Matvey Natanzon (better known by his pseudonym Falafel) (July 5, 1968 – February 14, 2020[1][2]) was a Russian-born Israeli backgammon player.
Natanzon was born in Soviet Russia and moved with his mother to Azor, a small Israeli town near Tel Aviv, in 1972.
Homeless, he lived for 6 months in Washington Square Park and learned to hustle chess and backgammon from local gamblers.
[3] Some of Natanzon's associates at that time went on to become famous poker players, including Phil Laak, Gus Hansen, and Abe Mosseri.
Although the rankings are not precise, Jake Jacobs, the list's compiler, says about it that "We can never know for certain who is the best player in a given year, but we can confidently eliminate 99.99 per cent.