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 78 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing> Aug-06-09    Phony Benoni: OK, I am going to officially guess Andy Pettitte. He hit most of the NL Stadiums during his three years in Houston, and there's interleague play as well to boost his total. Aug-06-09    Jim Bartle: Things you learn from Vin Scully: Torre and Cox have set the record for longest time managing against each other: 31 years. Trivia answer: Jamie Moyer. Aug-07-09    Phony Benoni: Well, so much for the Yankees--Red Sox assumption. I doubt I would have gotten it anyway, but it's logical when you see it. Aug-07-09    Jim Bartle: I would never have guessed, either. Might have tried Mike Morgan. Aug-07-09    Travis Bickle: Hey Phony and Jim here is a nice video of The Iron Horse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOMx... Aug-07-09    playground player: Ah, yes, cheap home runs. But 1987 was THE vintage year for that! (Luis Aguayo, 12 HR; Wade Boggs, 20-something) I remember a game in Yankee Stadium in 1987 in which UT infielder Mike Gallego, who's about as big as my wife, hit TWO opposite-field homeruns...on checked swings! Why do the Baseball Lords think baseball fans want their sport to look like "championship" slow-pitch softball? Aug-07-09    Jim Bartle: Yes, 1987 was crazy. I think even Wade Boggs hit 24 homers, when he never hit more than 10 any other years in his long career. But that was the ball, not the small dimensions of a park or parks. A home run is great when it's rare, not when they come in bunches. As I said, two or three of the homers at Yankee Stadium last night should have been doubles or triples, with baserunners moving, fielders shifting, and throws in the air. By the way, though the Yankees ultimately won big, in an early inning Posada was thrown out at home standing up, one of the weirdest plays I've seen in a while. It was like he thought there was no chance of a play on him. Aug-07-09    Phony Benoni: <playgournd player: Why do the Baseball Lords think baseball fans want their sport to look like "championship" slow-pitch softball?> Because they do. Oh, of course there are some hard core folks like us who appreciate the subtleties of the game, but there's a reason why the All Star Game has a Home Run Derby, not a Double Play Duel or a Base Stealing Battle. Aug-08-09    Travis Bickle: <Phony Benoni> Jim Bartle> and <A.G. Argent> check out this physical specimen of a ball player. This guy had incredible strentgh, read the video words. My dad told me the story many times, he was at the old Comiskey Park and seen Jimmie Foxx hit the lights at Comiskey! That had to be a tremendous blast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VxW... Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: The story goes that a scout was trying to locate a ballfield and stopped by a farm and asked directions of a teenage boy. The kid lifted his plough with one hand and pointed, "That way." The scout asked Foxx, "Say, you don't play baseball, do you?" Aug-08-09    Phony Benoni: Very long, fluid swing. You can see where he generated the power, muscles or not. Aug-08-09    playground player: <Phony Benoni> I watched Steel's Sports, long-time slow-pitch champions, play a game once, and it was the most boring thing I've ever seen. Just a bunch of big fat guys standing around a ballfield doing nothing, while other big fat guys took turns hitting fat pitches over the fence and waddling around the bases. If everybody hits like Mickey Mantle, then there is no Mickey Mantle. Aug-08-09    Phony Benoni: <playground player> Hey, buddy, I agree with you. All I'm saying is the old adage that home run hitters drive Cadillacs simply because they put fans in the seats. It's the same in all sports, at least in the U.S. In football, "skill" players get the big bucks, but it's the unknown guys up front you need to watch to learn what's really happening. In basketball, the big scorers get the girls, while the fundamentally sound players who do nothing but execute and win are forgotten. \ Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: Just the term "skill players" is hint enough that other players aren't ignored. I've never understood that phrase--wouldn't "ballhandling players" be more appropriate. In basketball I notice that every successful team (the Lakers of the 00s being an exception) has a tough inside defender and rebounder who gets little credit. Hard to win without this guy. In baseball, for all their power and glamour, the Red Sox are getting hurt because they don't have a shortshop who can make the tough plays. Aug-08-09    A.G. Argent: <..double play duel or base stealing battle...> So true, PB, nor a squeeze bunt bonanza or a pick-off attempt extravaganza. Doubt we'll see an infield fly rule festival any time soon. But what I wanna know is why there ain't been a Triple Crown winner since Yaz in '67. And Frank Robinson won it just the year before that! It can't be simply that the pitching is that much better over-all with relief specialists much more predominant than they were back then. Can it? Or is it just a huge roll of the dice? It's on mine and others minds because of the talk about Pujols doing it this year but he's too far behind Ramirez of the Marlins percentage-wise (20 pts. or so) to do it. Too late in the year. He'd have to go on an unprecedented tear to do it, methinks. So, it gets deferred again. And just who all has come the closest to it in this 42 year gap, O Baseball Trivia Masters? Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: Bill James wrote that the biggest reason is that there are many more players today, making it more difficult for one player to dominate in all facets. I don't believe this, because all the players capable of winning a Triple Crown category were already playing in a ten-team league. No new threats have appeared. Maybe it's that most people over the past twenty years have realized power is more important as compared to batting average than had been thought. So hitters don't go so much for the big average. Also, players with the chance for the Triple Crown may not be given the chance to hit enough. Barry Bonds won a batting title one year (2003?) and his home runs and RBI were outstanding for the number of at-bats. But he walked so often that he couldn't lead the league in the power categories. Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: PB got me thinking about other "Derbies." One I'd like to see would be "fastest from home to third," and you have to slide. Fastest in stealing second would be great, too, but there's really no way to do it, as you couldn't get a pitcher who'd be fair to all the runners. Aug-08-09    Travis Bickle: A contest Id like to see is what outfielders from certain distances can throw out fleet footed runners tagging from third at the plate. Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: Right, and only with the biggest, toughest catchers! Aug-08-09    Travis Bickle: To prevent injury have a no collision rule. Aug-08-09    Jim Bartle: Oh well, then forget it, so help me Ray Fosse. Aug-08-09    Travis Bickle: They could have a rule at an Allstar game with the contest of attempting to throw runners out at home from third, where if a throw is offline in the base path of the runner the catcher cant make an attempt. Believe me not only catchers could get destroyed with a collision at home plate. Aug-08-09    Benzol: <Thanks again for the Botvinnik information.> You're very welcome. I guess that the other 121 games are lost to the mists of time. BTW Bob long in his Publisher's Foreword in the book Super Nez by Alex Pishkin writes the following: "I don't exactly recall how Pishkin and I got hooked up, but it began with his huge history of chess championships in Russia and the former Soviet Union. This book, when we finally publish it, will have about 400 games, photos and lots of commentary about the championships, the games, the players, and the history of chess behind the scenes - it will called 100 Years of Gladiatorial Chess." As Alex Pishkin died in 1999 I don't know how far work on this tome has progressed yet or whether the whole project has been shelved. Aug-09-09    A.G. Argent: TB, speaking of contests and plays at homeplate, something I miss is the Earl Weaver-Billy Martin-Lou Piniella-type discussions with umpires over a call at home. Or anywhere for that matter. Who was it picked up a base once and tossed it as far as he could? Wasn't that Lou? But even Lou don't do it anymore that I know of. Didn't he say he's "mellowed"? You know of him going off lately there at Wrigley? Aug-09-09    Phony Benoni: A.G., that was back in the good old days before managers became a combination of computer scientists and psychotherapists. Also, I think they finally figured out that when you kick dirt on an umpire's shoes, your own shoes get dirty too. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 914) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 78 OF 914 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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