Phony Benoni Member since Feb-10-06 · Last seen May-21-13 Greetings, O Seeker After Knowledge! You have arrived in Detroit, Michigan (whether you like it or not), and are reading words of wisdom from a player rated 2950--plus or minus 1000 points. However, I've more or less retired from serious play--not that I ever took chess really seriously. You only have to look at my games to see that. These days I pursue the simple pleasures of finding games that are bizarre or just plain funny. I'd rather enjoy a game than analyze it. For the record, my name is David Moody. This probably means nothing to you unless you're a longtime player from Michigan, though it's possible that if you attended any U.S. Opens from 1975-1999 we might have crossed paths. Lucky you. If you know me at all, you'll realize that most of my remarks are meant to be humorous. I do this deliberately, so that if my analysis stinks to high heaven I can always say that I was just joking. As you can undoubtedly tell from my sparkling wit, I'm a librarian in my spare time. Even worse, I'm a cataloger, which means I keep log books for cattle. Also, I'm not one of those extroverts who sit at the Reference Desk and help you with research. Instead, I spend all day staring at a computer screen updating and maintaining information in the library's catalog. The general public thinks Reference Librarians are dull. Reference Librarians think Catalogers are dull. My greatest achievement in chess, other than tricking you into reading this, was probably mating with king, bishop and knight against king in a tournament game. I have to admit that this happened after an adjournment, and that I booked up like crazy before resuming. By the way, the fact I have had adjourned games shows you I've been around too long. My funniest moment occurred when I finally got a chance to pull off a smothered mate in actual play. You know, 1.Nf7+ Kg8 2.Nh6+ Kh8 3.Qg8+ Rxg8 4.Nf7#. When I played the climactic queen check my opponent looked at the board in shocked disbelief and said, "But that's not mate! I can take the queen!" Finally, I must confess that I once played a positional move, back around 1982. I'll try not to let that happen again.

Phony Benoni has kibitzed 12208 times to chessgames   [more...]

May-21-13 V Small vs Panno, 1988    Phony Benoni: Panno has suffered through this before: Keres vs Panno, 1955      May-20-13 Biographer Bistro   Phony Benoni: Game Collection: Wageningen 1958 nominated. Busy night.      May-20-13 Samuel Reshevsky    Phony Benoni: Wow! He's playing Albert M Swank !      May-20-13 Gustave Simonson    Phony Benoni: <thomastonk> Perhaps we should adopt the solution used for Emanuel Lasker , who also born in a city under Prussian jurisdiction which is now part of Poland. (As was Tarrasch, for that matter.) On the other hand, there are famous players like Winawer, Janowski, or Akiba ...      May-20-13 F J Moyano Morales vs C Merlo, 1967    Phony Benoni: <20.Qg5+> is the efficient way, of course. It looks like 20.Qh6 also works, since the same combination can be played after 20...Ne8 21.Qg5+ Rxg5 22.Rxg5+ Ng7 23.Rxg7+ Kh8 24.Rbackwards#. Don't know if it's worth full credit, though.      May-19-13 Phony Benoni chessforum    Phony Benoni: <keypusher> Well, there are several things: 1) Good ballplayer with a .322 lifetime average who played on five pennant winners in his ten-year career; 2) Tragedy factor: died from Bright's Disease at the age of 30 3) New York bias; played entire career with the Giants; 4)      May-19-13 H Simonian vs Lutsko, 2007    Phony Benoni: Looking at the contrast between White's queen and Black's king, I might have preferred "The Tortoise and the Hrair."      May-19-13 Yifan Hou vs Lahno, 2012    Phony Benoni: I predict that nobody will get the exact sequence of moves today.      May-18-13 Ding Liren vs Aronian, 2013    Phony Benoni: <mmmjv> There are several moves where White could have taken the d7. He probably didn't because the b6 was actually a stronger piece than the ...      May-18-13 Lasker vs Showalter, 1902   Phony Benoni: The New York Times (10/22/1902) reports that the game was adjourned at the 51st move. Showalter later resigned without resuming (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10/27/1902).

