4545 League Week 6 Update: One Team to Rule Them All?

We return after a week off! Two more rounds have been played in Season 35, with just two more left. Let’s catch up to see who has emerged as the front-runner going into the season’s home stretch, and let’s also welcome a new centurion into the 100 Games Club!

Season 35 Round 5: There Can Be Only One

The main event of Round 5 was undoubtedly the clash between Pawn Fiction and Leaked Prep Gambit - the only two teams remaining with perfect records. But alas, this didn’t turn out to be a particularly close contest, as Pawn Fiction quickly took control of proceedings and secured the match win (and first place in the league table) with two games left to play.

The game that clinched the match was exciting, with @Iljazbru (as White) somehow managing to weather a menacing attack, before coming back to snatch victory.

https://lichess.org/4oSD2efJ

For sure, it must have been a sweet moment for Pawn Fiction. But would they manage to keep their lead in Round 6?

Round 6: Enter Lord of the Dings

In Round 6, Pawn Fiction (5 wins) met Lord of the Dings (4 wins, 1 tie). And this definitely lived up to the billing, with Lord of the Dings leading 4-3 before the final decisive game...on Board 1 no less. Kudos to @Wilfj for getting the job done and nervelessly securing a draw, allowing LotD to take over at the top of the table.

https://lichess.org/VZ6qaQaG

What’s the situation as we reach the final stages of Season 35? LotD are top on 11 points, but Leaked Prep Gambit are now second after bouncing back with a win in Round 6, while Pawn Fiction have dropped to third. But both LPG and PF have 10 points each, so they’re both still serious title contenders.

Round 7 sees an absolutely humdinger of a clash between Leaked Prep Gambit and league leaders Lord of the Dings. Who will the chess gods favour? Find out next week!

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Welcome @dkol to the 100 Games Club!

Yes, we’re initiating another centurion into our world-famous club this week. Grab your trumpets and roll out the red carpet for @dkol, who made their league debut in Season 21 as an alternate and has stayed with us ever since!

@dkol might still be looking for their first podium finish in the league, but in their 100 games they've entertained us with their gung-ho style, characterized by their love of gambits - as demonstrated by the fact they came second in seasons 25 and 28 for the “Gambit Guru” award, given to the players with the best records while playing gambits (check out the details here). If their style has helped sustain their interest in the league up to now, maybe we should all unleash our inner @dkol and see the board a little differently! Anyway, here’s the customary hard-hitting interview with our latest inductee...

Can league players follow you on Twitch, Lichess, or social media?

I'm not very active on social media, but my Lichess profile is https://lichess.org/@/dkol.

What initially drew you to playing in the Lichess4545 league?

I heard about it somewhere on the internet and I thought it might be a good idea to have a 45-minute practice game every week. I really think longer games are the way to improve.

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

Absolutely, I think I started to value deep position analysis even more and I learned a lot about my game. I also realized the value of preparing for a game and surprising the opponent.

If you had to choose three words to describe your approach to chess, what would they be and why?

Fun, Psychology, Sloppiness.

Which game from your league career so far stands out the most to you and why?

That would be a game with 5 ACPL for each side in a line I knew really well against someone who I met again in the final round of the following season - where they mated me in spectacular fashion while walking their king in the middle. But then they were banned, so that draw suddenly got more weight in my eyes.

What is your favorite chess opening and why?

That would probably be a Classical Dutch; after many painful losses, I think I’ve started to understand it. Of course, I started playing it while watching GingerGM.

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)?

I usually brew tea or coffee and do a couple of breathing exercises if I'm getting too anxious :)

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

I don't think I have a preference; every chess player could bring something into a game that has value!

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

I'm a software engineer, so I spend a lot of time coding. I also make music with my friends on a label called Hypnopeterburg Crew.

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

Just play a lot, have fun, and enjoy exploring this beautiful game!

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

I'm a reserved person, so I would politely glance at it and just keep playing. I would probably suggest making moves for it since it has no hands, I assume.

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LoneWolf Season 29 round up

Season 29 of the LoneWolf league concluded last week. Around 300 players participated in either the Open or U1800 sections. The Open section was won by @Superfm1 with 9.5 points - in their debut season! - with @Miranova1 coming in second with 9 points (another debutant!) and @Josephsoft in third (also with 9 points, but beaten out on tiebreaks). The U1800 podium also featured an outstanding rookie performance, as it was won by the debutant @gary0892 with 9 points, followed by veterans @andrewrimmer (8.5 points) and @outbox (7.5 points).

Also, @timothyha, @calcium237, and @butterpecan achieved the milestone of playing 100 LoneWolf games during Season 29.

We congratulate all our winners, medallists, and record breakers, and we thank everyone who participated in yet another awesome LoneWolf season.

FYI - LoneWolf Season 30 will start on Monday 26 June. Registration is now open - sign up here: https://www.lichess4545.com/lonewolf/register/.

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Tales from the Quest by @Silkthewanderer

This is where we stop to pretend having excuses. After having missed the mark for weekly updates a few times in a row, we are now leaning into the newly established rhythm of one big summary every two weeks, this time Round 123 + 124.

Results may not be replicable, your mileage may vary: While @j3084 goes on a break (possibly to work on their own side league), let’s spend a moment to appreciate their impressive speedrun that brought them Level gains in two successive Ledger updates. Now to be fair, one part of this speedrun is their propensity to get forfeit wins from any 2300+ player against which they have been paired so far. No, this is not normal, yes I assume it is a fluke, no I am not ruining my own rating intentionally ever since finding that correlation.

This Magnus guy may have been onto something: There is an oft-repeated notion that short time formats lend themselves to randomness. I used to agree to a degree but the Quest tiebreaks often paint a different picture. @mojomoe for instance had four straight matches go to tiebreak and all of them ended with the first Blitz match going 2-0 to the higher rated contestant - which sadly for mojomoe was the other player more often. At least the match against @ngudcphu gave mojomoe two Rapid wins against 300+ rating odds even if they were tricked out of a 2-1 lead shortly afterwards.

Here comes a new challenger: Usually our new players, even very strong ones, are not paired at the very top immediately, that spot is reserved for those with a high rating AND recent wins. Low turnout among the top rated players led to @Whelp10 being the exception who meets the Top Ranked player @NLance right away. Both of them have a history of carrying the Bundesliga team which gives their direct encounter another layer of intrigue.

Here comes the not quite as new challenger: We are also happy to welcome back @iljazbru for their 35th match. iljazbru is not (yet) close to the Top Ranks but they are still notable for some weird quirks in their statistics - like how they avoided rematches for the first full year and now have two, one after another, against the most frequent players... or how they manage to have a perfectly even 17-17 record but only ever managed to win one match that was 2,5:1,5 or closer. Maybe this game against @adande1 will be where they discover their ‘clutchness’.

Technically we have not yet ruled out they are the same person. And Batman: Over the course of an Infinite tournament, you would expect most players of similar strength to meet each other eventually. For some reason this was not true for @gavalanche20 and @jwwells42 who were each paired more than 80 times already and yet never against each other - making them by far the most active pair of two players rated within +-100 points who stayed away from each other... until now. Stakes are decently high, too, with gavalanche20 needing just one more win in Rapid to reach Level10.

Other laudates: Besides these major highlights, we also celebrate new Levels attained by @sahkal (9), @jwwells42 (9), @j3084 (7) and @barredrock (5) while @Zubenelgenubi wins their 50th match.

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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.

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 or this summary.

This Ledger post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA).

This week's contributors: @Tranzoo, @izzie26, @M0R1, @SilktheWanderer, @dkol
Title image created by Midjourney

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