Lichess 4545 League Season 44 is under way!

Season 43 comes to a conclusion

Before we move to the festivities of already ongoing Season 44, let's acknowledge for a second the champions of Season 43. Dominating the opposition pretty much from start to finish (with the lone exception of a 4-4 draw against “My Team Never Talks to Me”), “I Like My Suggestion” are the champions. Led by their captain @matthewhuber, they never really looked back and can now enjoy their glory.

On the podium, they are joined by “CheckGPT” and “64 Squares of An(gu)ish”. You can check the full standings and details here.

And of course, the awards for Season 43 were also distributed among the worthy players. Check them out (and all the other statistical goodies) here. Credit goes to @izzie26.

Season 44 Is live! - Season Preview by @Feet_Barbie

We are so back! The appetizer before the main banquet, the trailer of your favorite movie, season 44 of the 4545 league is here. While players around the globe are waiting to sign up for the legendary season 45, here are some reasons why season 44 is already exciting.

Season 44 has 44 teams of 8 boards each (352 players) plus over alternates already signed up, with more to join us throughout the coming weeks.

Pro tip: sign up here as an alternate for this season and it increases your chance of being in a team for the next season!

The average rating for each board has also slowly increased from season 43 to 44, which gives some credibility to the idea that the league is a great place to improve your chess! (credit @cinemashow)

Look out for these players

As more titled players joined our ranks, board 1 looks strong. Will @badplayer35 repeat his 8/8 run? Who will be able to stop him? @Mag1c1an01 went 4/4 last season, but my bet is on @isavulpes, returning after a 10 season hiatus.

And if you enjoyed the stats and awards from Season 43, you now have a chance at playing its aforementioned creator @izzie26, who is also back from a 10+ season hiatus as a full-time player. Remember that if your opponent is tanking for 40 minutes, maybe they're not asleep, but just trying to get some awards.

Great team camaraderie with names and logos

100 pawns vs 1 gorilla, Monk-ey Conversion, Ivanchuk Norris, Habemus Von Popiel are some of our current favourite names. The lack of chess drama has finally freed the creativity of team names.

With memes from all across the internet, chess puns, and random references nobody understands, this season has teams for every taste.

As most teams generated their logos with AI, the uniqueness of the human touch will always prevail. The linework, attention to details, and humour of @funnyanimatorjimTV blessed us with masterpieces that deserve their own museum. Or at least a blog post.

The ongoing, new and old rivalries

This season we once again see some of the chess teams also looking to square of with specific opponents in the following two teams (editor note: seems like @Feet_Barbie is a divisive figure):

We Just Turned Barbie's World From Plastic To Tragic
Barbie has a great day every day. But Secret2000 only has a great day if Barbie looks at him

Also, and as most teams will battle for a win, which one will be faster to resign, Ctrl-Alt-Resign or their nemesis Ctrl + Alt + Defeat ?

In the hopes that we will get to see these pairings, let us know which side you’re taking.

Game of the Month by @Mennonite

Every month, community members vote on the best game played in the 45/45 league or its umbrella leagues. Here is February’s Game of the Month, won by @klavier88, annotated by @MilsBees:

March’s Game of the Month was won by @somerapidplayer. Their annotations are available on their own blog, here.

LoneWolf Tournament Update by @Mennonite

Season 36 of the LoneWolf season just wrapped up. @IstindRunnerJr won the Open section with a 9/11 score and a remarkable 2412 performance rating. @NoMate4u and @sylvlondon respectively won second and third place. Congratulations also go to @ysgwydd for winning the U1800 section with 9.5/11, and @Hallokayjansen and @kmaddox86 rounding out the podium there.

If you are interested in playing a classical Swiss tournament with one game per week, registration for Season 37 will be opening on May 19 and when that happens, you will find about it here.

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 @Feet_Barbie, @Mennonite, @Tranzoo, @cinemashow, @MilsBees, @somerapidplayer, @funnyanimatorjimTV