Phony Benoni Member since Feb-10-06 · Last seen Jun-11-22 Greetings, O Seeker After Knowledge! You have arrived in Dearborn, Michigan (whether you like it or not), and are reading words of wisdom from a player rated 2938--plus or minus 1000 points. However, I've retired from serious play--not that I ever took playing chess all that 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 US 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 18634 times to chessgames   [more...]

Jun-11-22 M Blau vs Keres, 1959    Phony Benoni: Not a good recommendation for the DERLD. Out of 59 moves, White makes only three in Black's half of the board. And two of those conist of 3.Bb5 and 6.Bxc6.      Jun-11-22 chessgames.com chessforum    Phony Benoni: Er, it's back. Karpov vs Timman, 1988      Jun-10-22 Orlo Milo Rolo   Phony Benoni: Marco!      Jun-10-22 Lilienthal vs Bondarevsky, 1947   Phony Benoni: Another one for you King Hunters. Black's monarch travels fron g8 to b8, then takes the Great Circle Route back to h3 before calling it a day.      Jun-10-22 GrahamClayton chessforum    Phony Benoni: <GrahamClayton> I've posted a question for you at L T Magee vs J Holland, 1948      Jun-10-22 L T Magee vs E L Holland, 1948    Phony Benoni: <GrahamClayton> The source you cite, <Chess Review, May 1948, p. 24>, gives Black's name as <E Holland> "Chess Life" (June 5, 1948, p. 1) has a table of results giving <E L Holland>. That form also appears in USCF rating supplements for a player fro ...      Jun-09-22 Biographer Bistro    Phony Benoni: SkinnVer Here Among the Fold?      Jun-09-22 Flohr vs Bondarevsky, 1947    Phony Benoni: Black's bishop makes me think of Godzilla emerging from the depths of the ocean to wreak havoc. However, in the end it's his Two Little Friends who steal the show. Well, maybe not so litt.      Jun-06-22 W Ritson-Morry vs G T Crown, 1947   Phony Benoni: it was the last round. Rison-Morry was mired in last place. These things happen.      Jun-06-22 W Adams vs M Kagan, 1947   Phony Benoni: Some more informztion. The game was published in <Chess Review>, March 1948, p. 23. Black's name is given as "M Kagan", and the location as "Massachusetts". There is no other game data, but I think we can now safely assume Black is <Milton Kagan>. Earlier in the ...

