The Wandering Dragons Chess Club was
founded in the summer of 1980 by James T Mullin, Jannic Konarski.
Howard Nimmo and myself. However to describe the
evolutionary process one has to go back to the spring of 1979 It
was in the closing months of season 1978-79 that Stirling
University Chess Club were enjoying their best ever season.
The A team were pushing hard and were about to finish runners-up
in the Central League and the club also reached the final of the
Central League seven board cup. Stirling University Chess
club boasted four league teams at this time and the C team
finished second in division three of the Central League thus
gaining promotion. Curiously enough it was this last,
almost insignificant event, which led to the formation of the
Wandering Dragons. The C team captain was Jim Mullin and he,
like myself, was just about to graduate, He was however so proud
of his achievement as team captain that he wished to play for the
Stirling University C team the following season in division two.
Many times Jim turned up to play in these fixtures but each time
he found himself as the only Stirling University player present.
The club had gone down the nick and were finding it impossible to
field three teams. Jim approached the club secretary and
asked him if he could get together a bunch of his mates to
fulfill the fixtures. This was where I came in! Jim, me,
Jannic and others completed the season as Stirling University C
and enjoyed it immensely - we also avoided relegation. At
the AGM of the Central League in May 1980 we asked it we could do
the same again. By this time Stirling University were
unhappy about us playing under their name and
the league secretary, Robert Togneri, told us that if we wished
to enter a new team into the league we
would have to apply for election into division three. Ah
But 1 We do not wish to enter a new team into the league we
simply wish to change the name of Stirling University C. Well
what do you want to change the name to? was the question. At
this time we all (except for Jannic) played the Dragon variation
of the Sicilian and it was pretty clear to me that as we had no
equipment or premises we would have to play all our games away
from home - hence the Wandering Dragons. Had that day
turned out differently we may have been called The Five Degrees,
as this was the name suggested by Robert Togneri.
The
Wandering Dragons Chess Club played their first match in August
1980 against Cumbernauld B in division two of the Central League
and won 5-0. The team that night was Geoff Chandler, Jannic
Konarski. Chris Donkin, Howard Nimmo and Jim Mullin. As
the season progressed informal club nights were arranged and a
club championship won by Geoff Chandler took place. The
Green Tree in The Cowgate proved to be a regular haunt on Friday
nights for the pioneering Dragons and many Edinburgh chess
players. particularly, those at Edinburgh University and in the
Civil Service Chess Club began to take an interest in our
activities. By the summer of 1981 the founder members had
been boosted by an influx of stalwarts-to-be Ferguson, Crorie,
Sharp, Morgan, Poots, Gowland, Laing. Crichton, Cackette.
Adams and Martin Donkin. Helped by a donation of dubious
chess equipment from a defunct Edinburgh club the Dragons applied
for membership to the Edinburgh League. We were admitted
directly into division two and won it at the first attempt,
largely due to the efforts of Alan Ferguson and Ian Crorie on
boards one and two. Their own personal love-hate
relationship caused a 1982 edition of Capital Chess to observe 'some
play the Kings Indian, some play the Queens Indian - Crorie and
Ferguson still play cowboys and indians.' Club nights during 1981-82
took place at our first home - The Old Coach Inn in Canonmills
and the club championship from that season featured this fairly
typical drunken encounter- White JT Mullin v Black Rev S Gowland
1 e4 e5 2 f4 Bc5 3 exf Qh4+ 4 g3 Qxe4+ 5 Qe2 Oxhl 6 Nf3 b6 7 d3
Bg7 8 Nbd2 Nh6 9 b3 Bg4 10 Bb2 Bxf3 0-1
In the summer of 1982 Mark Orr joined the
Wandering Dragons Chess Club. Of all the many people who
have joined this great club over the last nine years none has had
such a major impact. Being a nostalgic type of person I
tend to look back on the 1982-86 period as the halcyon days of
the Wandering Dragons. This was the era of our first Spens
Cup victory (over East Kilbride in 1983) and of our continued
success within the Edinburgh League culminating in our
championship season of 1985-86- This was also the era of that
scurrilous, esoteric publication the Wandering Dragons Chess Club
Newsletter. This was a monthly rag sold to members
containing member’s games, news, views and horrendous bouts
of character assassination. The editors were Jannic
Konarski, Mark Orr and The Rev Steve 'Greenteeth' Gowland in that
order. In March 1983 the Newsletter featured this David and
Goliath encounter from the club championship. White Derek
Poots v Black Mark Orr 1 e4 c5 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 Qc2?! Nc6 5 Od1?
