Dragon

[Joseph Conlon]

Clearing up some old stuff from my parents I found several copies of Dragon (Cambridge University chess magazine) from around 2000, arguably unrivalled as a scurrilous and libellous gossip-rag of British chess.

I'm not at the stage of wishing to lose them to a more official custodian, but it did me wonder whether Dragon has been formally archived and whether there is anywhere a complete 'run' of it. (I suppose the Cambridge University Library might be the most likely place)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Were you a Dragon editor at any stage, Joseph? I was the editor for a few years in the 1990s, and I did make sure the University Library had a copy of the issues I edited, but it is entirely possible some issues have not been deposited there. I think James Vigus was editor for a time as well. I first encountered John Saunders through Dragon, and there may be more memories surfacing where those came from...

The catalogue should tell you if your issues are in the University Library, but my recent experience of requesting old items from libraries is that sometimes they are not actually there, so someone might one day want to check what the holdings are. What are the issue numbers you have? I may still have some of those issues as well.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I found several copies of Dragon (Cambridge University chess magazine) from around 2000, arguably unrivalled as a scurrilous and libellous gossip-rag of British chess."

"I first encountered John Saunders through Dragon, and there may be more memories surfacing where those came from... "

Those of us who encountered "Dinosaur" (Mitcham CC's magazine, edited by John...) would suggest it rivalled "Dragon". Admittedly, I doubt it was libellous as the insulting bits were probably true.

[Joseph Conlon]

Were you a Dragon editor at any stage, Joseph? I was the editor for a few years in the 1990s, and I did make sure the University Library had a copy of the issues I edited, but it is entirely possible some issues have not been deposited there. I think James Vigus was editor for a time as well. I first encountered John Saunders through Dragon, and there may be more memories surfacing where those came from...

The catalogue should tell you if your issues are in the University Library, but my recent experience of requesting old items from libraries is that sometimes they are not actually there, so someone might one day want to check what the holdings are. What are the issue numbers you have? I may still have some of those issues as well.

These all date from James Vigus’s editorial period ( he being a rare bird in doing an English degree rather than the more common science choices of chess players)

I think they are issues 93/94/95

[John Saunders]

Scurrilous, irreverent, smutty, juvenile, sometimes cruel or snobbish, but probably not libellous, would be my verdict on Dragon. I once overheard two of those adjectives used by someone I shall refer to as 'Disgusted of Guildford' to describe my own oeuvre, Dinosaur, which he happened to pick up and browse. It was a conscious hommage to Dragon, of course, which I enjoyed reading as an undergrad and to which I later contributed in the late 1990s. Both publications concentrated more on taking the mickey out of those inside their respective clubs. I have featured one 1971 issue of Dragon at BritBase, should anyone wish to sample the house style.

Here's something from the 1974 Lent Term issue of Dragon, in which Bill Hartston provided a succinct summary of the game Rellstab-Miles, Hastings 1973/74, in verse and drawing. It exemplifies some of those adjectives with which I began this post.

19773-74-rellstab-miles-1.jpg

For reference, here are the moves from the game.

