Phony Benoni Member since Feb-10-06 · Last seen Dec-21-08 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 2438 times to chessgames   [more...]

Dec-20-08 Kibitzer's Café    Phony Benoni: It's finally happned. George W. Bush has an official theme song: "Shoe fly? Don't bother me!..."      Dec-18-08 Szabo vs Dake, 1935    Phony Benoni: I enjoyed how White's knight waited seven moves to fork Black's king and a8-rook, then refused to capture so he could later fork the king and h8-rook!      Dec-16-08 suenteus po 147 chessforum    Phony Benoni: Mind if I toss in one of my favorite stories here? It's true, and since both participants were chess players, it's sort of chess-related. Jim had been a Russian major back in college, and picked up a little income on the side doing translations. Brad, a chemistry major, asked ...      Dec-16-08 Phony Benoni chessforum   Phony Benoni: <Chessamateur> Thanks for the link; it provides the same conclusions I'm coming up with. <Ed Doheny> is an interesting case. Take a look at this article: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm... This guy would have scared Drysdale and Gibson, not to mention Claude ...      Dec-15-08 W Ballard vs L Fagan, 1880    Phony Benoni: <SBC> Thanks; that's very interesting. I used to think I knew a lot about chess history--before I came here!      Dec-14-08 Kenneth Rogoff    Phony Benoni: Apparently, in Iraq they don't have shoe trees. They have shoe bushes.      Dec-12-08 L B Zapoleon    Phony Benoni: It just hit me. I wonder if his first name was "Led".      Dec-11-08 M Kemeny vs Pillsbury, 1895    Phony Benoni: <Calli> I see from Pope's collection of Pillsbury's games that this was the last of a series of three games at the Franklin Chess Club. Pillsbury defeated David Stuart Robinson on 10/28 and Hermann Voigt on 10/29, lost to Kemeny on 10/30. This was during the period ...      Dec-11-08 Emil Kemeny    Phony Benoni: <Petrosianic> No games, but the final score was +7 -4 =4 for Showalter. Kemeny was no pushover.      Dec-11-08 S Prokofiev vs D Oistrakh, 1937    Phony Benoni: The <Classical> Variation?

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You gotta know how to Pony

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 38 OF 38 ·  Later Kibitzing > 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? Nov-20-08    Phony Benoni: <WannaBe> Which variation did you have in mind for Wagner? The Heinrich Maneuver? Nov-20-08    WannaBe: Wagner -- Ride of the Valkyre Variation! :-)) Nov-20-08    Phony Benoni: Which brings to mind Johnny Carson's famous Carnak routine, in which he would answers questions sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall's porch since noon today without seeing the questions. Answer: <9W>. Question: Herr Wagner, do you spell your name with a "V"? Nov-22-08    Phony Benoni: With the interest it has sparked, I hate to give the answer to the trivia question so soon--but life must go on. Those five players were the first to go undefeated on board 1 in an Olympiad: London 1927: Maroczy (HUN) +6 =6 -0 Grunfeld (AUS)+6 =7 -0 Hague 1928: Wagner (GER) +3 =13 -0 Hamburg 1930 Rubinstein (POL) +13 =4 -0 Alekhine (FRA) +9 =0 -0 Yes, Hague 1928 was a relatively weaker event, and Wagner's score wasn't quite as impressive as the others. But he still didn't have to auf any gegebens. Nov-23-08    WannaBe: You know, just for giggles (and being somewhat bored...) I looked up your name in Googles, and came across a J.D.B. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~vbra... Nov-23-08    Phony Benoni: For a scarier view, you might look here: http://www.michess.org/webzine/davi... I should point out that the picture is a copy of a photocopy of a photocopy, but that's no excuse. The worst part is that it was taken after a tournament which I won. Imagine what I look like normally! Nov-23-08    WannaBe: I saw that picture/page but wasn't quite sure that was you or not... Nov-23-08    Phony Benoni: I know; it looks pretty terrible. It was also taken in 1989, when I weighed about 60 pounds more than I do now. This is probably silly, but I feel the need to show you a slightly better and more recent photo (though it has nothing to do with chess): http://jukeboys.topcities.com/mclon... I'm the one without the guitar. Nov-24-08    WannaBe: <Phony Benoni: ... I'm the one without the guitar.> Oh, great, now please turn around so we can see you in that second pic!! Nov-24-08    Benzol: <Phony Benoni> Great to finally put a face to the real person instead of thinking of you as Dr Honeydew's assistant Bekar. Nov-25-08    Phony Benoni: Solution to Sneaky's problem at Kibitzer's Café : <1.Qb7!> Nov-30-08    Phony Benoni: Don't mind me. I'm just being obscure again. Nov-30-08    hedgeh0g: Phony Benoni! Dec-15-08    chessamateur: http://www.baseball-fever.com/showt... I happened to find this after you posed that question on got me curious. Thought you might find it interesting. Dec-16-08    Phony Benoni: <Chessamateur> Thanks for the link; it provides the same conclusions I'm coming up with. <Ed Doheny> is an interesting case. Take a look at this article: http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm... This guy would have scared Drysdale and Gibson, not to mention Claude Frizzel Bloodgood. Jump directly to page #    (enter number from 1 to 38) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 38 OF 38 ·  Later Kibitzing >		Save 20% on New in Chess Magazine

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