Round 5 recap: Who Needs Hamsters?

Cambridge Spring Breakers Get Redemption

Entering Round 5, there were three undefeated teams boasting 4-0 records. Among these, MrScribbles' Lost Pawns Collection started the week brimming with confidence. On the other side of the virtual board they faced the Cambridge Springs Breakers, who experienced bitter defeat (their only one so far) in the previous round. Would this setback only fuel their hunger for redemption? In the end their hunger pangs would be comfortably satisfied with a jaw-dropping demolition of the Lost Pawns by 6½ to 1½ points.

This result certainly wasn’t on the cards when PawnshopRookie won the first game of the match for the Lost Pawns. But the Spring Breakers grabbed six and a half of the seven remaining points in the match to once again show that teams’ fortunes in the Lichess4545 league can change rapidly within a single week.

The climactic moment of the match was probably when sideshow_bob made quick work of MrScribbles, who, oddly enough, didn't sacrifice any pawns in the opening. Perhaps this was the crucial blunder? MrScribbles’s parted with their first pawn on move 19, but the result was foretold by move 21. You be the judge.

https://lichess.org/82jvOdUf

Sunday Frenzy for the top league spot

As the Lost Pawns licked their wounds after their first defeat of the season, all eyes turned to the epic battle between Ding! There it is and Chessmaster Ate My Hamster. With Round 5 in full swing, it was clear that this fierce face off would determine who would lead the league. One or both teams would have to lose their perfect record, but as Sunday dawned, the match score was drawn with a single point apiece, and six games left to play.

As Fate would have it, the last five games all started in a single 150-minute window. Who would prevail in this Super Sunday showdown?

In the end, the Hamsterless squeaked by with a whisker-thin 4 ½ - 3 ½ victory. They may be lacking in the rodent department, but they've gnawed their way to the top of the table! Arguably the highlight of the round came on Board 5, where DrOdnat delivered a comeback win in which the game's destiny flipped like a pancake within the space of three moves to land butter-side up in their favour.

A look ahead to Round 6

It's a mad scramble at the top, as demonstrated by the standings. With four teams all with 4-1 records in pursuit, the Hamsterless crew better watch their tails. This week, the Lost Pawns will take their swing at them, with last week’s Houdini, DrOdnat, set to lock horns with MrScribbles in a game that promises a dazzling display of chess pyrotechnics. As we shift into the home stretch of the season, who will keep their cool and emerge triumphant?

Check out all the match ‘stories’ (once again created by our resident story craftsman @izzie26) from Round 5 here.

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Tales from Infinite Quest by @Silkthewanderer

Round 112 of Infinite Quest is drawing to a close. Let’s recap some of the recent highlights:

Stop Advertising Long Breaks, Damnit!: Since their return after an 11-month-break, moistvonlipwig has been on a roll, defeating the first three players of the leaderboard with a combined margin of 8-1 games, in the process taking everyones’ lunch money, uhm, bonus XP, breaking 2500 rapid rating and jumping up to 5th rank. I am very glad for you, MVL, but I also enjoy a lot of activity, so please don’t give everyone ideas that a year’s hiatus from Quest does wonders for one’s playing strength.

Good thing come to, uh, one of those who waited: One important feature of Quest is the option for paired players to move their match to a subsequent week in case of scheduling issues. Sometimes matches do take a bit longer that way, like most recently with SuspendedSeventh and hellfira who stretched their match over four weeks. That said, it bore all the hallmarks of a great match with several comebacks and an Armageddon at the end that ended in favour of hellfira - who now has a tiebreak record of 6-1. If you ever encounter them, finish them off quickly.

The clutch moments are somewhere else I guess: mynameismund is a loyal patron since the very first week of Quest (also the first ever recipient of a forfeit win) and has maintained a mostly active profile that brought them to rank #12 currently. One curious thing, though: this year they have not yet produced a result closer than 3-1. The last 12 matches for them were kinda one-sided affairs - but at least these blowouts were fairly split 6-6 between mund and their opponents.

Other laudates: Besides these major highlights, we also celebrate root2 attaining Level 6 and NLance becoming the 3rd ever player to win their 50th match!

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, @Silkthewanderer
Title image by Omotayo Kofoworola on Unsplash
Match stories image by @izzie26