[Event "Hastings Premier 1973/74"] [Site "Hastings"] [Date "1973.12.27"] [Round "1"] [White "Rellstab, Ludwig"] [Black "Miles, Anthony"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A32"] [WhiteElo "2200"] [BlackElo "2375"] [PlyCount "141"] [EventDate "1973.12.27"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "15"] [EventCountry "ENG"] [EventCategory "9"] [SourceTitle "Britbase"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. e3 Bb4 7. Bd2 O-O 8. Be2 d5 9. cxd5 exd5 10. O-O Re8 11. Rc1 Bd6 12. Ncb5 Be5 13. Bc3 Bb8 14. Nf3 a6 15. Nbd4 Qd6 16. Nxc6 bxc6 17. Bd4 Bg4 18. g3 Ne4 19. Nh4 Bh3 20. Ng2 c5 21. Bc3 Ba7 22. Bg4 Bxg4 23. Qxg4 d4 24. Rcd1 Rad8 25. Ba5 Rb8 26. b3 Qe5 27. Qf4 Qd5 28. h4 Rb5 29. Bd2 d3 30. f3 Nxd2 31. Rxd2 Rb4 32. e4 Qd4+ 33. Kh2 Bb8 34. Qe3 Rd8 35. Qxd4 Rbxd4 36. Ne3 a5 37. Nd5 c4 38. bxc4 Rxc4 39. Rxd3 Rc2+ 40. Kh3 Bd6 41. Rfd1 Re8 42. Ne3 Re2 43. Nc4 Bf8 44. R3d2 Rxd2 45. Rxd2 a4 46. Rd5 a3 47. Ra5 Rc8 48. Nxa3 Rc3 49. Nb5 Rxf3 50. Ra8 g6 51. a4 Rb3 52. Nd6 Kg7 53. Ne8+ Kh6 54. e5 Ra3 55. Ra7 Bc5 56. Rxf7 Rxa4 57. Nf6 g5 58. h5 Ra7 59. Rxa7 Bxa7 60. Kg4 Bc5 61. Kf5 Ba3 62. g4 Bb2 63. Nd5 Kg7 64. Ke6 h6 65. Ne7 Bc3 66. Nf5+ Kh7 67. Kd6 Bb4+ 68. Kd7 Bf8 69. e6 Kg8 70. e7 Kh7 71. e8=Q 1-0

Here's a Hartston limerick from a much later edition of Dragon which amused me, though nothing to do with chess:

My mental skills are due to one man,
And the memory courses he ran.
His name was... not Ron...
No... sorry... it's gone,
I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

[Roger de Coverly]

Here's something from the 1974 Lent Term issue of Dragon, in which Bill Hartston

At least some of Hartston's material in "How to Cheat at Chess" and "Soft Pawn" could be credited as "first published in Dragon". For that matter so could some of Raymond Keene's annotated games. Talking of whom, a Dragon match report apparantly once excused his absence on the grounds that he was writing a book that afternoon.

[David Sedgwick]

Here's a Hartston limerick from a much later edition of Dragon which amused me, though nothing to do with chess:

My mental skills are due to one man,
And the memory courses he ran.
His name was... not Ron...
No... sorry... it's gone,
I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

There is a chess connection to it.

In the late 1990s, as I am sure you will remember, there was a limerick composing competition at the Varsity Match dinner on the evening following the match.

This limerick was the winner of the inaugural competition. It is a gentle dig at the late Tony Buzan.

I had no idea that it had subsequently been published in Dragon.

I remember only one of the later winners. It was composed by Joseph Conlon, later to become renowned a a professor, as a chess parent, and as the starter of this thread.

Well done to our woman and men.
For Cambridge have won yet again.
But you may surmise.
It's no great surprise.
For we're just superior to them.

[John Saunders]

There is a chess connection to it.

In the late 1990s, as I am sure you will remember, there was a limerick composing competition at the Varsity Match dinner on the evening following the match.

This limerick was the winner of the inaugural competition. It is a gentle dig at the late Tony Buzan.

Yes, I rather thought that was the case. (I didn't attend the match until the 2000s.) Indeed, when I read the limerick aloud to her, my wife immediately twigged the Buzan connection.

There were a number of other limericks published in the Lent 1999 Dragon but some of them, like Conan Doyle's Giant Rat of Sumatra, are tales for which the world (or at least the delicate sensibility of the forum) is not yet prepared.

[Joseph Conlon]

I had no idea that it had subsequently been published in Dragon.

I remember only one of the later winners. It was composed by Joseph Conlon, later to become renowned a a professor, as a chess parent, and as the starter of this thread.

Well done to our woman and men.
For Cambridge have won yet again.
But you may surmise.
It's no great surprise.
For we're just superior to them.

I half-remember a couple of others, which I think your memory has done the decent thing to and obliterated.

One started off, with characteristic undergraduate grace and subtlety,

"There once was a man named Buzan
Who was his own number one fan...."