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Living in the Past

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 265 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing> Aug-26-11    perfidious: <Phony Benoni> That 1987 game was the last for this player: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... While his career numbers were unimpressive, to put it mildly, he hung around for parts of eight seasons. The 'hold' statistic is lame in my opinion-in how many games does one see a pitcher inherit a three-run lead and two baserunners, allow both to score and get credit for something positive? Aug-29-11    perfidious: Here's a weird stat I ran across today..... http://www.baseball-reference.com/b... Aug-29-11    Phony Benoni: <perfidious> Baseball Reference has been having interesting stuff in their blog of late. One of my greatest "in-person" experiences was watching Frank Howard leg out a triple on a muddy infield. Craters everywhere. Aug-30-11    perfidious: <Phony Benoni> It must be that in Tatis' signature game, the manager thought to leave Park in to finish that third inning, then thought better of it once, as one might term it, the horse was already out of the barn. Watching Howard pull that off must have been rich theatre-wish I could have seen it myself! Howard's value was at the plate, what with his -10.5 career dWAR, but some of his offensive numbers weren't bad, given that he played in pitchers parks his entire career and his prime years were in conditions which swung much in favour of the pitcher. Aug-30-11    Phony Benoni: Howard had one particularly fabulous streak in 1968 (The Year of the Pitcher) where he clubbed 10 home runs in six games. By the time he came to the Tigers he was at the end of his career, but his value was as much in the clubhouse as on the field. Aug-30-11    Jim Bartle: There's a story where Walter Alston told one player to do something or say something to Frank Howard as a practical joke, and it ended with Howard holding the guy over his head and swinging him around. Anybody know the story? (Actually, I may have first read that story on this page.) Aug-30-11    WannaBe: looks like, this Sunday, I will be watching Hudson (Arz) vs Vogelsong (SF). That is according to what ESPN's up coming schedule have listed. Aug-30-11    WannaBe: I am sure <Phony Benoni> is glued to his TV set watching this possible no-hitter between KC-DET game. =) Aug-30-11    WannaBe: Correction, potential Perfect Game. (PPG). Aug-30-11    Phony Benoni: Fister was pitching like this for Seattle, and had a record of 3-11 or something. When he came to Detroit, he figured to get better run support. Ha! He's given up 1 run in his last two games, has a 2-0 win and a no decision tonight. Some pitchers are just doomed to pitch in hard luck. Aug-30-11    Jim Bartle: Such as Nolan Ryan in 1987, 8-16 with a 2.76 ERA. Aug-30-11    perfidious: Here's a former pitcher, likely unfamiliar to most of you-I barely remember him myself-who achieved great success in the game in another way: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeWayn... Aug-31-11    WannaBe: Fister chose the wrong sport, he would have been better off as a puglist. Now, Balfour, that is a great baseball name, or Pickett for football. It is truly too bad, that no one named Aerboll ever played basketball. At least at the highest professional level. Aug-31-11    Jim Bartle: In tennis there were Sybille Bammer and Anna Smashnova. Unfortunately I don't think they ever played each other. Aug-31-11    Phony Benoni: My favorite baseball example remains utility player <Phil Linz>. Aug-31-11    keypusher: Here's a 2007 photo of Frank Howard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/apollo... Dude is huge! Aug-31-11    perfidious: <Phony Benoni> He of the harmonica..... <keypusher> Not that Hondo was ever small or anything like that, but yes, he's all there. Aug-31-11    Jim Bartle: Since the strike zone was probably its largest ever from 1963-68, and that was Howard's prime, it's possible he had the largest strike zone ever. Aug-31-11    perfidious: <Jim> Seems at least highly probable, and when one combines that with the high mounds of that epoch, his BAs in the .270-290 range are impressive indeed for a power hitter. Even Yaz barely hit .300 in '68 for his final AL batting title. Sep-01-11    WannaBe: If you go to espn's web site, MLB section, and then the standings http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings on the right hand side, is the percentage of chance to make the playoffs. All those w/ 0.0 are mathematically eliminated, nice to see that the Dodgers have 0.3 next to them. Which means by this weekend, it will be 0.0 Sep-01-11    Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> That looks like another useless newfangled statistic to me. The "magic number" to mathematically eliminate the Dodgers is fifteen. Even if they lose their next eight games, Arizona will have to win seven in a row to knock them out. Therefore, even at worst they'll be around for a week, and will almost surely survive next weekend. Admittedly, I haven't been following the Dodgers so I don't know what they're capable of. Maybe it is more accurate to measure their chances in fractions rather than integers. Sep-01-11    WannaBe: We have a possible perfect-o game (PPG) in progress, Tampa-Texas... Sep-01-11    WannaBe: I don't know if this has ever been discussed, here at <Phony>'s forum, or anywhere else... No starting pitcher have won the MVP in 25 years, the last one to do it, is none other than "A third ear growing out of my forehead.". Now, since Cy Young award is exclusively for pitchers, is it fair, for pitchers also get the MVP? In hockey, they have the same thing, the last goalie to win the MVP was Jose Theodore for Montreal, in 01-02 season. Sep-01-11    Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> It's debatable. Certainly the prejudice has been against starting pitchers winning the MVP, and on the whole I agree with it. But there's a legitimate debate with Verlander, based on several factors: 1) He's got the statistics, being first or second in the league in the major pitching categories. 2) He's been dominating when he pitches. A couple of rough starts lately, but generally the other team has simply been overmatched. 3) Always pitches deep into games without losing effectiveness. 4) He's 20-5, or fifteen games over .500. When he doesn't pitch, the Tigers are two games <below> .500. They wouldn't be in first place without him. 5) Clutch performances. I think he's started 14 games after a Tigers loss, and won 12 or them. He gets another chance tomorrow night. It's his value to the team, both in his record and clutch performances, that is creating the MVP buzz. As long as he and the Tigers don't stumble in September I think he deserves MVP consideration, but he'd probably have to do a Hersheiser or something to actually win. Sep-01-11    perfidious: Here's a season where the best pitcher in creation probably got jobbed in MVP consideration, despite getting more first-place votes than anyone: http://www.baseball-reference.com/a... Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 914) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 265 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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