If you're not familiar with the term "Morphy Number" here it is (all info from Wikipedia):
"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] 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.
The idea is similar to the Erdős number for mathematicians and the Bacon number for actors. For example, Garry Kasparov, along with most current top players, has a Morphy Number of 5: Kasparov played Ratmir Kholmov (Morphy number 4), who played Mikhail Botvinnik (Morphy number 3), who played Reginald Michell (Morphy number 2), who played John Owen (Morphy number 1), who played Morphy. (Chess historian Taylor Kingston thinks that it is likely that Kasparov played an offhand game with Botvinnik, which would give him a Morphy Number of 4.)[1] Kingston states that the idea of the Morphy Number may have originated in a June 2000 note by Tim Krabbé."
I am a 4 - since I have played several listed below in the 3 group. Maroczy gave a few simuls in Montreal in the 1920's, and my grandfather might have played him. If my father (a kid at the time) was there, and pushed a few Pawns with Maroczy, he would be a (living) 3.
Some players with a Morphy Number of 1:
Adolf Anderssen
Henry Bird
James Mortimer
John Owen
Louis Paulsen
A Morphy Number of 2:
Semyon Alapin
Ossip Bernstein
Joseph Blackburne
Amos Burn
Mikhail Chigorin
Isidor Gunsberg
David Janowski
S. Lipschütz
Emanuel Lasker
George Mackenzie
James Mason
Jacques Mieses
Géza Maróczy
Reginald Michell
Harry Pillsbury
Carl Schlechter
Jackson Showalter
Wilhelm Steinitz
Siegbert Tarrasch
Savielly Tartakower
Richard Teichmann
Szymon Winawer
Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
Johannes Zukertort
And a Morphy Number of 3:
Alexander Alekhine
Leonard Barden
Pal Benko
Arthur Bisguier
Efim Bogolyubov
Fedor Bogatyrchuk[2]
Mikhail Botvinnik
David Bronstein
José Raúl Capablanca
Martin Christoffel
Arnold Denker
Marcel Duchamp
Oldřich Duras
Erich Eliskases
Max Euwe
Reuben Fine
Salo Flohr
Svetozar Gligorić
Borislav Ivkov
Paul Keres
George Koltanowski
Bent Larsen
Edward Lasker
Andor Lilienthal
Frank Marshall
Stuart Milner-Barry
John Stuart Morrison[citation needed]
Miguel Najdorf
Aron Nimzowitsch
Friðrik Ólafsson
Jonathan Penrose
Arturo Pomar
Lodewijk Prins
C.J.S. Purdy
Samuel Reshevsky
Akiba Rubinstein
Friedrich Sämisch
Rudolf Spielmann
Herman Steiner
Milan Vidmar
Norman Whitaker
Daniel Yanofsky
"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] 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.
The idea is similar to the Erdős number for mathematicians and the Bacon number for actors. For example, Garry Kasparov, along with most current top players, has a Morphy Number of 5: Kasparov played Ratmir Kholmov (Morphy number 4), who played Mikhail Botvinnik (Morphy number 3), who played Reginald Michell (Morphy number 2), who played John Owen (Morphy number 1), who played Morphy. (Chess historian Taylor Kingston thinks that it is likely that Kasparov played an offhand game with Botvinnik, which would give him a Morphy Number of 4.)[1] Kingston states that the idea of the Morphy Number may have originated in a June 2000 note by Tim Krabbé."
I am a 4 - since I have played several listed below in the 3 group. Maroczy gave a few simuls in Montreal in the 1920's, and my grandfather might have played him. If my father (a kid at the time) was there, and pushed a few Pawns with Maroczy, he would be a (living) 3.
Some players with a Morphy Number of 1:
Adolf Anderssen
Henry Bird
James Mortimer
John Owen
Louis Paulsen
A Morphy Number of 2:
Semyon Alapin
Ossip Bernstein
Joseph Blackburne
Amos Burn
Mikhail Chigorin
Isidor Gunsberg
David Janowski
S. Lipschütz
Emanuel Lasker
George Mackenzie
James Mason
Jacques Mieses
Géza Maróczy
Reginald Michell
Harry Pillsbury
Carl Schlechter
Jackson Showalter
Wilhelm Steinitz
Siegbert Tarrasch
Savielly Tartakower
Richard Teichmann
Szymon Winawer
Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
Johannes Zukertort
And a Morphy Number of 3:
Alexander Alekhine
Leonard Barden
Pal Benko
Arthur Bisguier
Efim Bogolyubov
Fedor Bogatyrchuk[2]
Mikhail Botvinnik
David Bronstein
José Raúl Capablanca
Martin Christoffel
Arnold Denker
Marcel Duchamp
Oldřich Duras
Erich Eliskases
Max Euwe
Reuben Fine
Salo Flohr
Svetozar Gligorić
Borislav Ivkov
Paul Keres
George Koltanowski
Bent Larsen
Edward Lasker
Andor Lilienthal
Frank Marshall
Stuart Milner-Barry
John Stuart Morrison[citation needed]
Miguel Najdorf
Aron Nimzowitsch
Friðrik Ólafsson
Jonathan Penrose
Arturo Pomar
Lodewijk Prins
C.J.S. Purdy
Samuel Reshevsky
Akiba Rubinstein
Friedrich Sämisch
Rudolf Spielmann
Herman Steiner
Milan Vidmar
Norman Whitaker
Daniel Yanofsky
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