British Master title (1972)

[Kevin Thurlow]

And just to confuse matters, David Rabinovich changed his name to David Raeburn I believe. John Saunders will confirm...

[John Saunders]

He will and he does...

[E Michael White]

Counting Mortimer as M1, the number of traceable living M3s is probably 15-20, principally via Tartakover who met Mortimer at Ostend 1907.

Does that include Michel Roethel, Aleksandar Matanović and Rudolf Teschner, who played Tartakover in Paris in 1954 ? All these players are still on the current FIDE rating lists.

With lots of loose assumptions, plenty of estimation, conjecturing, guessing and speculation I estimate the average Morphy number for English players on the ECF rating list is about 5.4.

[Leonard Barden]

Counting Mortimer as M1, the number of traceable living M3s is probably 15-20, principally via Tartakover who met Mortimer at Ostend 1907.

Does that include Michel Roethel, Aleksandar Matanović and Rudolf Teschner, who played Tartakover in Paris in 1954 ? All these players are still on the current FIDE rating lists.

With lots of loose assumptions, plenty of estimation, conjecturing, guessing and speculation I estimate the average Morphy number for English players on the ECF rating list is about 5.4.

My calculation did include Matanovic, who I think also played Tartakover at Bled 1950. My old friend Teschner passed away in 2006, and I've never heard of the other guy. Incidentally I played Tartakover three times, the first two in 1945 when I visited the then BCM editor Julius du Mont's house and found the doctor there, resplendent in his Free French uniform and discussing 500 Master Games which he and du Mont wrote jointly. He was persuaded to play me a game in which, through casualness or kindness (I'm still not sure which) he managed to trap his own queen on a4 as Black in a Dutch. He swiftly crushed me in a return and did so again in a tournament game at Southsea 1950. So I have a total of five Morphy3 norms, three via Tartakover and onc each via Mieses and Znosko-Borovsky.

[Frederick Rhine]

I have a lengthy post on Morphy numbers at http://chicagochess.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... rs_21.html (OR http://tinyurl.com/22v9576). My conclusion there is that living MN3s include Leonard Barden, Pal Benko, Arthur Bisguier, Melvin Chernev, Andrija Fuderer, Svetozar Gligorić, Dennis Horne, Borislav Ivkov, Erik Karklins, Louis Levy, Aleksandar Matanović, Fridrik Olafsson, Jonathan Penrose, Oliver Penrose, Arturo Pomar, Lothar Schmid, and Peter Swinnerton-Dyer. Possibles include Peter Clarke (if he played T.H. George) and Gudbjartur Gudmundsson (if still alive).

[Frederick Rhine]

Picking up on Mr. Barden's observation that Mortimer played Ossip Bernstein at Ostend 1907, I see that Bernstein at the 1961 IBM tournament played Franz Kuijpers (1941- ). http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1335296 That makes at least 18 living MN3s. Bernstein also played Larsen, who sadly is no longer with us. http://tinyurl.com/2bak8yd

[Frederick Rhine]

There is an interesting article by chess historian Jeremy Spinrad about Mortimer at http://www.chesscafe.com/text/spinrad02.pdf. Apparently three of Mortimer's last four tournaments were the City of London Championships of 1907-08, 1909-10, and 1910-11. I don't know whether in any of those tournaments he played any young whippersnappers who went on to have long chess careers.

[E Michael White]

On the wider definition of M1 to include Mortimer, there are at least 2 French players, who would be M3 and maybe still living.

Michel Roethel was probably an amateur and is mentioned in this link http://echecs64.20minutes-blogs.fr/arch ... eunes.html as playing club chess in 2009. Roethel played Tartakover in Paris in 1953.

Cesar Bouteville played Tartakover in Paris in 1955. Bouteville played in a section of a French Championship last month, as described in this link http://canalsaintmartin.blogspot.com/20 ... ureux.html , and so may be the oldest active M3, defining active as playing a FIDE rated event in the last 12 months.

Tartakover played in more than one City of Paris event in the 1950s which makes me think there are probably more French M3s.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Isn't Bouteville well into his 90s now? Maybe he is the oldest FIDE-rated player as well??

[David Williams]

I was wondering what the highest MN would be, and it's probably not a high number. Even if you've only played half a dozen casual games, at least one of your opponents will have been taught by his grandfather who once played someone who once played Leonard Barden. There may not be many people in this country who go beyond MN6.

[Frederick Rhine]

There will be some people with undefined Morphy numbers, for example a group of kids who have only played among each other. But apart from those people, your surmise sounds about right. Similarly, about 12% of actors have undefined Bacon numbers, and 8 is the highest known Bacon number. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degree ... on_numbers

[Richard James]

Leonard

Do you by any chance have the score of your game against Mieses? It would enable me to demonstrate my own MN of 4 based on serious competitive games.

You probably don't remember, but we played at Hammersmith in 1971. I lost, of course, but I'll never forget your words of encouragement after the game.

[Leonard Barden]

Leonard

Do you by any chance have the score of your game against Mieses? It would enable me to demonstrate my own MN of 4 based on serious competitive games.

You probably don't remember, but we played at Hammersmith in 1971. I lost, of course, but I'll never forget your words of encouragement after the game.

The Mieses scoresheet disappeared into the great database in the sky decades before I realised its possible historical significance. All I can recall is that it was a Scandinavian where the Altmeister had to sac a piece early to rescue his queen from being trapped on the Q-side, after which he outplayed me and I was glad to escape with a half point. As to the Hammersmith game, I only remember that you looked scared at the start.

[Richard James]

As to the Hammersmith game, I only remember that you looked scared at the start.

I'm amazed that you can remember something like that from a game you played nearly 40 years ago against a random patzer. But then I spent most of the first 30 years or so of my life looking scared. One day I'll explain why.

For the record:

James,R - Barden,LW [A26]
Hammersmith (3), 1971
1.Nf3 g6 2.g3 Bg7 3.Bg2 d6 4.c4 e5 5.d3 Nc6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.0–0 0–0 8.Rb1 a5 9.a3 Nh5 10.b4 axb4 11.axb4 f5 12.Bd2 f4 13.b5 Ne7 14.Ne1 c6 15.bxc6 bxc6 16.Nc2 g5 17.Ra1 Rxa1 18.Qxa1 g4 19.Qd1 Rf5 20.e4 Rf7 21.Re1 Ng6 22.Qa1 Bh6 23.Rd1 fxg3 24.fxg3 Bxd2 25.Rxd2 Qb6+ 26.d4 Be6 27.Qa8+ Nf8 28.Qa2 Ra7 29.Qb1 Qxb1+ 30.Nxb1 Bxc4 31.dxe5 dxe5 32.Rd6 Rc7 33.Nba3 Be6 34.Kf2 Nf6 35.Nb4 c5 36.Nd3 N6d7 37.Ke3 Kf7 38.Nf2 Rb7 39.Rd3 Rb2 40.Bf1 Nb6 41.h3 c4 42.Rc3 Na4 43.Rc1 Rb3+ 0–1

[Frederick Rhine]

I'm told that Mortimer's opponents in his last tournaments included Sir George Thomas, E.G. Sergeant, and J.H. Blake. Thomas played Leonard Barden at Southsea 1949, thereby making Mr. Barden an MN3 by yet another route. Sergeant played P.H. Clarke in the 1959 British Championship, making Clarke an MN3 irrespective of whether he ever played T.H. George. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1161396