John Bartholomew arrives to Lichess LoneWolf league, people lose their minds

Greetings everyone! Ready to do battle in the fabled LoneWolf league this season

...that was the quote that stunned the members of the Lichess4545 Slack as the author was none other than @Fins, International Master John Bartholomew. A long time proponent of the LoneWolf and Lichess4545 leagues at Lichess, this season they are participating in LoneWolf themself!

As an additional bonus, they are recording their LoneWolf experience each round for the general chess community’s enjoyment, which you can find on their YouTube channel here. Each round he records his preparation for the match, the actual match, and post game thoughts/analysis after the match. They are, as he terms it, “feature film length” (often several hours long) but what chess player has problems focusing on something for several hours at a time!? We suggest you check them all out!

As news of Fins participation for Season 37 of LoneWolf spread, the excitement was palpable as for lot of us in the league, their videos played a big role in our chess development.

omg! go John!

Whaaaat?????!!?!!

scandi time!

I’m coming for you!

Awesome! I owe much of my chess skills to your YouTube videos, so now whenever I lose a game i can more conveniently point a finger

I haven't seen this much excitement since I joined the league.

These are just some of the reactions of our members to the arrival of the mighty Fins. John was happy about the welcome and let us know:

Cheers all - I'm blown away by the support! I've wanted to play the league for awhile now, as I've referred a ton of students/viewers to it over the years. This time it worked for me schedule-wise, so I'm thrilled to participate. Yall have a fantastic community here - looking forward to some instructive games!

But then, the niceties were over and it was time for Fins to start delivering on the virtual chessboard. @FunnyAnimatorJimTV created a poster for the occasion, you can see that as cover picture of this blog. And Fins LoneWolf debut has already a place among legendary league games and big reason for that was also fearless approach of their opponent, @terrormt. They didnt seem to be intimidated by Fins whatsoever, and decided to take a risky king hunt later in the game.

Overall, with the season already several rounds in, Fins has shown excellent chess play in the first three rounds, with three wins. By the time you read this, it might be four.

Interested in joining and playing in the same league? If you are interested in playing a classical Swiss tournament on Lichess with one game per week with time control of 30 minutes plus 30 second increment, check out the league webpage.

As the season progresses, the top rated players will likely rise to the top of the standings and face off against Fins. Round 4 board 1 pairing is currently 4th in the standings @happy_mode (2308) playing currently 1st in the standings @Fins (2483). The game is scheduled for Friday June 20th at 17:30 UTC. All eyes are on Fins’ opponents each week to see who will be the first, if anyone, able to stop the newcomer and International Master from winning every game this season.

Lichess4545 Team League Update by @jg777:

Season 44 of Team league is well underway as round 6 of 8 has begun, with 44 teams participating. Presently, the top team in the standings are “The Empire Strikes Back-rank” with a perfect match score so far of 10 Match points and a commanding 29 Game points. They certainly are not forking around this season. Second to them is “I suggest you push the f-pawn” with 9 Match points and 25.5 Game points. They are matched against each other for round 6. Will “I suggest you push the f-pawn” stop the Empire from once again winning their match, allowing other teams to likewise catch up as we near the end of the season? May the force be with them. Meanwhile, The Stalemate Society has yet to stalemate in any game this season. Are we meant to have goals? What gives?

With several rounds left, there is still time for many teams to catch up to the top, and for other teams who may not be able to, well, some players on those teams are still having a fantastic season so far, such as @shamdi, that their teammates can root on to try and have a perfect season record. No reason to hit Ctl+Alt+Resign on the season just yet.

The championship interview has finally been released!

@fork2020 is back with yet another interview. This week, we are interviewing the reigning champions of Lichess4545 League Season 43. The previous ledger announced the champions, but can you remember who they are?

