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 606 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-29-14    WannaBe: Re: 1941 hits leader, I peeked, and never heard of the guy... Jul-29-14    OhioChessFan: Agree on Smoltz and Johnson and Martinez. I'd have to think about Sheffield too. Jul-29-14    Phony Benoni: <playground player> The name Cecil Travis comes to remind. I believe he hit .358, two points above DiMaggio. Jul-30-14    playground player: <Phony Benoni> You da man! Cecil Travis, Washington Senators shortstop, led the AL in hits in 1941 with 218, batting .359. Not exactly a fluke: his lifetime BA, over 12 years, was .314. Pho knows baseball! <WannaBe> Brian Giles? Are you kidding me? You mean the Brian Giles who used to decorate the Mets' bench? I thought a Hall of Fame was supposed to be full of people who are... well, famous. I never heard of most of those guys. Jul-30-14    WannaBe: Well, this is quite exciting, of the six divisions, the one with the biggest lead is Detroit (5 games), all others are tight! Watch-out Brewers, here come them Pirates! Jul-30-14    Phony Benoni: I want to see John Kruk present Randy Johnson at his HOF Induction. Probably spend his whole speech ducking. Jul-30-14    WannaBe: He'll probably wear his suit backwards and talk out of his behind! Jul-30-14    Jim Bartle: Looked up Cecil Travis, who I'd never heard of. Seems he was a really good player whose career was stopped cold by WWII. Jul-30-14    perfidious: <Jim> Check out the career of Harlond Clift, an AL contemporary of Travis and the first power-hitting third baseman, well before Eddie Mathews, widely regarded as the prototype: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p... Jul-30-14    Jim Bartle: I'd heard of Clift at least. I guess it didn't help his and Travis' level of recognition that they played for the Browns and the Senators. Jul-30-14    WannaBe: Kluber of Cleveland Indians had a complete game shut out the Mariners (F. "King" Hernandez) today (gave up 3 hits). Well, that itself is pretty good, if not impressive. Kluber only threw 85 pitches(!!??!!) http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxsc... Wow. Jul-30-14    Jim Bartle: 69 strikes and 16 balls. A complete game under 100 pitches is now called a "Maddux." Jul-30-14    Phony Benoni: We've seen some really bad base running this year, but this one may take the cake. Watch the Pirates walk into a double play: http://www.mlb.com/r/video?content_... Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: Looks like the runner on second thought he was forced to third. Jul-31-14    Phony Benoni: I've heard of walking a batter to set up a double play, but that was ridiculous. Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: The Pirates announcer is totally confused, and doesn't even describe the play. I would fine the runner on second for the mental error. Then he couldn't even stay in the rundown for more than a couple of seconds. Jul-31-14    WannaBe: http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story... Lester and Gomes going to Oakland, Cespedes going to Boston. Wow! Jul-31-14    Phony Benoni: To show you what I think about, my first thought was whether Cespedes can handle left field at Fenway. The Wall may get a little more pounding, but it has ways of extracting revenge. I'm really liking this deal for Oakland. Straight-up it would have been a good deal, and they get Gomes as well? No superstar, but a useful major-league player. Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: I'm thinking the other way, though I don't claim to understand it all. The A's give up a great young hitter for half a season of a top pitcher? Plus Gomes. The A's are gambling on winning it all this year. Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: Now, Lackey to the Cardinals. Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: Listening to ESPN Radio. Man, do I hate talk about salaries and managing team budgets. At least the Cespedes for Lester and Gomes trade today is an actual trade, where we can discuss the relative value of the players, and not just talk about money. I was really happy when the other day Bill Simmons was talking to one of his friends and the friend told him he was really, really tired of all the talk about salaries and cap space in the NBA. Jul-31-14    playground player: <Esteemed Baseball Mavens> WAR, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'! They've invented a lot of new baseball stats while I wasn't looking, including something called "Wins Above Replacement," or WAR. I tried to learn what it is, but couldn't make it through the Wikipedia article. It seems you gotta have a Ph.D. in math to appreciate baseball, these days. So I went to a site that purported to list the 10 best players ever, according to their WAR ranking. There I learned that Joe DiMaggio was not only *not* one of the 10 greatest ever (and neither was Ted Williams), but that he wasn't even as good as Rickey Henderson. That puts the WAR statistic into the realm of the totally fatuous. Jul-31-14    WannaBe: Don't know when Gomes contract ends, but Cespedes is signed through 2015, and then he can be a (unrestricted?) free agent. Also don't think Oakland would have the money to sign Lester after this season, or if Lester wants to stay in Oakland. Boston can go from last to first (Remember 2012 and 2013?) with pieces in place Lester can very well go back to Boston... Hope Beane knows what he is doing. (Cespedes have 3 more HRs than all of BoSox outfielders <COMBINED>) Jul-31-14    Jim Bartle: I find it irritating as well. It's another attempt to create one total number to quantify a player's value. I think Bill James invented it, or something similar, but he didn't overuse it. One newer stat I liked was Runs Created per 27 Outs, another Bill James number. Seems to have disappeared. It only measures hitting, not fielding, but it suggests how many runs a team would average if every player hit like the guy being measured. Sort of like an offensive ERA. So 5 is pretty good, 3 is terrible, and 7-8-9 is really good. Jul-31-14    WannaBe: In hockey and basketball they have for players during game time. And supposedly, it measures defensive capabilities (as a team). So, if LeBron and 4 teammates is on the court for 5 minutes and Cleveland outscore their opponent 14-8, the 5 players would get +6, and the opposing team members would get -6. Same in hockey, except for power play goals. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 914) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 606 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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