Your "Morphy Number"

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  • #16
    Re: Your "Morphy Number"

    I have a Morphy number of 4, eight-fold at least from Hugh's list of 3's, not counting simul games. More interesting for me would be a try at 3. In 1967 I played Harold Ostrom, who as a child might have played in a simul against Louis Paulsen--or somebody like him. Well, one can dream anyway.

    4 would be a pretty common number here in Canada.

    I have an Armstrong # of 1. John Armstrong. :)

    How about a Zed number? You get a Zed number of 1 by beating anybody whose last name begins with Z. They're usually pretty good players ... Yeah, well, most everybody would be Zed-1 or Zed-2, but it still might be a bit of fun.
    Last edited by Jonathan Berry; Wednesday, 10th November, 2010, 08:55 PM.

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    • #17
      Re: Your "Morphy Number"

      interesting stuff. my morphy # is 5 having played lawrence day (and someone blowing a wonderful position... will never forgive myself >__<)

      kaspy # also appears to be 5. beat louie jiang (when he was 1100) who beat sylvain barbeau who beat charbonneau

      would've had a # of 4 had i just won against day but alas ):
      everytime it hurts, it hurts just like the first (and then you cry till there's no more tears)

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      • #18
        Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

        Two more Canadian "3's"

        N. W. MacLeod
        William H. K. Pollock
        also confirmation of Morrison's "3"


        from http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/chessincanada.htm

        Canadians would occasionally travel to strong tournaments abroad. Two time Canadian champion N.W. MacLeod competed in Steinitz's candidates tournament at New York 1889. William H. K. Pollock went to Hastings 1895 beating Steinitz, Seigbert Tarrasch and Isidor Gunsberg in their individual games. Three-time Canadian champion Magnus Smith beat Pillsbury and Lasker in numerous simul games, and pioneered the Magnus Smith trap which Schlechter used in the 7th game of his match with Lasker in 1910: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bc4 d6 7. Nxc6 bc 8. e5 when 8...de fails to 9. Bxf7+ Kxf7 10 Qxd8. Five-time Canadian champion John Stewart Morrison played at New York 1913, New York 1918 (beating Janowski) and London 1922 (beating Euwe and Maroczy).

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        • #19
          Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

          My Kasparov number is 2 (from beating Seirawan). Ditto for my Karpov number. My Fischer number is also 2 (from beating Pupols). My Morphy number appears to be 4 (from playing Bisguier, e.g.).

          An interesting concept, although I would have preferred a shot at a 1!

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          • #20
            Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

            Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
            Two more Canadian "3's"

            William H. K. Pollock went to Hastings 1895 beating Steinitz, Seigbert Tarrasch and Isidor Gunsberg in their individual games.
            and he played Henry Bird (England), thus he, William H. K. Pollock, was/is #2 :)

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasting...ess_tournament

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            • #21
              Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

              Originally posted by Fred McKim View Post
              Two more Canadian "3's"

              N. W. MacLeod
              William H. K. Pollock
              also confirmation of Morrison's "3"


              from http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/chessincanada.htm

              Canadians would occasionally travel to strong tournaments abroad. Two time Canadian champion N.W. MacLeod competed in Steinitz's candidates tournament at New York 1889. William H. K. Pollock went to Hastings 1895 beating Steinitz, Seigbert Tarrasch and Isidor Gunsberg in their individual games. Three-time Canadian champion Magnus Smith beat Pillsbury and Lasker in numerous simul games, and pioneered the Magnus Smith trap which Schlechter used in the 7th game of his match with Lasker in 1910: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cd 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Bc4 d6 7. Nxc6 bc 8. e5 when 8...de fails to 9. Bxf7+ Kxf7 10 Qxd8. Five-time Canadian champion John Stewart Morrison played at New York 1913, New York 1918 (beating Janowski) and London 1922 (beating Euwe and Maroczy).
              A little more research and Pollock and MacLeod both get promoted to "2's", having both played at least Bird (1889).

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              • #22
                Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

                Jonathan wrote:

                How about a Zed number? You get a Zed number of 1 by beating anybody whose last name begins with Z. They're usually pretty good players ... Yeah, well, most everybody would be Zed-1 or Zed-2, but it still might be a bit of fun.
                I have beaten Milan Zagar, F. Zarezadegan, Ed Zator, M. Zemell, and Jay Zendrowski.

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                • #23
                  Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

                  Btw, chess cafe http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles258.pdf claims that benko's morphy number is 4 (and even confirmed by taking with benko) So, what's your source for his rank of 4?

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                  • #24
                    Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

                    Originally posted by Hugh Brodie View Post
                    Jonathan wrote:



                    I have beaten Milan Zagar, F. Zarezadegan, Ed Zator, M. Zemell, and Jay Zendrowski.

                    I played Capablanca's second cousin which probably makes that a Capablanca 2 or 3 for me. It depends if he directly played the great champion as a child.
                    Gary Ruben
                    CC - IA and SIM

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                    • #25
                      Re: Your &quot;Morphy Number&quot;

                      Originally posted by Roger Patterson View Post
                      Btw, chess cafe http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles258.pdf claims that benko's morphy number is 4 (and even confirmed by taking with benko) So, what's your source for his rank of 4?
                      Hugh's list has some differences from the one in the Chess Cafe article.

                      One important one is another number 1, specifically James Mortimer. The inclusion of him makes Tarkatower a 2, and Yanofsky, Benko and possibly others from this time, 3's instead of 4's.

                      I had to track down who Mortimer (an American) was, as he has no recorded games vs Morphy. Wikipedia says they met and became good friends when Morphy went to France in 1858 for his match with Andresson. Mortimer was stationed there as a diplomat. I think the assumption here is that the two must have played at least an off-hand game during this or some other period.

                      Mortimer did not seem to play any serious chess until the early 80's, when he was already 50.
                      Last edited by Fred McKim; Thursday, 11th November, 2010, 12:43 PM.

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