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 389 OF 484 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jun-07-12    Jim Bartle: The Bevens-Lavagetto game is legendary. At least in my hometown, because Lavagetto lived there. Jun-07-12    Jim Bartle: Apologies if I've posted this before, but here's the call of the last half-inning of Hendley's one hitter vs. the Dodgers. (If you're too young to remember Scully, look him up. He was real good.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJdl... Jun-08-12    playground player: I was wondering if anyone had ever driven in 100 or more runs while batting less than .200. Apparently, no. The two who came closest were: Tony Armas, 1983--.218, 107 RBI Dave Kingman, 1982--.204, 99 RBI Rather amazing combinations of futility and potency, don't you think? Jun-08-12    Jim Bartle: When the A's first came to Oakland we all thought Sal Bando must be a great clutch hitter because he hit around .250 yet was up around 100 RBIs. Since then we've learned that batting average isn't everything, but at the time we thought it was amazing, especially since he was only hitting 20-something homers a year. A real surprising 100-RBI season was Tommie Herr for the Cards in 1985, 110 RBIs with only 8 homers. Jun-08-12    playground player: <Jim Bartle> Here's a stat for you: Enzo Hernandez (Padres shortstop), 549 at-bats... and <12> RBIs! I forget what year it was. Betcha Enzo has tried to forget it, too. Jun-08-12    Jim Bartle: I sure hope he was a great fielder. Otherwise, what a disaster. I remember with the Giants when they were good but not good enough from 64 to 70, their infield combination of Lanier and Fuentes just didn't hit at all, and their corner outfielders (especially Jesus Alou) weren't any sluggers either. (Their centerfielder could hit, though.) It got really frustrating. Basically they had great hitting from 3 to 6, then...nothing. Fuentes became a better hitter later, but what a disaster his first few years. Jun-08-12    OhioChessFan: No Triple Crown this year. Jun-08-12    Phony Benoni: <playground player> A quick check indicates that Armas's season appears to be the record. Enzo Hernandez's did that in his rookie season, 1971. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... He batted leadoff regularly. A large part of the credit must go to Padres catcher Bob Barton, who generally batted eighth and managed to score 23 runs with 23 RBIs in 121 games. Here's another record setter: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... He holds the record for most RBIs lifetime without a hit. <OhioChessFan> Oh, I don't know. Josh Hamilton is still near the top in all three categories, isn't he? If you're a feel good kind of person, you admire the owners for not racing a horse with a chance of suffering a serious, if not fatal injury. If you're a cynic, you admire the owners for protecting their stud fees. Jun-08-12    playground player: <Phony Benoni> At the other end of the Yankee spectrum, we have Matty Alou in 1973, batting .296 in 538 at bats, mostly batting third... and a lousy 28 RBIs! And he sure could hit into double plays. I corrected for this in Strat-O-Matic and had him bat second or first, putting on the hit-and-run every time Horace Clarke got on. That was a very frustrating Yankee season to watch (in real life, not SOM... you always do better in SOM). Jun-08-12    Jim Bartle: Bob Barton was a backup catcher for the Giants at the start of his career. I don't know that he would have been any kind of star, but I think Candlestick Park really hurt him. Twice in one game I was sitting in the rightfield bleachers and Barton hit rockets to leftfield, sure homers. Then the wind grabbed them and the ball seemed to shoot straight up, and the leftfielder caught them easily. Jun-09-12    playground player: <Ohio Chess Fan> Actually, Enzo Hernandez did win a kind of Triple Crown in 1971, leading the league (among everyday players) in fewest homers, fewest RBI, and lowest batting average. Jun-09-12    Jim Bartle: In that era speed was generally considered the key attribute for a leadoff hitter (Rose a big exception), compared to getting on base. Hernandez had 21 steals (caught five times) pretty good for a .220 hitter. Jun-09-12    WannaBe: <playground player> Now, that is a TC that no one wants to be a part of. =) Jun-10-12    WannaBe: If/have B. Zito ever pitched against C. Zambrano? Have 2 pitchers, whose last name start with 'Z' or 'X', ever pitched against each other? Enquiring minds would like to know. Jun-10-12    Phony Benoni: I wouldn't have thought it, but apparently Zito and Zambrano have never pitched against each other, at least before this year. This game was the closest I could find: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... I'm sure two "Z"s have faced each other in the past, but don't feel like looking it up at the moment. However, I can guarantee that two "X"s have never done so, simply because there has yet to be a major league player whose last name began with "X". However, with all the Asian imports we see these days that's bound to happen soone or later. Speaking of "Z"s, here are two who share another remarkable distinction. Can you figure out what it is? http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... And here's a World Series champion with two "Z"s on its pitching staff: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... Jun-10-12    Phony Benoni: Darn West Coast Baseball! I wasn't aware until just now that there was a no-hitter Friday night! http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gametr... Jun-10-12    Jim Bartle: I saw that no-hitter in the sixth, fell asleep, and didn't even remember to check the scores in the morning. Jun-11-12    Jim Bartle: Angels and Devils both playing tonight in LA. Not against each other, though. Jun-11-12    WannaBe: Devils lost!! =))))))))))))) The Kings is [sic] dead, long live the Kings!!! Jun-12-12    Jim Bartle: The Angels brought in LaTroy Hawkins to pitch. For a moment I thought I was watching a game from the 90s. The game is tied, but the Angels starter must be irritated. He got walked (the game's at Dodger Stadium), got picked off by about ten feet, and the next guy (Trout) hit a home run on the next pitch. Jun-12-12    Jim Bartle: Dodgers are having a Mike Scioscia bobblehead night (he's blocking the plate), which is a nice gesture. Pujols just does not look right in his Angels uniform. Dodger broadcast quiz tonight: Four Dodgers have caught more than a thousand games. Who are the other three aside from Scioscia? I'd say two are pretty obvious; no idea of the last one. Jun-12-12    Phony Benoni: Roy Campanella and John Roseboro came to mind for me. Had to look up Steve Yeager. Jun-12-12    Jim Bartle: And I fell asleep before he gave the answer, or I missed it. Jun-13-12    Phony Benoni: Somebody has got to write an article about how lumbago has changed the game of baseball. Take the case of Fred Tenney. Considered one of the best fielding first basemen of his day, Tenney had his last productive year at the age of 36 with the 1908 New York Giants. He played in every game except one, when he was laid low by an attack of lumbago. Spelling him at first base that day was Fred Merkle. Yup. It was THAT game. Jun-13-12    Jim Bartle: Yeager was the fourth Dodger catcher with 1000 games? I'm surprised, because he split so much time with Joe Ferguson. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 484) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 389 OF 484 ·  Later Kibitzing>		Deep Fritz 13

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