User Profile: Phony Benoni

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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.

>> Click here to see Phony Benoni's game collections.

   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 ...

indicates a reply to the comment.

Living in the Past

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 269 OF 914 · Later Kibitzing>
Sep-10-11		playground player: <Esteemed colleague Phony Benoni> As a man who has forgotten more chess than I'll ever know, and who also remembers Jerry Lumpe playing for the Tigers, please tell me what defense you recommend against the Scotch Game. And anyone else who wants to chime in, please do--I'm looking for ideas.

Sep-10-11		perfidious: <playground player> The line I always used was 4....Bc5, as I preferred to avoid 4....Nf6, and this was in the mid 1980s, before Kasparov's advocacy of the Scotch caused theory in that opening to explode. I'm a bit too young to recall Lumpe playing for anyone, but Bill James wrote an interesting piece on the Kansas City A's franchise, part of which dealt with their status as farm team for Yankees and the nice little shuttle the teams had, on which Lumpe took a turn. If Yankees hadn't traded him to KC, one suspects he'd have had no career at all, backing up Bobby Richardson and/or languishing in the minors. Here's another player who rode the KC-NY shuttle and helped Yankees win a Series in '61: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p...

Sep-10-11		playground player: <perfidious> Bc5, thank you--I'll write it down. Yes, Ralph Terry--and he had a lot of company on that shuttle. KC A's who played for the Yanks in 1961: Terry, Bud Daley, Bob Cerv, Joe DeMaestri, Hector Lopez, Roger Maris... Have I missed any?

Sep-10-11		Phony Benoni: Naturally, Baseball-Reference.com has an app for that. Here's a list of everybody who played for both the Kansas City Athletics and the New York Yankees: http://www.baseball-reference.com/f... Naturally, guys like Catfish Hunter don't count as "shuttle" players, but there are quite enough actual examples on this list. <playground player> In regards to the Scotch, you should probably listen to <perfidious>. I'm a 4...Nf6 guy myself, but the 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 line is a dangerous line for White. I used to play a crazy variation as Black, simply because it was so funny: <1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 Nd5 8.c4 Ba6 9.b3 0-0-0> click for larger view This is not to everybody's taste. I did have one amusing game against a guy who transposed moves: NN - Moody,D (Detroit, 1994) <1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.e5?> No, no, no: you play 5.Nxc6 first. The only reason this doesn't get two question marks is because it's not necessarily a losing blunder against me. <5...Nxe5 6.Bf4 Bb4+ 7.c3 Qe7> You never know, you know. click for larger view <8.Nf5?? Nf3#> 0-1 Double oog with nuts.

Sep-10-11		playground player: <Phony Benoni> Thank you, I've printed it out for further study. It's possible my biggest problem was that I was playing in an online tournament that required me to play a bunch of games simultaneously--not my cup of tea. Anyhow, my opponent using the Scotch Game wiped up the floor with me. She also did me in with a Sicilian. Why, why, oh why didn't I play the Polish Opening???

Sep-10-11		Phony Benoni: <playground player> Black needs to respect any opening Kasparov is willing to play, and the Scotch has enough traps in it to snare the unwary. But Black can strike back as well: E Delmar vs Lipschutz, 1888

Sep-11-11		Phony Benoni: Not a bad sports day in these parts. First the Tigers get another walk-off home run to maintain their 10-game lead. Then Michigan State edges Florida Atlantic 27-1. Oh, wait, that was the total in first downs. Scorewise, it was 44-0. Then UM falls behind 24-7 after three quarters, but comes back to win 35-31 as the lead changes three times in the last 70 seconds. I'm glad I wasn't watching that one!

Sep-11-11		perfidious: <Phony Benoni: Not a bad sports day in these parts. First the Tigers get another walk-off home run to maintain their 10-game lead....> Not to mention their now 1.5 game edge on Rangers for the right to host the AL East runner-up in the first round, which was supposed to be a mortal lock for Texas-even Rangers' division title is now in doubt.