If you guessed Erigaisi and the Arjunauts, you are wrong. They were the season 34 champions, so maybe you mixed up the digits. Happens to the best of us. No, the championship team is “I Like my Suggestion” captained by @matthewhuber. The other members of the team are @sylvlondon, @Ciraid, @lorb, @basilcandle, @Joonaf, @cowtone, and @UpGoerFive; they also requested that recognition be given to all of the alternates who contributed to their success: @destroyer11758, @DjungelJakob, @Kezberg, @OrpheusWasALyre, and @purplecheese73. Lastly, they wanted to give a special mention to former team captain @Nairwolf, who took most of the season off.

First, congratulations on your victory. How does it feel to be the champions?

matthewhuber: “It feels great! I’ve been playing with these guys for a few seasons now and we’ve really grown together as a team. It’s nice to see the hard work pay off.”

sylvlondon: “Great team spirit, lot of comments, serious or funny in the chat. Nice to have everyone giving the best.”

Ciraid: “It feels like a firework! On one hand, we have huge excitement of what we accomplished against our strong peers, but on the other hand in short time will be only a memory since S44 kicks off.” (Interview’s note: due to a gap between these questions being answered and this interview being released, season 44 is indeed in progress.)

cowtone: “Genuinely, it feels good. Out of 42 teams, we ended up being the first.”

lorb: “It's great. This was my first time joining the 4545 league and I feel that I was very lucky ending up being part not only of the team that won but also a team that has great fun and camaraderie.”

Joonaf: “This is the greatest achievement of my life! It'll all be downhill from here, won't it?”

UpGoerFive: “Exciting! First time I’ve been on a winning team”

What matchup do you believe was the most critical during your run to the championship?

Ciraid: “For me R4 seems pivotal, the opposing team won consistently their previous rounds. To this add the fact that initially we fall behind in the score by 2 full points. These things can generate a very shaky moral. Luckily, the factor "team spirit" kicked in securing the match point”

cowtone: “I remember the round 3. Our opponent had a score of 15.5-0.5 from the first two rounds. And we ended up beating them.”

lorb: “I think the earlier rounds were more critical than the later ones. If it has to be one I would say round 3 where we managed a win against the flipiflapi team that had a near perfect score from the earlier two rounds. I think that really helped all of us to really believe that we can beat anyone.”

Joonaf: “It was definitely critical that we managed to end the reign of terror of the evil Flipiflapi Corporation. We saved everyone else from them. You're welcome.”

Do you have a game that you'd like to share from season 43?

matthewhuber: “No. This has actually been my worst season yet scoring only 1.5/6. Check out the other guys’ games they have some much better games this season! Although I would like to share that I got paired against a player that I played 5 years ago in an OTB tournament.”

sylvlondon: “Well, there is the famous game 4 ... Qh5# by chuck basil norris candle. I had some nice game. I enjoyed very much playing against a strong FM.

I went for a sound exchange sacrifice played lot of accurate move. He defended like a beast and I went wrong in time trouble. Anyway very intense fight.”

Ciraid: “well, I agree the most memorable is a five-move-game from R4 of Basilcandle, it was a shocker. From my games I liked this game

For many reasons I like it: 1) me and my opponent we had a small number of inaccuracies only, 2) I really liked my mini plan with b5 Bc7 to generate pressure on the a open file, 3) Sylvilondon was screaming in the chat "Push the F*** passed pawn" which later on became our motto screaming on each other games the same phrase 4) It was one win that matter for the whole R4 where our team was left behind in the score”

cowtone: “I agree that the game that basilcandle played in the fourth round was ridiculous. Checkmate in 5.”

Joonaf: “In round 2 I lost a knight to an opening blunder and really wanted to resign, but I kept fighting for the team and managed to get the win. Then next week the opposite happened: I won a knight in the opening and lost the game. A good reminder for us all: Everyone blunders, and it's not the end of the game. WWe don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents. And when you get over that fear of making a mistake, then it becomes fun."

But the game I really wanted to share is this:

I remember watching that game and loving black's aggressive ..g5-g4 moves. And then I was shocked. After 11. hxg4 Black didn't recapture with the bishop to pin the knight, which to me seemed like the obvious move, but instead captured with the knight and so started an unstoppable attack on the White's king. It was a beautifully brutal attack. I hope that one day I'll be half as efficient a king-hunter as our captain.”

