Morphy numbers

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi guys.

Just back from trying to lower my Morphy number.
My mark III time machine bought on E-bay for 99p (free listing) worked perfectly.

Arrived at the cafe de la Regence but no sign of Morphy.

Instead this idiot turned up, ordered tea (everyone knows the cafe de la Regence
only served coffee) and challenged me to a game.

The bloke yakke ...[text shortened]... We both knew what moves we had to play.

Me and Fat Lady have a MN of 1.

A likely story indeed. You have some imagination GP 😀😀

Amazingly I'm a 4 ( via simul of course ). What I found surprising is that I'm less than people like John Nunn and Jon Speelman.

I wonder if in Morphy's day they were discussing Ruy Lopez numbers.

Originally posted by thaughbaer
Amazingly I'm a 4 ( via simul of course ). What I found surprising is that I'm less than people like John Nunn and Jon Speelman.

I'm absolutely certain that Nunn and Speelman will be 4s as well.

Yeah, the list of 5's on the wikipedia cannot be right. I'm sure most of those GMs are 4s. In fact, after almost no looking, I found a game where Judit Pulgar played Benko making her a 4.

Anand played Larsen making him a 4 at most.

I'm a 2 (with wins) on Anand.
Mark Condie has beaten Anand and I managed a couple of wins against Mark.

Anand will now be telling mates he is 2 on me.

I am a 5 based on playing friends who have played either Arnold Denker or Arthur Bisguier.

I missed being a 4 by one board back in the 1990's when my team played Bisguier's team in the US Amateur Team championship because he was on board 1 and I was on board 2.

Arnold Denker was such a fixture in Florida chess for so long that almost the entire chess-playing community here is a 4 or a 5.

I'm either a five or a six, having played Robert Hess.

Morphy > Anderssen > Mieses > Euwe > Gligoric > James Tarjan > myself (simul. against Tarjan).

Alternate route: Morphy > Anderssen > Mieses > Tartakower > Gligoric > Tarjan > etc.

Incidentally, anyone who played Walter Browne (who gave simultaneous exhibitions in the USA) could trace this route, too, as Browne also met Gligoric.

Originally posted by moonbus
Morphy > Anderssen > Mieses > Euwe > Gligoric > James Tarjan > myself (simul. against Tarjan).

Alternate route: Morphy > Anderssen > Mieses > Tartakower > Gligoric > Tarjan > etc.

Incidentally, anyone who played Walter Browne (who gave simultaneous exhibitions in the USA) could trace this route, too, as Browne also met Gligoric.

According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphy_number) Gligoric has a Morphy number of 3 himself, making you a 5. Bent Larsen is also a 3 according to that list, and James Tarjan has played him as well.

If there is a shorter route than the one I found, please indicate it. Mieses and Tartakower both had long careers and bridge that crucial gap of the WWI generation, but there may be another link I've missed.

Originally posted by moonbus
If there is a shorter route than the one I found, please indicate it. Mieses and Tartakower both had long careers and bridge that crucial gap of the WWI generation, but there may be another link I've missed.

Morphy > Mortimer > Tartakower > Gligoric (*) > James Tarjan > you

(*) See http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1307737

Thanks for the route. The Mortimer-Tartakower game is also available:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1455250

I find no reference to Morphy - Mortimer at chessgames.com (or in any of my hardbound anthologies), but I will keep looking.

Tarjan was impressive. I reckon he was rated about 2500 then. I played him at Lockheed (or maybe it was Stanford Research Institute) in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1970s. There were about 20 players at the simul--I don't think he lost a game. I had the good fortune to be the second to last one he finished off.