Nf6 6 Nge2 d6 7 Ng3 h5 8 d3?! h4 9 Nge2 h3 10 g3? Bq4 11 Be3 Bf3
12 Rgi Ng4 13 Kd2 Nxh2 14 Qel? Bg4 15 Kcl Nf3 16 Qdl Nxgl
17 Bxh3 Nxe2+ 18 Nxe2 Rxh3 19 f3 Bxf3 20 Qf1 Qa5 21 Oxf3 Qxel+ 0-1.
The rag also had it's own crossword and featured clues like (i)
The Reverend could hardly be described as fastidious in this
respect (6,7)
(ii)
A common sight in Derek Poots' games but also for that matter in
those
of Fischer and Tal (6,2,5) (iii) Jim Mullin's grading is
certainly not
going
in this direction (2) (iv) Howard Nimmo's breath has been
described
as
this (4). The answers are of course (i) dental hygeine (ii)
pieces en prise (iii) up and (iv) foul. When the Reverend
arrived in the editor's chair he tried a new style of journalism
- treat your readers with complete and utter contempt. Hence
his editorial from April 1984 began with the opening salvo 'Yet
again, WD NEWS is late in arriving, and yet again the reason is
lack of interest from you the membership. A measly five
pages is all you're getting, and that's more than you deserve.'
This era also featured a move to better premises (ie from the Old
Coach to the Trades Council) and a dramatic increase in
membership. Success at the chessboard followed and the
Dragons nabbed a Central League title in 1983, this of course was
then followed by spens Cup and Edinburgh League titles. However
bad news was just around the corner.
After
winning the Edinburgh and Lothians Chess League in 1985-86
everyone at the club was looking forward to season 1986-87 with
great anticipation Unfortunately the club secretary (Neil
Clapperton)
forgot
to send in our entry to the local league. After a
protracted dispute (which made the news pages of The Scotsman and
The Glasgow Herald) the Dragons eventually found that they were
unable to defend the title they had won the previous season.
At the time this seemed like the end of the world but in
retrospect it can be seen as simply as a minor setback Ironically
during our 'slack' 1986-87 season we were able to attract many
strong new members -e.g. Craig Thomson, Tony Dempsey, Spike
Mullen (no relation to the great Jim) Tony McClelland etc. After
our enforced holiday we have returned to win the Edinburgh League
in season 1987-88 and again in season 1988-89. We won the
Central League Seven Board Cup for the first time in 1988, the
Cafe Royal Oyster Bar Chess Challenge in 1987, our ladies have
won the Robertson Cup in 1987 and 1989 and we won the Spens Cup
for a second time in 1987. Most important of all however
was last year's Richardson Cup win. After nine short years
we have achieved what many clubs have failed to do in a century -
winning the Scottish Team Championship. Here's hoping the
next nine years are half as good as the list
Article extracted from program of match
Wandering Dragons Chess Club v Honved of Budapest 1990 by
Chris Donkin
For
the record the team pools were –
WANDERING
DRAGONS
1
Mark Orr (IM)
2375
2
Craig Thomson (FM)
2345
3
Graham Morrison (FM) 2340
4
Spike Mullen
2190
5
Tony Dempsey
2180
6
Paul Hampton
2100
7
Graham Hamilton
2015
8
Pete Szalapaj
1995
9
David Wallace
1920
10
Tony McClelland
1920
HONVED
OF BUDAPEST
1
G Sax (GM) 2610
2
J Pinter (GM) 2550
3
J Horvath (IM) 2510
4
L I lazai (IM) 2460
5
C Horvath (IM) 2445
6
P Petran (IM) 2440
7
J Palkovi (FM) 2425
8
L Liptay (IM) 2405
9
T Fogarasi (FM) 2370
10
E Nagy (IM) 2360
11
T Utasi (IM) 2345
12
M Orso (IM) 2345