Morphy number

This gives Mortimer a Morphy number of 1, creating a need to drastically revise those previous lists to include many more players.

[4][5] Mortimer had a very long, if not particularly successful, career, including the Ostende-B 1907 tournament, which enabled many famous younger players to gain a Morphy number of 2, including Mieses, Tartakower, Znosko-Borovsky, and Bernstein, who played beyond WW2, enabling still younger players to gain a Morphy number of 3, and so on.

Smyslov and Keres had very long careers, so much younger players achieved MN4 by playing them.

As of January 2025, living players with Morphy number 3 include Leonard Barden, Bernard Cafferty, Owen Hindle, Christian Langeweg, Friðrik Ólafsson, Oliver Penrose, and Jim Walsh.

As of 2013[update] many of these players are still alive; a few (such as Anand, Adams, Nakamura, Svidler and Ivanchuk) are still active.

As of 2013[update], many of the top grandmasters were thought to be in this group (along with a large number of lower-rated players).