Sep-11-11		Phony Benoni: Fans around here are getting greedy, and talking like the Tigers can make up the 4.5 game deficit on the Yankees and take over the #1 seed. That seems a bit too much to ask for. The Tigers aren't that good a team, and the #2 seed would be a success.

Sep-11-11		perfidious: <Phony Benoni> Seeing much the same sort of talk online re the wild card, with Red Sox in freefall and only up that same 4.5 games on Tampa. Red Sox and Yankees meet for three in the Bronx on the final weekend, which kills Tigers' chances.

Sep-11-11		Phony Benoni: <perfidious> As long as we're disregarding 4.5 game leads, we should probably note that the Angels are only 5.0 games behind the Red Sox. We have to find interest in this pennant race somewhere.

Sep-11-11		hangingenprise: <hey phony> ur lions look very good. then again, so do mr. bickles bears. is this the match-up.... o wait, there are those cheese heads up north. a very tough division this year!

Sep-11-11		hangingenprise: a great game by michigan. there are some tears in the irish beers yesterday.

Sep-11-11		Phony Benoni: Lions had to survive a rugby scrum at the end there. Winning the opener on the road is going to take some getting used to! Tigers made it nine in a row today, despite Victor Martinez tying the Joe Torre Record by hitting into four double plays: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/gametr...

Sep-12-11		Phony Benoni: From an article by Den Kelly in the Waterville NY Times, June 2, 1999: <"Why is a first-year player in sports called a "rookie"? The name came from chess, where a rook is often the last piece played. In the early days of baseball, first year players--usually the last used--became known as "rooks" or "rookies".> Uh-huh. Sure. Wikipedia quotes the <Oxford English Dictionary> saying it is likely a corruption of the word "recruit".

Sep-12-11		I play the Fred: In a related story, I tend to handle my rooks like a first-year baseball player.

Sep-12-11		Phony Benoni: Actually, there is a connection between early baseball and chess. Henry Chadwick, a pioneer sportswriter and statistician who invented such details as the box score, the batting average and the earned run average. was also an active chess player and writer: http://books.google.com/books?id=6u... Oddly, though, there are no rooks in the book, only castles.

Sep-13-11		LIFE Master AJ: Game Collection: US Open 1981, Palo Alto You should add my loss to Soltis ... just to complete the collection (LOL)

Sep-13-11		Phony Benoni: <LIFE Master AJ> Will do, though I'm a long way from serious work on that collection. Right now, I'm submitting games from Baltimore 1948--losses in round two by both Bisguier and Evans!

Sep-14-11		WannaBe: Dodgers have finally reached the magic number of 0.0 for play-off (chance). http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings

Sep-14-11		Phony Benoni: Tigers, on the other hand, are at 99.9. They have won 11 in a row, and have a 12.5 game lead with 14 games to play. Even the pessimists are conceding they have a reasonable chance to make the playoffs. Verlander went to 23-5 last night, winning his 11th start in a row. 7 innings, 0 runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts.

Sep-14-11		perfidious: Tampa Bay has the goods to win four of the six divisions-any but both Eastern Divisions. Excellent starting pitching, but not the lineup to score runs and bludgeon teams the way Red Sox, Yankees and Texas have, which overcomes their sometimes erratic starting pitching. Speaking of the goods, it's good to see Verlander went only seven-why waste him now? Only question is whether objectivity can overcome stupidity and get Verlander a unanimous Cy.

Sep-14-11		Phony Benoni: It's getting more possible. The current streak is focusing some more attention on the Tigers; they're now the second seed, two games ahead of Texas. Verlander has two more starts; if he wins them both that's 25 wins, which somehow sounds so much better than 23 or 24. He's probably picked up another vote or two the last week, but I still doubt he'll sweep.

Sep-14-11		WannaBe: Either this guy is really that good, and the Mariners are pure genius, or the Mariners have the worst farm system in the majors. http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...

Sep-14-11		Phony Benoni: These things happen in September. Likely the guy will never be heard from again. By the way, I think this is the game referred to: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... It knocked the Phillies out of first place during their collapse down the stretch in 1964. At least I think this is it. Most of the details fit, but he got Cloninger's W-L record wrong and left out one of the Phillies' pitchers.

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