Matvey Natanzon

Matvey Natanzon (better known by his pseudonym Falafel) (July 5, 1968 - February 14, 2020[1][2]) was a Russian-born Israeli backgammon player.

Life and career

Natanzon was born in Soviet Russia and moved with his mother to Azor, a small Israeli town near Tel Aviv, in 1972.[3] He moved to Buffalo, New York as a teenager. Natanzon graduated from the New York State University at Buffalo in 1991 with a degree in accounting.[4] Shortly thereafter he moved to Manhattan. 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. Natanzon himself played poker and was part owner of a card parlor in Tel Aviv.[4]

In 2005 Natanzon played on the Israeli team in the Nations Cup backgammon tournament.[5]

In 2007, Natanzon was named the number one backgammon player in the world by an unscientifically compiled peer-audited review known as Giants of Backgammon. 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. Falafel survived the cut."[3]

Natanzon died on February 14, 2020.

References
  1. "NATANZON, Matvey". The Buffalo News. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  2. "Falafel died on February 14th". The Economist. March 19, 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  3. Raffi Khatchadourian (May 13, 2013). "The Chaos of the Dice". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
  4. Michael Kaplan (November–December 2007). "Rolling the Dice in Paradise". Cigar Aficionado. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
  5. "Israel Jeux - Eric Guedj : Partouche Backgammon vient d'ouvrir le premier portail Web de Backgammon". IsraelValley News. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
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