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 37 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing> Oct-22-08    Phony Benoni: <You Rang> Maybe that shows you're a better player than you think... Oct-23-08    ahmadov: <Phony Benoni: <Ahmadov> I think it's a breach of etiquette to offer another after being refused.> With me, that is not a problem, especially if I am confident that you are a gentlman ;-) I have already offered draw... Good luck for the rest of the tournament! Oct-23-08    Phony Benoni: <ahmadov> And I have accepted. Good luck to you! Oct-23-08    YouRang: <Phony Benoni: <You Rang> Maybe that shows you're a better player than you think...> I'd *like* to think that, but it rather left me the opposite impression. :-p Looking at the position, it took me only a moment to know which piece I would have to move for black to win, and with that in mind, I should have figured out white's move much sooner. Nov-03-08    Phony Benoni: <YET ANOTHER SILLY DATABASE STATISTIC> Which player has the most games in the database that were played in the 19th century? I haven't researched this thoroughly, but so far I've been able to identify an even dozen with at least 300 games. Guesses and additions are hereby solicited. WARNING: I consider 1900 to be the last year of the 19th century. It makes a difference in one case. By the way, NN does not make the top twelve. He/She/It has only 283 games, or 261 if you exclude 1900. Nov-04-08    SwitchingQuylthulg: Checked some notable players and found 13 with 300+ games played up to 1900 :) Nov-04-08    Phony Benoni: <SwitchingQuyithuig> You're right; for some reason, I didn't check Louis Paulsen. I've done some more systematic research, and here is a list of the players with at least 100 games in the 19th century: Adolf Anderssen 780 Joseph Henry Blackburne 770 Wilhelm Steinitz 732 Mikhail Chigorin 516 Henry Edward Bird 467 Emanuel Lasker 437 Louis Paulsen 436 Johannes Zukertort 424 Siegbert Tarrasch 417 Paul Morphy 403 Howard Staunton 328 James Mason 327 Harry Nelson Pillsbury 303 Simon Winawer 287 NN 283 Amos Burn 280 George Henry Mackenzie 280 Jackson Whipps Showalter 270 Emil Schallopp 247 Gustav Richard Neumann 237 David Janowski 230 Carl Schlechter 223 Isidor Gunsberg 209 Berthold Englisch 196 Johannes von Minckwitz 178 Georg Marco 177 Samuel Rosenthal 170 Geza Maroczy 169 Rudolf Rezso Charousek 167 Max Weiss 167 Emmanuel Schiffers 165 Ignatz Von Kolisch 156 Daniel Harrwitz 154 Johann Nepomuk Berger 151 Wilfried Paulsen 142 Adolf Schwarz 142 Josef Noa 137 Karl A Walbrodt 132 Baron Tassilo Heydebrand und der Lasa 131 Jacques Mieses 127 Bernhard Horwitz 124 Johann Jacob Loewenthal 120 John Cochrane 118 Adolf Albin 114 Jules Arnous De Riviere 113 Jean Taubenhaus 112 Alexander McDonnell 111 Max Judd 110 David Graham Baird 106 Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais 105 Semion Alapin 103 Curt von Bardeleben 103 Only 52. Quite a contrast from these days when a fellow like Magnus Carlsen can average over a hundred games a year. Nov-05-08    Phony Benoni: Sorry! Add #53: Frank James Marshall 100 Nov-08-08    brankat: Happy Birthday PB!!! Nov-08-08    WannaBe: Happy Birthday, you big Phony, you! =) Nov-08-08    DoctorD: I saw your comment about "talking chess." Yes this interests me and I agree it is hard to find folks who want to do so. I've never been able to string together any kind of tournament career, and like you, I don't trust my abilities these days enough to plunge back in that pool. Happy B'day by the way. Nov-08-08    Phony Benoni: Thanks everybody. You know you're getting old when your age exceeds the number of kibitzing pages in your profile. Nov-10-08    WannaBe: <Phony Benoni> That's not too hard, when you only have 3 pages worth. =) Nov-12-08    Phony Benoni: Speaking of that, here's an idea for an interesting silly database statistic. I've been watching the growth of the Kenneth Rogoff page of late, to the point where there are now more pages of kibitzing (115) than games in the database (78). Who holds the record in this regard? Obvious candidates are Odd Lie (250 pages, 42 games, +208) and Beer (187 pages, 2 games, +185). Among more active players we have Robert James Fischer (1109 pages, 943 games, +166). Note that this is not the same as most kibitzes. Vladimir Kramnik leads in that regard, but has only 1320 pages against 1918 games (-598). Conversely, what player has the most games with no kibitizes as well? Unfortunately, as soon as he/she/it is discovered somebody will kibitz there, so it's a moving target. Nov-12-08    SwitchingQuylthulg: <Among more active players we have Robert James Fischer (1109 pages, 943 games, +166).> Magnus Carlsen does even better in that regard. Varlam Vepkhvishvili has 2 kibitzes and 1860 games, which is probably be some sort of record. (Admittedly, of those 1860 games, all but Beliavsky vs V Vepkhvishvili, 1972, Shabalov vs V Vepkhvishvili, 1989 and V Vepkhvishvili vs S Feller, 2005 are recent additions - I wonder which user saw it fit to send CG the other 1857.) Nov-12-08    SwitchingQuylthulg: As for most games with no kibitzes on the player page at all, Jiri Stocek (who with 925 has more games than Carlsen!) should be very high up the list. Nov-12-08    Phony Benoni: Magnus Carlsen (1240 pages, 916 games, +324)--very impressive! Nov-12-08    Pyke: <Phony Benoni> What a grand idea! :-) What about Victor the Terrible, Vicky Korchnoi: According to this database: 4232 games, 51 pages of Kibitzing. That would make a score of: <<<<-4181>>>> I'd like to see that beaten. Nov-12-08    Pyke: I mean for a negative record of course! Nov-12-08    Pyke: Hours of research - and some beers - later, I think that <Switch> nailed it. I couldn't find any player with more games and no kibitzes. Nov-12-08    Phony Benoni: <Pyke> Yes, I've noticed that User: SwitchingQuylthulg is very good at this sort of thing! Nov-13-08    suenteus po 147: I'm just scan this page of kibitzes and thought I'd drop a tidbit of trivia: You will find that Czech players are often better represented than most other players of different nationalities. This is in large part to the prodigious efforts of <Honza Cervenka> who has supplied copious game scores for Czech players in the database, both famous and less well known. He was also responsible for adding over 300 games to Siegbert Tarrasch's page as well since he's also a fan of the old masters :) Nov-13-08    Phony Benoni: <suenteus po 147> I salute his efforts. When I was young, I had a dream of having Every Game Ever Played available at my fingertips. I know better than to wish for that now, having contributed a number of scores that deeserve no better fate than spending eternity decaying in landfills. But I still appreciate anyone who is willing to preserve the history of the game. Nov-20-08    Phony Benoni: Ready for another (probably justifiably) obscure bit of chess trivia? Consider these five players: Geza Maroczy Ernst Gruenfeld Heinrich Wagner Akiba Rubinstein Alexander Alekhine They were the first five players to accomplish a significant chess feat. Any idea what it might have been? Nov-20-08    WannaBe: Have a variation named after them? Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 914) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 37 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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