The Rodriguez Defense

Ryan and I are in a trivia league called the Learned League. LL members (called LLamas) participate in four 25-day seasons a year, each day answering 6 questions on any of a vast array of subjects in a head-to-head competition with other league members. One  feature of the league is we can set a defense by assigning points our daily opponent can earn for right answers. You want to assign 0 points to the easiest question to answer and  3 to the hardest.

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Today Ryan mentioned he had set a Rodriguez defense. I had no idea what a Rodriguez Defense might be. I asked him, but he gave me only a truncated answer. (This is, of course, because he is a busy government employee, and so cannot spare time for frivolities like a college professor can. On sabbatical.) I didn’t want to waste any taxpayer dollars with a follow-up question, so I googled it. Here are my results in the order I spotted them on my Google search.

Alex Rodriguez did play defense. It wasn’t what he was known for but he does have the ball in his glove in this photo. But did Ryan sprawl in the dirt to stop his LLama opponent?  I can’t envision it.  (Or maybe he slapped the ball out of his opponent’s hand as he ran by?  Not Ryan’s style, either.)

 

I believe this general’s name is Rodriguez. I doubt that Ryan resorted to military action to shock and awe his Llama opponent.

 

Just because I had never heard of Ambrosio Rodriguez doesn’t mean Ryan hasn’t. And Ryan is a lawyer.  Perhaps he sued his Llama opponent.

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Now we’re talking.  Maybe Ryan threw out that sneaky Llama for trying to steal the second question.

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Or maybe Ryan meant he defended all six positions. (Each day’s quiz covers six different subjects, out of a list of 18.) Sean Rodriguez can do that, too.

 

This shows a crucial point in Women’s International Master Jennifer Perez Rodriguez’ match against some International Master chess player.  (Did you expect the international chess organization to even have a clue about how paleolithic it is to have a Women’s International Master play against a regular International Master who is a male?  Come on. If 53 years AFTER the Civil Rights Act a major national sports news publication like Yahoo! can’t see why anyone would want to access the Womens’ March Madness without having to burrow through a dozen unpromising links — and doesn’t even offer a Women’s MM pool — how could you expect CHESS to be anywhere near the second half of the 20th century.)

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Anyway, Rodriguez (playing white) is in trouble. Black has a huge advantage in the pieces he still has, and is one move from checkmating her. Fortunately, Black is in check, and in a bit of a fix of his own. If he moves his king straight back, Rodriguez will check him again with the knight, as shown. At that point Black will have to retreat to the corner, and will be checkmated on the next move. If Black goes into the corner right away, White can force at least a stalemate.

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Ryan has played some chess in his day, although it’s a family embarrassment that he never made the chess team. Perhaps he means he played defense with a wild, desperate attack that forced his opponent into a blunder. But you can’t really do that in Learned League.

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This appears to be a photo of an intrasquad game between the Michigan Offense and its Defense.  And, of course, the Defense is losing. The article accompanying this link bears the headline “Michigan’s Terrible Defense Isn’t Solely Rodriguez’s Fault.”  (The article is seven years old.)

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Ryan tried to explain that a Rodriguez defense is “Random, because you figure the other player is going to get them all anyway.” Which leads me to believe he’s referring to a Rich Rodriguez defense. Which, at its very best, is a defense that wins until it really matters, at which point it unfailingly loses.

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I think nine of us here in the EFL can relate.

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