Lichess4545 Round 6 Recap comes with a WC prediction!

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We’re not sure what the history books say, but the turnover at the top this season feels rare. We’ve basically had a new leader every week. Last week, we were applauding "Chessmaster Ate My Hamster" for being the last team standing with a perfect record, but lo and behold, kaboom went the dynamite, and now their record is ruined...and by none other than "MrScribbles' Lost Pawns Collection" with a 5 ½ - 2 ½ triumph. Now every team has suffered the bitter taste of defeat.

the team seizes the day

The slip by the Hamsterless left an opportunity for a new league leader to emerge through the contest between “Ding! There it is” and “increasing our activity through harmonious piece play in order to deliver mate against the opponent's king: the team”. And it was definitely a brawl that lived up to the billing, with both teams trading blows until they found themselves deadlocked at 3 ½ points apiece, with one game remaining.

What opening do you play when everything’s on the line? As White in this Board 2 decider, @Patzfisch went for none other than the audacious King’s Gambit! How would their opponent @u12912 respond? Would they be able to parry White’s early aggression and catapult their team to pole position?

https://lichess.org/tsPLEFNd

The answer was yes. Full credit to @Patzfisch though for spicing up an already tantalising tussle with their daring choice.

Looking ahead

As we approach the business end of the season, every match between the top teams is crucial, and this week, there’s a big one, as the Hamsterless crew have a chance to rebound against “the team”. Stat alert: every team that has lost while leading the league this season has won their next match. With only one round remaining after this week, the winner is guaranteed to be in the driving seat for the crown. Check the full standings here. And as always, check the stories made by @izzie26 for round 6 here. They are made with love.

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A new “100 Games Club” member makes a scandalous confession

@drchessdad has been with us since Season 21 and has now become a certified member of the 100 games played club! To celebrate the occasion, we sat down (or rather, exchanged messages on Slack) with this grizzled league veteran to get to know them better. Little did we know, we were walking into some disturbing revelations about their relationship with the London System. Reader discretion is advised!

Can we follow you on social media?

Sure. I don’t have any social media accounts specific to chess but I do have a chess blog set up: https://adultchessimprover.com/ where I post my thoughts on the game.

What initially drew you to the Lichess4545 leagues?

I was looking for a way to play chess online at slower time controls to improve my game and stumbled across the league whilst searching the internet. Before Lichess4545 I was playing at another 45|45 league on chess.com but I found the lichess4545 league to be much more popular and organised. The initial learning of Slack (the interface) was a bit daunting at first but I soon got the hang of it.

How has your approach to playing chess evolved since you started playing in the leagues?

Well, playing more chess games in the league at slower time controls has definitely made me appreciate each individual chess piece and their relationship with other chess pieces better. (ie bishop vs knight). I have gained a greater understanding for move orders, pawn structures, piece exchanges and middlegame/endgame strategy.

Playing in the league also forces me to vary my openings occasionally to avoid deep preparation. This is probably something I won’t encounter much in OTB chess tournaments as no one player can specifically take one week to prepare for another.

Over the board, I would say that in general my play has evolved such that I tend to play lines that give me a risk free edge rather than go for some sharp aggressive line, as it is quite hard to recover from a mistake in classical time controls.

Choose three words that describe your approach to chess.

Consistent. Playing frequently in chess and analysing one’s game is probably the best way to improve in chess.
Discipline. I try my best to stick to a simple training plan
Fun. I mean, if I’m not learning chess in a fun way, then why play this game at all?

Of the hundred 4545 league games you’ve played so far, which do you remember the most and why?

https://lichess.org/Mmbv65aC/black

I never expected my most memorable game so far to be played on the Black side of an English Opening. This is my most memorable game because I was playing it whilst on a great vacation. My team came second overall that season as well. I love it because I felt overall in positional control of the game from start to finish against a strong opponent. My accuracy was reflective of this too. A proud moment indeed.

What is your favourite chess opening and why?

Folks who know me in the league know that with White I generally play the London System. I like the London system because it is not too hard to learn and gives me time to focus more on the middlegame/endgame aspects of chess without having to worry about following the latest theory. Plus, it’s fundamentally sound.

Do you have any specific pre-game rituals or routines that you follow? Do you do anything to prepare for a game (beyond opening prep)?

Well for sure a good night’s sleep really helps! I try to take a small nap as well before the game if time permits. A nice shower too. Other than that, maybe a bit of a warm up with some tactical puzzles just to get the old brain going.

Which chess player, past or present, do you admire the most and why?

I really like Anatoly Karpov. He played beautiful positional chess pre-computer era and really understood the game better than most of his peers, much like Magnus Carlsen today. Of course, I like Tal for his attacking chess and Bobby Fischer for his clarity of play.

