Lichess4545 Season 48: From Black Thursday to a Sunday for the Ages

We all know that the world of sports and any competitive endeavours is really about the present and immediate future. When we think about the greats, the best players, games, matches of all time, we are inherently biased to pick from the pool of very recent events. Nobody remembers Leonidas of Rhodes anymore.

So that is the caveat I will give before I am going to opine that Season 48 of Lichess4545 had the greatest finish that the league has ever seen. There are many ways this story of the final two rounds (7 and 8) could be written, but let's start with the top match of week 7.

We mentioned in the last ledger, going into week 7, With FENs like these, who needs enemies? were the sole leader of the league with 11 match points, with a massive 6-way tie at 9 match points behind them. They were very much in control of their destiny going into their contest with Slay Queen.

It all collapsed on Black Thursday though, when the first three games of this match were played. @titusalone91, @waterlorda7890 and @ribette respectively overcame @Zubenelgenubi, @MrScribbles and @Pope123 to jolt the Slayers to a 3-0 lead right away. This was a dagger to FENs, because their tiebreaks were not that strong and it obviously hurt their chances of winning the whole thing. And when @guitarspider fell to @AAlvaroB next, the writing was on the wall.

Slay Queen won the match 5.5-2.5 in the end. Perhaps they left some game points on the board after that rocket start, but to we all know, that doesn't matter, as long as you win the match, right?

The standings at the top of the league going into the finale were as follows:

1st – Slayers with 11 match points and 34 game points. (game points being the first tiebreak)
2nd – FENs with 11 match points and 31.5 game points
3rd – The IM-GM Inequality with 11 match points and 31.5 game points
4th – Caro-Kann Conjecture with 10 match points and 33 game points.
5th – Immer diese billigen Patzertricks with 10 match points and 33 game points.

Why am I talking so much about game points? I don't know, I guess I'm just a nerd who likes to mention irrelevant stuff. Let's go to round 8.

The top two pairings were as follows: FENs were to meet with IM-GM Inequality, while Slayers had to deal with Caro-Kann Conjecture. The way the scheduling in this final round lined up, the latter match was to have resolution much quicker, as the games were scheduled on average earlier in the week. The situation for the Slayers was actually quite simple. If they won the match, the league was almost certainly theirs. If they won the match with 5.5-2.5 or better, the league was actually clinched right away because of the very strong tiebreaks.

Unfortunately for Slayers, their opponents proved to be tough customers, always one step ahead for the duration of the match. Slayers kept clawing back though and in the end, it all lined up for a massive final game, as the score after 7 games was 3.5-3.5.

It was a showdown between @oOoSHONUFFoOo handling White for Caro-Kann Conjecture (who were at this point still nursing their own hope of championship) against @titusalone91, playing Black.

In this game, White flat out outplayed Black. They navigated all they needed and were en route to ending Slayers championship bid. Then, this position happened.

Yeah. You guessed it. It took White 3 seconds to play Kxg5 which just caused absolute madness among the spectators because after Be3 Kf5 Bc1! this is now absolutely hopeless for White. In a stunning turn of events, titusalone91 and Slayers pulled a rabbit out of a hat at the most amazing time and almost sealed their league championship.

This made it clear: Slayers were to finish the league on 13 match points and 39.5 game points.

This meant the math going into the final Sunday now became very simple, as eyes turned towards the FENs vs IM-GM Inequality match, which at that point was sitting at a 3-0 score. To win the league, FENs would need to finish this final match either 7.5-0.5 or 8-0. Otherwise, Slayers take it.

It was a pipe dream for FENs, but they were gonna try. @Pope123 made it 4-0 first and then it was @MrScribbles' turn.

The dream could have almost died right about here when MrScribbles (handling White) gave @FinErik a chance to win their knight (or bishop, one move later).

Both players missed this and that was pretty much it for Black, after that they didn't have many opportunities as MrScribbles navigated the game well to make it 5-0. And when @Zubenelgenubi made it 6-0 next, the pipe dream was now not so far away. It is hope that kills you, as they say.

The game 7 of this match was @jcarmody (White, FENs) playing against @eldtotore (Black, IM-GM Inequality). Those two are former teammates and were both on winning streaks going in. Would the valiant effort of FENs finally be denied?

No. Because Black played 22...Re8 which is just a little too clever and tactically loses. jcarmody spotted it well and it was now...7-0.

So at this point, I think we all (at least those who paid attention) on the league slack felt that we are witnessing an absolutely remarkable finish. It was gonna end up one of two ways. Either heartbreak in the final game for the FENs (remember, if they win 7-1, that would not be enough to win the league) or an absolutely ridiculous victory, basically snatching the trophy out of Slay Queen's hands. What's it gonna be?

FENs now needed a draw to win the league. And it was @PatchyThePirate (handling Black) for them, against @jamgrass741.

This is the final game.

Now, with the benefit of the engine, I can see that White had some opportunities to make stuff a bit unpleasant for Black. But White opted for simplification in key moments and Black in the end got into a winning endgame. Patchy knew they needed a draw and that is sufficient so they opted to offer it via threefold repetition. And that was that.

In an absolutely stunning final Sunday (technically the final game was on early Monday morning for me but...who cares) , FENs robbed the Slayers of the league championship after pulling off the impossible. 7.5-0.5 win, a league win – by half a game point.

So yeah, that Round 7 match margin, that 5.5-2.5 that I said didn't matter...I deceived you. It mattered a great deal. Every half point did, actually. What started as a Black Thursday in week 7 ended up with a Sunday to remember.

Congratulations to the champs!

Here is the full summary of the results.

Slay Queen took the silver medal which I hope healed their pain a little bit and Immer diese billigen Patzertricks took the bronze.

Ok, I cannot promise that if you register for Season 49 you will get that same amazing league finish, but I am going to mention that the registrations are open! You can register right here, we are forming the teams on Monday, June 22nd.

That is it. Season 48 was a blast and hopefully, 49 can follow in its footsteps. We hope to see you there!

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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.
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