Shortest paths in a divisor graph
Matlab, 218 190 175 bytes
function f(a,b);q=a;l(b)=0;l(a)=1;while~l(b);x=q(1);q=q(2:end);l(end+1:x^2)=0;g=x+1:x^2;s=2:x-1;u=[g(~mod(g,x)),s(~mod(x,s)&amp;s.^2&gt;=x)];u=u(~l(u));q=[q,u];l(u)=l(x)+1;end;l(b)-1

Thanks @beaker for the shortcut in in the list lengthening step!
This is a relatively straightforward dijkstra implementation:
q=a;                  %queue
l(b)=0;       %list of path lengths
l(a)=1;
while~l(b);         %if there is no predecessor to b
    x=q(1);         %get first queue element
    q=q(2:end);
    %add edges 
    l(end+1:x^2)=0;% lengthen predecessor list if too short
    g=x+1:x^2;      % g=greater neighbours
    s=2:x-1;        % s=smaller neighbours %keep only valid/unvisited neighbours 
    u=[g(~mod(g,x)),s(~mod(x,s)&amp;s.^2&gt;=x)]; %-1byte
    u=u(~l(u));
    q=[q,u];      %add only hte valid nodes edges to queue
    l(u)=l(x)+1;       %mark x as predecessor  
end;
l(b)-1 %output length to the end of the path

 no convolution today