Phony Benoni Member since Feb-10-06 · Last seen May-24-13 Greetings, O Seeker After Knowledge! You have arrived in Detroit, Michigan (whether you like it or not), and are reading words of wisdom from a player rated 2950--plus or minus 1000 points. However, I've more or less retired from serious play--not that I ever took chess really 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 U.S. 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 12223 times to chessgames   [more...]

May-24-13 A Kozlowicz vs R Hiltunen, 1998   Phony Benoni: Paradoxically, this sort of blunder could only occur in a correspondence game. White must have read Black's move as 18...Qg6.      May-24-13 Mieses vs Albin, 1903    Phony Benoni: Friday is usually the day for a straight line combination, this one being shorter than most.      May-24-13 Phony Benoni chessforum    Phony Benoni: Ah, yes. the old 3-inning save. But what would you say to a 7-inning save? http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... Not that he deserved it, giving up a hit and all.      May-22-13 E Paljusaj vs M Bosiocic, 2010   Phony Benoni: I guess it's true. Four minor pieces do beat a queen.      May-22-13 Tejada vs A Padros Simon, 1985    Phony Benoni: <3.Ke2> is simply the Steinitz Gambit without all the bother of making some developing moves first. It is surely sound, albeit a rather rude sound.      May-22-13 I Berezovsky vs V Rusel, 1984    Phony Benoni: And just in case you had any doubt, after <12...Be6>: [DIAGRAM] White has 13.Bxg7+ Rxg7 14.Qxg7+ Kxg7 15.Nxe6+.      May-21-13 Korchnoi vs Zsuzsa Polgar, 1994   Phony Benoni: <FSR> The result appears to be correct, so my guess would be time pressure and/or fatigue. It was a blindfold game, after all, with a time limit of G/25 and a 20-second increment per move. That's a lot for anybody, let alone the 63-year-old Korchnoi. After all, he is no ...      May-21-13 Anand vs Karjakin, 2013   Phony Benoni: <norami: I wonder if there has ever been a game where all the pieces were exchanged, but no pawns.> Here are three examples: Movsesian vs Aronian, 2009 , after <33.Kxf1>: [DIAGRAM] J Cuartas Medina vs A Rodriguez Vila, 2010 , after <26...Kxd8>: [DIAGRAM] A ...      May-21-13 M Didier    Phony Benoni: <jnpope> The <Koninklijke Bibliotheek> (National Library of the Netherlands) has (or used to have) a copy of the 1901 brochure. There is a similar brochure from 1925 that is available at the Cleveland Public Library, but might not have information on Didier. There ...      May-21-13 Biographer Bistro    Phony Benoni: You're right; I was probably trying to be too exact. Stick with what people will look for, and put details in the introduction. So it's back up for voting.

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Let's play two!

