkratov, Radosław Wojtaszek and Igor Lysyj at the 39th Rilton Cup in Stockholm. In 2010 he won the third Remco Heite tournament in Wolvega.