Outside of chess, what are some of your other hobbies and interests?

Mostly just going on adventures with my boys, which are currently 8 and 5 this year. We biked 40km last week (so proud of them) and I’m planning a hike up a hill this coming weekend.

What advice would you give to aspiring chess players who are just starting out in the Lichess4545 league or in chess in general?

Well, get to learn how to use the Slack interface and make friends! Chess is a social game.
As a beginner, you can’t go wrong with chess tactic training. After all, chess is 99% tactics. Just keep doing puzzles!
"Until you are at least a high Class A player: Your first name is'Tactics", your middle name is 'Tactics', and your last name is 'Tactics'" ...Ken Smith

An the last more important question: How would you react if your opponent suddenly turned into a pumpkin mid-game?

I probably start running because it might be me turning into a pumpkin next!

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Ding vs. Nepo - the voice of the 4545 community is loud and confusing!

We recently polled the Lichess4545 community on Slack to gather their thoughts on the upcoming World Championship showdown between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. With their current betting odds being fairly even, one might have hoped to obtain some collective wisdom that could then be exploited for profit. The mod yacht flotilla could have become an armada! Little did we know what we were in for!

It's a stalemate! Both players received 28 votes each! Turns out the Lichess4545 community is just as undecided as the bookies.

That said, there was slightly more consensus on when the first decisive game would be played, with over 75% of respondents saying that a decisive game will happen before Game 5. Do they know that this last happened in 2014 - nine years and three matches ago? Maybe think twice before asking a league player for investment advice.

Anyway, it’s clear that we’re all looking forward to the match, with Game 1 scheduled for Sunday 9 April. At Ledger Towers, we don’t know who will prevail...and we wouldn’t tell you if we did...but frankly we’re more interested in finding a catchy name for the whole thing. Affray in Astana? Battle in the Bazaar? Ruckus in the Regis? Apparently GPT prompt engineering is just as hard as chess. Send us your suggestions and we’ll print the best ones next week.

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Tales from Infinite Quest by @Silkthewanderer

Round 113 of Infinite Quest is drawing to a close. Let’s recap some of the recent highlights:

Even the one-sided results hold intrigue: Certainly the most impactful match last week was Chesstrix01 meeting IsaVulpes at the top board with both players having a chance to clinch a LevelUp with a match victory (and stealing a large helping of Bonus XP from a fellow competitor). The match did live up to the situation in terms of tension and it started well for IsaVulpes, giving them a position with extra material and a winning attack... but the knockout never appeared and time trouble cost the full point. Games 2 and 3 also saw IsaVulpes emerge with promising positions but the advantage swung in Chesstrix’ favor at some point every time. The result is a win for Chesstrix that allows them to join IsaVulpes (and NLance) at Level 11.

No peaksitting pretty please: At Infinite Quest we aim to give everyone in all rating ranges a path to steady progress and opportunity to collect milestones. One shoutout deservedly goes to ribrubrib who in this week improved their personal record for strongest opponent defeated by taking down their second 1700+ opponent. Last time they managed that feat they disappeared for 6 months, maybe this time celebrate with toast and another match next week?
(Side note: This kind of “mic drop” win against a tough opponent followed by Quest pause seems to be a thing. root2 just pulled that maneuver after defeating the leaderboard #1)

Okay, maybe it is not that hard bein’ green: A neverending influx of new players is necessary for Quest - or any league for that matter - to work, so I am very happy to see five new arrivals in the last two weeks. Even better (at least for them), three of them got to win their matches in this week already with octacle and SpencerCode notching their first win and rishav2309 collecting their second win in the second week. Two more matches are outstanding both at the higher boards where Grom_K6L and Zyfaro are immediately paired against 2200-2400 heavyweights.

Other laudates: Besides these major highlights, we also celebrate new Levels attained by shallowjr (10) and the 50th match completed by moistvonlipwig.

Infinite Quest is a perpetually ongoing 4 x 15+10 rapid side league of the Lichess4545 league where everyone collects XP and gains Levels at their pace. Players can join, pause and resume anytime, a new round starts every Wednesday with pairings for everyone checked in for that week. More information is available from the league Slack.

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Lichess4545 is an online chess league for people who like playing long time control games online. Players are assigned to teams and play one game per week with a 45+45 time control. For more information visit our league home page.
LoneWolf is a side league of the Lichess4545 league. It is an 11-round Swiss tournament where players play one game per week with a 30+30 time control. For more information about the LoneWolf tournament visit the LoneWolf homepage.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA).

Contributions to the text by @Tranzoo, @izzie26, @drchessdad, @silkthewanderer
Title image by Omotayo Kofoworola on Unsplash
Match stories image by @izzie26