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Morphy number

The Morphy number is a measure of how closely a chess player is connected to Paul Morphy (1837–1884) by way of playing chess games.[1]

Paul Morphy
Morphy and Löwenthal

Description

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People who played a chess game with Morphy have a Morphy number of 1. Players who did not play Morphy but played someone with a Morphy number of 1 have a Morphy number of 2. People who played someone with a Morphy number of 2 have a Morphy number of 3, et cetera.

As of October 2019, there are very few known living players with Morphy number 3. Many ordinary players have a Morphy number of 6 or more.[2]

The idea is similar to the Erdős number for mathematicians, the Bacon number for actors, and the Shusaku number, the equivalent for the board game of Go.

Origin

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Taylor Kingston states that the idea of the Morphy number may have originated in a June 2000 note by Tim Krabbé, who has Morphy number 4. Krabbé wrote "I once played an official game with Euwe, who played Tarrasch, who played Paulsen, who played Morphy."[2][3]

Morphy number of famous players

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These are players who are important in making links for Morphy numbers.

Morphy number 1

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Morphy is known to have played about 100 people, but all of the known links for players with Morphy number 2 go through the following five players.[1][4]

A few years after the early lists of Morphy numbers tabulated, it was discovered that a fifth player, James Mortimer, was Morphy's friend and he played casual games with him. This gives Mortimer a Morphy number of 1, creating a need to drastically revise those previous lists to include many more players.[4][5] This is because Mortimer had a very long, if not particularly successful, career, including the Ostende-B 1907 tournament. This enabled many famous younger players to gain a Morphy number of 2, including Mieses, Tartakower, Znosko-Borovsky, and Bernstein, who played beyond WW2, enabling still younger players to gain a Morphy number of 3, and so on.

Morphy number 2

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Everyone in this group played someone in the group above. The Australian champion Frederick Esling achieved MN2 by beating Anderssen in an offhand game[6] and another Australian champion, Julius Leigh Jacobsen (1862–1916)[7] achieved MN2 by beating Bird in a casual match +4-2=1, enabling many Australian players of the early 20th century to achieve MN3.[8] The following are some of the most important players who have achieved MN2.[1]

Morphy number 3

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Most of the masters in this group played several members of the previous group. This group includes some of the most important players for making connections to later generations. Botvinnik and Reshevsky played older masters such as Lasker and Janowski, had long careers, and played many younger players.[1] Najdorf was Tartakower's pupil and they played a number of published games together, and Najdorf played blitz right into his 80s, allowing many younger players to achieve 4. Smyslov and Keres had very long careers, so much younger players achieved MN4 by playing them. Gligoric also played Tartakover,[17] allowing many Yugoslav players to achieve 4. C.J.S. Purdy played Tartakower,[18] enabling many Australian players to achieve 4. Fairhurst, who played Tartakover,[19] was many times champion of Scotland, and later moved to New Zealand, so a number of players in these countries achieved 4 by playing him.

As of August 2024, living players with Morphy number 3 are Leonard Barden, Bernard Cafferty, Owen Hindle, Christian Langeweg, Friðrik Ólafsson, Oliver Penrose, Stewart Reuben and Jim Walsh.[4][20][21][22][23]

Morphy number 4

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As of 2013 many of these players are still alive; a few (such as Anand, Adams, Nakamura, Svidler and Ivanchuk) are still active.[1]

