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 582 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-15-14    playground player: BTW, have I ever mentioned that I have a genuine Major League connection? I used to teach jiu-jitsu to Ted Kubiak's cousin! I can't remember what his name was. The Oakland A's were big winners, back then. Can I say I contributed to that, in a very small way? May-15-14    Jim Bartle: Seriously, there were certainly many great strikeout pitchers before the split finger, and I'm surprised Berra struck out so little. But if you look at tapes of games from the 50s and 60s, you just don't see one batter after another swinging at pitches around the ankles. On the other hand the strike zone went higher back then, up to mid-chest, and the high fastball is a strikeout pitch. May-15-14    perfidious: <Jim> That strike zone was especially large from 1963-68: one has to figure that Sandy Koufax' numbers would have been purty darn goot in the Roid Era of the 1990s, but nothing like they were, pitching in LA during the new deadball era. May-15-14    Jim Bartle: Huge strike zone (to the bottom of the knees, base of the armpits), huge home ballpark, really helped Koufax. So did his fastball and curve. I read a Ted Williams profile in Sports Illustrated where the writer said Williams really helped the Senators hitters when he became manager in 1969, as the team batting average went up 25 points. Well, with the rule changes I think just about every team's average went up that much. They did score a lot more runs than in 1968, and improved by 20 games. May-15-14    Jim Bartle: I should look before I type. League batting averages only went up .010 or so in 1969. But the number of home runs jumped from about 2000 to 3000, counting both leagues. Runs scored went from about 11,000 to 15,500. May-16-14    perfidious: <Jim> Part of the increase in raw numbers, of course, can be explained away by the addition of two teams in each league beginning in 1969. One curiosity on looking at overall AL stats is how in 1972, average runs scored per game and batting averages nearly fell to levels seen in '68 for some reason before rising sharply again, no doubt due in part to the introduction of the designated hitter. May-16-14    Jim Bartle: Oops, I forgot about the new teams. May-16-14    perfidious: <Jim> Just have a word with Jim Bouton on that, will ya? Have not read <Ball Four> in a long while, but my recollection is that Bouton did a fine job outlining his career, beginning as a Yankee wunderkind, fall from grace and eventual relegation to the fringes of MLB. May-16-14    Jim Bartle: Good book, but he really told stories on his teammates. I liked the stories about his teammates, such as Steve Hovley, who cut his hair really short, then didn't get it cut all season in order to give each hair an equal opportunity. May-16-14    WannaBe: Ah... The Mets. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b... May-17-14    playground player: <perfidious> The 1899 Cleveland Spiders--ugh! Won 20, lost 134, after winning 81 games in 1898. Cy Young leaving the team after the 1898 season (played for St. Louis for two years, then jumped to Boston in the new American League) probably had something to do with the Spiders' horrible comedown. May-17-14    Phony Benoni: <playground player> It was more than just Cy Young. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clevel... Essentially, after the 1898 season the owners of the Spiders bought the bankrupt St. Louis team. Yes, that was a blatant conflict of interest. It was also the Gilded Age.) Believing that St. Louis team would draw better crowds, the owners moved Cleveland's best players to the St. Louis franchise, leaving a shell in Cleveland. The sad story in detail: http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... After a win against the Giants on August 25, their record was 19-94. Then things began to go wrong. They lost their next 24 in a row, won a game, then went on another 12-game losing streak halted only by the end of the season. May-17-14    playground player: <Phoney Benoni> What a sad story! Sic transit gloria aranei... May-17-14    TheFocus: <Phony> Please take a look at <Biographers Bistro> and weigh in on the discussion between me and <Switch>. May-17-14    Phony Benoni: <playground player> Looks like it was worse than I thought. The Spiders' season-ending losing streak was 16 games, so they lost 40 of their last 41. May-18-14    perfidious: One more point on Spiders: to add insult to injury, their stadium burnt, so they played a l-o-o-ong road trip to conclude that nightmare of a campaign. May-19-14    WannaBe: Detroit Tigers have been disbanded, due to lack of fashion sense. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b... May-20-14    OhioChessFan: E-Cubs http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/... May-20-14    perfidious: Wish that extraordinary step had been taken before they swept three in Fenway. Sic transit gloria. May-20-14    WannaBe: Minneapolis have been awarded the 2018 Super Bowl. Bundle up people!! May-20-14    Deus Ex Alekhina: <perfidious> I wish they would track down that Gloria and ask her why she runs away so often. Maybe because she is "sic"? BTW, Phony never throws anything away, it might come back in fashion - he will probably pull his Zubaz wear out of mothballs now. May-20-14    WannaBe: Baseball, how you can never tell, wow. Them Chicago Cubs beat Tanaka, snapping his unbeaten regular season at 42! (Tanaka suffered a loss at last year's Japanese Baseball play-off) http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap... May-21-14    Phony Benoni: Maybe the Cubs should play in the Japanese League. May-21-14    Jim Bartle: Tanaka threw out consecutive runners at home on bunts last night, both hustling plays. Maybe the key is to tire him out. From highlights it doesn't look as if the Cubs hit him hard, the balls just fell in. May-21-14    Phony Benoni: The Tigers lost three straight at Cleveland--including a walf-off balk this afternoon--so I think it's safe to say the Zubaz craze has run its course. Thank Whomever. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 914) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 582 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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