As an English Chess Federation coach[2] he has trained many of the country's strongest junior players and was Head Coach of the English Chess Federation team at the Greece World Schools Championship in 2013.

[3] He regularly escorts blind and partially sighted chess players to international World Championship events.

McDonald authored the French Defence monthly updates on chesspublishing.com from October 1999 until March 2009,[4] 1 e4 ... updates from November 2009 until January 2010,[5] 1 e4 ... from June 2014 until February 2015[6] and returned to 1 e4 ... in March 2017 until January 2018.

[7] He became an International Master in 1986 and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1996.

McDonald obtained his FIDE Trainer qualification in 2016.