Morphy number 5

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As of 2013, many of the top grandmasters were thought to be in this group (along with a large number of lower-rated players).[1] However, several players initially thought to be in this group were actually MN4s;[53] for instance, based on playing Smyslov, who played Tartakower and Bernstein.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Your Morphy Number is Up, Taylor Kingston, The Chess Cafe, 2005
  2. ^ a b Playing the Morphy Number Game, Tim Harding, The Chess Cafe, 2010
  3. ^ Tim Krabbé - see item #67
  4. ^ a b c d Frederick Rhine, Fun with Morphy Numbers
  5. ^ Taylor Kingston, Morphy numbers revisited: the Mortimer effect, ChessCafe.com, 1 Oct 2014.
  6. ^ Frederick Karl Esling vs Adolf Anderssen, Casual game (1878), Frankfurt
  7. ^ Chesgames.com page on Julius Leigh Jacobsen
  8. ^ Hans Renette, H.E. Bird: A Chess Biography with 1,198 Games, p. 245, McFarland, 2016.
  9. ^ Played James Mortimer in the City of London Championship of 1910/11.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Played James Mortimer at Ostend, 1907.
  11. ^ Lasker-Bird games
  12. ^ "James Mortimer vs Frank Marshall (1900)".
  13. ^ Played James Mortimer in several City of London Championships from 1906 to 1910.
  14. ^ Tarrasch-Paulsen games
  15. ^ "James Mortimer vs Savielly Tartakower (1907)".
  16. ^ Mortimer played Sir George Thomas in the Canterbury 1903 and Brighton 1904 tournaments. Gino de Felice, Chess Results, 1901-1920, McFarland & Co., 2006, pp. 26, 37.
  17. ^ Svetozar Gligoric vs Savielly Tartakower, Budapest 1948
  18. ^ Cecil John Seddon Purdy vs Savielly Tartakower, Australia versus France Radio Match, 1946
  19. ^ Fairhurst v Tatakower games
  20. ^ Barden's comments to Tim Harding, Playing the Morphy Number GameArchived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine, chesscafe.com, 2010.
  21. ^ Edward Winter, Chess Note 6614, June 11, 2010. Retrieved on September 15, 2010.
  22. ^ a b Hindle played E.G. Sergeant in the 1960 British Championship
  23. ^ a b Jim Walsh played Ossip Bernstein in the 1955 An Tostal Cork tournament
  24. ^ JM Aitken beat Savielly Tartakower at Southsea in 1949
  25. ^ "Emanuel Lasker vs Fedor Parfenovich Bohatirchuk (1925)".
  26. ^ "Groningen (1946)".
  27. ^ a b Defeated Edward Guthlac Sergeant in the 1960 British Championship
  28. ^ Frank Marshall vs Arthur William Dake New York, NY (1931)
  29. ^ Jan Hein Donner vs Savielly Tartakower, Amsterdam (1950), Amsterdam NED, rd 15, Nov-30
  30. ^ "Tartakower-Ivkov, Bled 1950".
  31. ^ "Groningen (1946)".
  32. ^ Čeněk Kottnauer played Tartakower at the Staunton Memorial Tournament, Groningen 1946.
  33. ^ a b Played Ossip Bernstein at the 1961 IBM Amsterdam tournament.
  34. ^ Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton University Press, 1990, p. 259.
  35. ^ Miguel Najdorf vs Savielly Tartakower (various games)
  36. ^ Jonathan Penrose vs Savielly Tartakower Southsea, England (1950)
  37. ^ Eugene Znosko-Borovsky vs Oliver Penrose BCF-Premier (1948)
  38. ^ Played Eugene Ernest Colman, Morphy number 2, at least three times, 1947-1953; scores recorded in Surviving Changi: E E Colman by Olimpiu G Urcan (Singapore, 2007)
  39. ^ "Cecil Purdy vs Savielly Tartakower (1946)".
  40. ^ "Lasker-Reshevsky, Nottingham 1936".
  41. ^ "Groningen (1946)".
  42. ^ "Groningen (1946)".
  43. ^ Eugene Aleksandrovich Znosko-Borovsky vs Wolfgang Unzicker, Lucerne (1949), SUI
  44. ^ Robert Wade played Savielly Tartakower twice, in 1951 (Staunton Memorial) and 1953 (Hastings). He also defeated Ossip Bernstein at the IBM Amsterdam tournament in 1961.
  45. ^ Played Eugene Znosko-Borovsky at Baam in 1947.
  46. ^ "Wade, Robert G - Adams, Michael 2008, 6th Staunton Memorial, London ENG".
  47. ^ Bent Larsen vs Viswanathan Anand, Tournoi de Generations (1989), Cannes FRA, rd 6,
  48. ^ William Albert Fairhurst vs Lev Isaakovich Aptekar, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  49. ^ Bloom, Harold. The Bright Book of Life: Novels to Read and Reread. Alfred A. Knopf, 2020.
  50. ^ Walter Shawn Browne vs Paul Keres, Vancouver, 1975
  51. ^ William Albert Fairhurst vs Murray Chandler, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  52. ^ Maia Chiburdanidze vs Samuel Reshevsky, Vilnius (1978), Vilnius LTU, rd 4
  53. ^ a b c Morphy Numbers Revisited: The Mortimer Effect, by Taylor Kingston
  54. ^ Arthur Bisguier vs Benjamin Finegold, World Open (2000), Philadelphia, PA USA, rd 2, Jul-02
  55. ^ Robert Wade vs Nona Gaprindashvili, Reykjavik (1964), Reykjavik ISL, rd 9, Jan-26
  56. ^ Paul Anthony Garbett vs William Albert Fairhurst, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  57. ^ Florin Gheorghiu vs William Albert Fairhurst, Olympiad Qualifying Group 6 (1974), Nice FRA
  58. ^ Ewen McGowen Green vs William Albert Fairhurst, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  59. ^ Vasily Smyslov vs Vassily Ivanchuk, 55th USSR Championship (1988), Moscow URS, rd 9
  60. ^ Vasily Smyslov vs Gata Kamsky, New York Open (1989), New York, NY USA, rd 7
  61. ^ Vasily Smyslov vs Alexander Khalifman, 55th USSR Championship (1988), Moscow URS, rd 5
  62. ^ Vasily Smyslov vs Predrag Nikolic, 6th Vidmar Memorial (1985), Portoroz, rd 3
  63. ^ Judit Polgar vs Vasily Smyslov, Women-Veterans (1992), Aruba, rd 5
  64. ^ Vasily Smyslov vs Zoltan Ribli, October Revolution 60th Anniversary (1977), Leningrad URS, rd 15, Jul-16
  65. ^ Cecil John Seddon Purdy vs Ian Rogers, Sydney International Tournament (1979), Sydney, Australia
  66. ^ Valery Salov vs Vasily Smyslov, 55th USSR Championship (1988), Moscow URS, rd 4
  67. ^ Efim Bogoljubov vs Ortvin Sarapu, Oldenburg (1949), Oldenburg GER, rd 10, Jun-26
  68. ^ Alexey Shirov vs Vasily Smyslov, Keres Rapid Memorial (1996) (quick), Tallinn EST, rd 3
  69. ^ William Albert Fairhurst vs Vernon Albert Small, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  70. ^ Peter Svidler vs Vasily Smyslov, Alekhine Memorial Open (1992), Moscow RUS, rd 4
  71. ^ William Albert Fairhurst vs Richard John Sutton, 83rd New Zealand Ch, 1976
  72. ^ "Veselin Topalov vs Arturo Pomar Salamanca (1992)".
  73. ^ "Anna Ushenina vs Fridrik Olafsson (Snowdrops and Old-hands 2008)".
  74. ^ Paul Keres vs John L Watson, Vancouver 1975
  75. ^ Igor Ivanov vs Anatoly Karpov Moscow (1979)
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