Fischer Number

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Dave Ewart
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Re: Fischer Number

Post by Dave Ewart » Wed Feb 17, 2016 11:07 am

I've just happened upon this thread. Although I've never managed above BCF/ECF 170 I'm sure I must be able to find suitable paths, because I played a lot of London Junior Chess Championships in the early 1980s and am fairly convinced I must have no more than a two step path to Michael Adams or Matthew Sadler, perhaps. A couple of people I beat are now rated 200+ so this sounds like a fun game.

Challenge Accepted :-D

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Dave Ewart
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Re: Fischer Number

Post by Dave Ewart » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:49 pm

Well the best I can do is a Fischer Number of 5 and a Kasparov Number of 5. You've no idea how much dredging of all scorebooks and of chessgames.com it took to come up with this...

I beat Chris Briscoe (twice: North London Under-10 1981, London Juniors Under-16 1985; he got his revenge in 1987!)
Chris Briscoe beat Andrew Greet, Hastings 2008
Andrew Greet beat Jonathan Speelman, Gibraltar 2007
Jonathan Speelman beat Short on a few occasions
Short beat Kasparov, London 1993

Picking up on Jonathan Speelman gives me a path to Fischer:

Speelman beat Larsen, Lone Pine 1978
Larsen beat Fischer, 1966

Another route I tried started with M N Anderton, who I beat twice in Essex v Surrey Under-18 matches (1986 and 1988). According to the ECF grading pages, he beat Simon Williams in the Surrey League in 2011. But I couldn't step further from Williams: any ideas? Oh well, it gives me a Ginger GM Number of 2 at any rate.

If we allow simuls, then I beat Neil Carr at a simul (Ilford Chess Club, 1990) - Neil himself beat _Karpov_ in a simul in 1984... *laughs*

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Fischer Number

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:55 pm

Williams has beaten Korchnoi, which should give you a good route out.

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Dave Ewart
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Re: Fischer Number

Post by Dave Ewart » Wed Feb 17, 2016 8:06 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Williams has beaten Korchnoi, which should give you a good route out.
Ah, brilliant. That gives me a Korchnoi Number of 3. He's beaten both Kasparov and Fischer, so that reduces both my Kasparov Number and Fischer Number to 4. Splendid, thanks Jack :D

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