When did you first believe that you had a shot at winning it all?

matthewhuber: “As soon as the team was announced I knew we had some strong players it was always a possibility.”

Ciraid: “I agree with Matthew! Once we saw the roster and that we were altogether we half joked that first place is a possibility”

cowtone: “I knew only one player beforehand, but we had the highest rating of all teams in the beginning, so the season looked promising. It looked even more promising when we were able to beat a team that hadn't lost a single game in the third round.”

lorb: “Can't add much here. In terms of rating it looked good from the start and R3 gave our confidence a nice boost.”

Joonaf: “It was the start of Season 39 when the committee was formed to draft the so-called Five-Season Plan.”

UpGoerFive: “Somewhere around round 4 or 5 I thought we had chances. Even if you have a good team in the league it just takes a couple of bad rounds so I tend to hope cautiously”

Outside of your championship, what will you remember season 43 for?

matthewhuber: “Push the f***ing passed pawn!!!”

sylvlondon: “Yes, I tried to distill some knowledge to the team. And one of the lesson of this season is that a passed pawn should be pushed as soon as possible. So I screamed at my colleague : "Push the f***ing passing pawn"”

Ciraid: “Hands down Sylvlondon "the wise man" screaming at me in the chat to "Push the f'ing passed pawn"”

cowtone: “I will consider to push the passed pawns in my future games”

lorb: “I managed to have only one loss, which happened to be a game where I ruined a good position by not pushing my passed pawn. And basilcandles 5-move mate”

Joonaf: “Push the [Expletive] Passed Pawn !! -sylvlondon. That helped me win a game or two.”

UpGoerFive: “I must follow suit and push the passed pawn”

You seem to have a team tradition, beginning with season 39's Nobody Likes my Suggestion; followed by Everybody Likes my Suggestion, Only 50% like my Suggestion, Somebody Likes my Suggestion, and finally, this season's I Like my Suggestion. Can you explain this tradition to us?

matthewhuber: “I was only an alt for the first season of the team so I think others would be better suited for this, but I love the tradition and hope it continues.”

Ciraid: “I think I can explain our singular behavior on name picking. on S39 we had to pick a name, everybody was spit-balling names, and Nairwolf (aka the big bad wolf) was posting his suggestions and n o b o d y reply to him not even thumbs down. Nairwolf out of dispair posted in the chat "Nobody likes my suggestion?" to which I replied "that would be a cool team name". In the last season Nairwolf's other commitments IRL prevented him to join. But he was with us all the time in the chat.”

matthewhuber: “Yes I would like to add to Ciraid that although nairwolf is not technically on the roster he is certainly a part of this team”

Joonaf: “Most teams are just eight chess players who happen to share a Slack channel, where poor Chesster is doing their best to carry the conversation. Our team channel is active. It's a place where friends share our best and worst moments. We help each other grow as players. We all learn to play better chess, and more importantly, we learn to make chess fun! We wouldn't be here without all the members of the previous 'Suggestion' teams. Everyone's names will be engraved onto the trophy!I didn't answer the question, but it's already answered, so ignore me”

Do you have any ideas for next season's name?

matthewhuber: “We’re open to suggestions. (take that how you may )”

Ciraid: “ideas we have many, we are very creative but nobody likes each other suggestion”

lorb: “someone will have a good Suggestion at some point”

Joonaf: “I Still like my Suggestion”

UpGoerFive: ““Do you have any ideas suggestions for next season’s name?” Half the time if feels like the names are from people asking/answering that question so seems appropriate to me”

What would you do if the entire team turned into pumpkins?

Matthewhuber: “I would just hope nobody turns us into Jack-O-Lanterns”

Ciraid: “I would wait until midnight to get my team back!”

Joonaf: “Could we still play chess?”

UpGoerFive: “I would assume just sit there since I’m a pumpkin”

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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 this edition by @jg777, @fork2020, @Mennonite, @funnyanimatorjimtv, @Tranzoo