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 485 OF 485 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-19-13    perfidious: <Jim>: Another James piece dealt with why Clarke was considered mediocre by many Yankee fans; bet those fans would have loved him if he had come along in the mid-fifties and been just another name on a bunch of WS winners, instead of being the best player on the humdrum late sixties teams. May-19-13    perfidious: <Phony Benoni>: Another team I tried to work through on the HOF list were Pirates: In order: Honus Wagner, Max Carey, Paul and Lloyd Waner, Arky Vaughan, Al Lopez and Ralph Kiner (ending in 1953), before too many years of being putrid left them with yet another hundred-loss team in '54 and no member of the Hall. The next year, Clemente debuted and began another nice streak for them. May-19-13    Phony Benoni: OK, this research is now easy. Go to Baseball Reference: http://www.baseball-reference.com/ In the standings on the home page, you will see an <F> next to each team's name. Clicking this will take you to the Franchise Encyclopedia, where you can find another link to <Hall of Fame Register>, which contains a chronological list of all HOFers for that team (including managers). So going to the Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns: 2001-1981 Cal Ripken 1980-1969 Jim Palmer 1968-1955 Brooks Robinson 1954 none 1953-1951 Satchel Paige 1948-1950 none 1947 Dizzy Dean 1944-1946 none 1941-1943 Rick Ferrell 1933-1937 Rogers Hornsby 1929-1932 Rick Ferrell 1928 Heinie Manush 1924-1927 George Sisler 1923 none 1915-1922 George Sisler 1902-1914 Bobby Wallace 1901 Hugh Duffy The Dodgers had at least one every year from 1909-1980. Have fun looking! May-19-13    Jim Bartle: Didn't even think of looking at the Dodgers, since they were such a weak team the first half of the century. May-19-13    Phony Benoni: The Dodgers were generally bad up to about 1940, but they were pennant winners in 1916 and 1920 and came close in 1924. Plus they were a New York team, which always helps fame wise. Just checked, and the Tigers' drought since 1974 is the longest current non-HOF streak. The only other team without a HOFer in that period is Colorado. Even Arizona had Roberto Alomar for a bit. May-19-13    keypusher: Not to be rude, but why on earth is Ross Youngs in the HOF? I know, Veterans Committee. I don't recall hearing about that as one of the crazier selections before though. May-19-13    Phony Benoni: <keypusher> Well, there are several things: 1) Good ballplayer with a .322 lifetime average who played on five pennant winners in his ten-year career; 2) Tragedy factor: died from Bright's Disease at the age of 30 3) New York bias; played entire career with the Giants; 4) The Veterans Committee which elected him in 1972 was made up of former teammates. Ahem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Y... May-19-13    perfidious: <keypusher>: You're not the only one who has wondered, and there are worse selections than Youngs in Cooperstown. The halo effect mentioned by <Phony Benoni> counts for something (it certainly got Earle Combs in, amongst others), though in my opinion, Youngs' career average-while good-was nothing special compared to the greatest players of the time. The 1920s saw bloated offensive numbers all round. Those were the days of Harry Heilmann and Rogers Hornsby hitting .400 multiple times each. None of this would have been enough to see Youngs home but for the Veterans Committee, though. May-19-13    Jim Bartle: Batting averages and power were so high in the 20s and 30s that a lot of players look better today than they were. May-19-13    perfidious: <Jim>: The converse is also true: Lefty Grove's career ERA (3.06, 180th) would be lucky to get him consideration, but the numbers he posted in the era were eye-popping, all in hitters' parks: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p... May-19-13    Jim Bartle: I think people pay attention more to the gaudy win-loss records in that era, rather than ERA. Those certainly don't compare to Mathewson and others at the beginning of the century. May-22-13    Phony Benoni: Probably not exactly the way he would have chosen to go out, but ending as a Bear was the right thing to do: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport... May-22-13    Travis Bickle: You're right Phony, The Bears didn't have enough class to sign him to a final deal. P.S. Take care pal, let me know if somebody's bothering you. Travis May-23-13    perfidious: <Phony Benoni>: Seems to me Urlacher had tried to sign with Minnesota, but their interest at his price was lukewarm at best. Never heard anything more until the retirement announcement. Urlacher was a terrific player and is Canton-bound. May-23-13    Phony Benoni: <Travis> Everything's fine. Some days are just quieter than others. However, I note with some glee that Miguel Cabrera leads Mike Trout in the All-Important WAR stat, 2.6 to 1.9. May-23-13    perfidious: <Phony Benoni>: That makes Trout the early frontrunner for MVP, don't you know. May-23-13    Shams: How's that Michael Piņeda <-> Jesus Montero trade looking now? http://mlb.si.com/2013/05/23/jesus-... May-23-13    perfidious: <Shams>: Two can't-miss prospects who are missing out, aplenty. May-23-13    Shams: <perfidious> The Mariners seem to have a knack for helping can't-miss players miss. The one that really hurts is Ackley, but Smoak and Montero are let-downs for sure. May-23-13    perfidious: <Shams>: That ballpark does nothing to help their hitters (while, conversely, giving their mound mates a hand). Montero is young; maybe he'll come round with the bat in time, and the same with Smoak. May-23-13    Jim Bartle: I read that Griffey Jr. hit a long fly which was caught when the stadium was in its first year, came back to the bench and said, "Get me out of here!" May-23-13    Shams: 'Ol Smoaky is 26 and per team observers has lost some bat speed the last couple years. It seems like if he was going to make it, he would have made it by now. I think maybe there's a bit less disappointment with him among the fans because we are used to power guys not working out, for the reason you mention, <perfidious>. Remember Adrian Beltre as a Mariner? He slugged the heck out of the ball in L.A., then his power disappeared at Safeco after the Mariners spent a fortune on him. It's kind of expected that power guys underperform in Seattle, and we don't seem to care much that they don't hit homers on the road either, even though it doesn't make sense that they don't. Montero is a man without a position, so his numbers need to be quite a bit better to justify him at DH, no? Anyway, Ackley was the big hope, because of draft position and a good offensive profile without a reliance on homers. But he looks paralyzed at the plate. And then there's Brendan Ryan, who hasn't even been near the Mendoza line this year (and not from the right side, either.) On the bright side, he stars in the first Mariners commercial to amuse me in five years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srkN... I think the Mariners should move Iwakuma. May-23-13    WannaBe: 12-3 final and we have a save, that's right. 12-3. http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxsc... May-24-13    Phony Benoni: Ah, yes. the old 3-inning save. But what would you say to a 7-inning save? http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/... Not that he deserved it, giving up a hit and all. May-24-13    Jim Bartle: I wonder what happened in that game, with the starter Myette throwing twice at the first batter and getting ejected. Then van Poppel was relieved after two hitless innings. Jump to page #    (enter # from 1 to 485) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 485 OF 485 ·  Later Kibitzing>		Take the Premium Membership Tour

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