J M Craddock - King Edward's School, Birmingham?

[Gerard Killoran]

I noted some time ago that Craddock's father George was also a chess player, though not as strong as his son, judging from this game sent me by Gerard Killoran 18 months ago:

[Event "BCF-ch 29th First Class B"] [Site "Nottingham"] [Date "1936.08.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Lacy-Hulbert, Arthur Percival"] [Black "Craddock, George James"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D05"] [PlyCount "65"] [EventDate "1936.08.17"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "GBR"] [SourceTitle "BritBase"] [Source "John Saunders"] [SourceDate "2023.10.13"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2023.10.13"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 Nbd7 5. Nbd2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 Re8 8. e4 dxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Rxe4 Nf6 11. Rh4 g6 12. Ne5 Nd7 13. Nxf7 Bxh4 14. Nxd8 Bxd8 15. Bh6 Bf6 16. c3 Nf8 17. Qb3 Kh8 18. Re1 Bg7 19. Bf4 c6 20. Re3 e5 21. Bxe5 Bxe5 22. Rxe5 Be6 23. Bc4 Bxc4 24. Qxc4 Rxe5 25. dxe5 Rd8 26. Kf1 Rd7 27. f4 Kg7 28. g4 Re7 29. Kf2 g5 30. Qc5 Rd7 31. f5 Rd5 32. Qe7+ Kg8 33. Qxg5+ { Source: Kington Times - Saturday 01 March 1941 p.6. Contributed by Gerard Killoran, 24 April 2022} 1-0

This result was reported in the Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 20 August 1936, p.7 - as a round 3 game played the previous day.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I spoke yesterday to an ex-employee of the Met Office and he has having a think, and also recommended someone else to talk to. If I get news, I'll say something.

[John Saunders]

This result was reported in the Nottingham Evening Post - Thursday 20 August 1936, p.7 - as a round 3 game played the previous day.

Thanks, Gerard. I've added the date and round number to the score on BritBase.

[Kevin Thurlow]

I am very grateful to Steve Murray, Wilf Taylor and David Thomson, who have supplied more info. Rather than paraphrase, I'll lazily copy the email.

"James Craddock was employed by the Met Office and was a special merit SPSO (Civil Service Grade 6).
It is believed he worked in Long Range Weather Forecasting, and on the early computer models with special reference to Climate.

When he left in about 1975 he went to the Climate Unit at the University of East Anglia.

Craddock played (and lost) a very famous game v Mieses in the London league. Check out Chessbase, but it has also been widely published.

Found the following on Craddock in Gareth Ward’s web site files:

“We have two Grading Lists from the 1970s. In the all-Berkshire list for 1973/74, the overall range of grades was 90 to 203 - similar to 2009's New Grades. Because the list contained only players with 8+ games in the latest season (similar to category C now), only 5 Met Office players were listed :- Frank Woolford 186, JM Cradock 171, Tony Pearson 160, Pip Sarson 149, Chris Long 140.”

Note Gareth has the spelling with one “d” but the library has lots of papers in it’s online catalogue by J M Craddock with two “d”s so two “d”s must be right. There’s only one mention in the web site files, but Gareth must I think have got that from the paper files so I think there will be something there.
If you go to https://library.metoffice.gov.uk/Portal ... mpleSearch and enter craddock, you get a list of his publications. I looked at one from 1995 (in “Weather”) which has author “J. M. Craddock, Pulham Market, Norfolk” so I guess he was retired then, but the location is consistent with having been at UEA."

I would add that SPSO was usually a senior managerial position in the scientific Civil Service (mainly as the way the work was costed meant you had to use cheaper staff to do the science), so the fact he was still doing the proper work is unusual. My informants also found about 3 box files of historical papers in the cupboard, and will have a look for more info.

[MJMcCready]

Craddock played for my home country Bedfordshire for a few years. I believe he's from Dunstable but could be wrong there.

[John Townsend]

Britbase, by John Saunders, says that he lived in Dunstable in the 1950s and played on top board for Bedfordshire:

https://www.saund.org.uk/britbase/pgn/v ... 33craddock

His birth was registered in the district of Nuneaton (Warwickshire). Britbase has his date of birth as 4 June 1913 (see link above).

[MJMcCready]

Yes saw that. Thanks.

[John Foley]

The last game played in England by GM Sultan Khan was against Craddock in 1933, according to the records of ChessGames.com. Khan was playing for the Imperial Chess Club and Craddock was playing for Cambridge University. Craddock, aged 20, won convincingly.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1956229

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

There must be a mis-transcription at the very end. 42. Bd5 Qd1 White resigns seems more likely.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Wow that was quite a crush.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The last game played in England by GM Sultan Khan was against Craddock in 1933

I was going to query the "GM" but you are quite correct, as of this month!

[Matt Mackenzie]

Is that actually an official FIDE posthumous title? There are conflicting results on this.

[Roger de Coverly]

Is that actually an official FIDE posthumous title? There are conflicting results on this.

The FIDE announcement describes it as "Honoury Grandmaster".

https://fide.com/news/2873

[Matt Mackenzie]

A title they gave out a fair bit in the 1970s and 80s (albeit for still living players) but this is IIRC the first for over 20 years. IIRC a source once said FIDE would have given Sultan Khan a title in 1950 had they known he was still alive, so that may be used to justify this posthumous award.

[John Foley]

Sultan Khan played at Kingston Chess Club. Unfortunately our record books only go as far back as the late 1930s by which time he had moved on.
https://kingstonchess.com/sultan-khan-f ... andmaster/