The other, by the true author of the Dragon agony uncle column, does not deserve repetition (and I think contributed to either the end, or at least a substantial hiatus, in the limerick competition in subsequent years).

[David Sedgwick]

I half-remember a couple of others, which I think your memory has done the decent thing to and obliterated.

One started off, with characteristic undergraduate grace and subtlety,

"There once was a man named Buzan
Who was his own number one fan...."

The other, by the true author of the Dragon agony uncle column, does not deserve repetition (and I think contributed to either the end, or at least a substantial hiatus, in the limerick competition in subsequent years).

Now you remind me, I think that it was the one that you mention above which caused the demise of the limerick competition.

The next line was:

"2000's the Year of the Brain."

That fits with John Saunders's statement that he didn't arrive until the competition was no more.

Even now I had better not quote the last two lines.

The demise seems to be permanent.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Getting back to current news, there has been a lot of chess success for players from St Catherine's College (Catz) at the University of Cambridge, see the college news report here (FMs Harry Grieve and Koby Kalavannan are mentioned):

https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/chess

In another thread, Harry Grieve's exploits at the British are receiving attention. I wonder when was the last time that a university undergraduate was contending for the national title? Well, I say undergraduate, but depending what course Harry Grieve is studying, he may have graduated already (the report above says he is a third-year mathematics student; some Cambridge mathematics students do a fourth year for Part III of the Tripos).

I am also trying to find out if Dragon is still being published or not. It doesn't seem to have a current web presence, but maybe (for the scurrilous content reasons above) it is only visible to members of the club?

(EDIT: I should not have omitted Matthew Wadworth's exploits at the British either, as he is a recent Cambridge student {I presume he is not a current student any more} - I had temporarily forgotten this, the COVID effect has thrown my recollections of who is studying where a bit out of whack).

[J T Melsom]

Getting back to current news, there has been a lot of chess success for players from St Catherine's College (Catz) at the University of Cambridge, see the college news report here (FMs Harry Grieve and Koby Kalavannan are mentioned):

https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/chess

In another thread, Harry Grieve's exploits at the British are receiving attention. I wonder when was the last time that a university undergraduate was contending for the national title? Well, I say undergraduate, but depending what course Harry Grieve is studying, he may have graduated already (the report above says he is a third-year mathematics student; some Cambridge mathematics students do a fourth year for Part III of the Tripos).

I am also trying to find out if Dragon is still being published or not. It doesn't seem to have a current web presence, but maybe (for the scurrilous content reasons above) it is only visible to members of the club?

(EDIT: I should not have omitted Matthew Wadworth's exploits at the British either, as he is a recent Cambridge student {I presume he is not a current student any more} - I had temporarily forgotten this, the COVID effect has thrown my recollections of who is studying where a bit out of whack).

If we are referencing recent Cambridge graduates then obviously Peter Finn should be included. He did play in the Varsity match.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Getting back to current news, there has been a lot of chess success for players from St Catherine's College (Catz) at the University of Cambridge, see the college news report here (FMs Harry Grieve and Koby Kalavannan are mentioned):

https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/chess

In another thread, Harry Grieve's exploits at the British are receiving attention. I wonder when was the last time that a university undergraduate was contending for the national title? Well, I say undergraduate, but depending what course Harry Grieve is studying, he may have graduated already (the report above says he is a third-year mathematics student; some Cambridge mathematics students do a fourth year for Part III of the Tripos).

I am also trying to find out if Dragon is still being published or not. It doesn't seem to have a current web presence, but maybe (for the scurrilous content reasons above) it is only visible to members of the club?

(EDIT: I should not have omitted Matthew Wadworth's exploits at the British either, as he is a recent Cambridge student {I presume he is not a current student any more} - I had temporarily forgotten this, the COVID effect has thrown my recollections of who is studying where a bit out of whack).

If we are referencing recent Cambridge graduates then obviously Peter Finn should be included. He did play in the Varsity match.

Indeed, thank you for pointing that out. And I noticed Gwilym Price as well (brilliancy prize in 2019 Varsity match). There may well be others.