Round 3 recap: Contenders and wild tactics emerge

Ah, week 3 - that special time in the league when things start to get really interesting. With five weeks left to go, it's the perfect opportunity to assess who the real contenders are and who might need to readjust their goals of winning the league. So what happened last week?

Ding! There's a new contender in town!

We start with a story about a crucial match between "Ding! There it is" and "Encyclopedias of Perfection." The Dingers had a chance to go 3-0 with a win. Once again, our stories are brought to you by our resident storyteller @izzie26 and you can find all of them here.

Anyone who has captained a team in the league knows that the role comes with a bit of added pressure. It may not be entirely rational, but we suspect captains feel slightly more responsible for how their team performs. Who knows if @Rskyoz, the captain of the Dingers, felt that way too last week, but they definitely displayed excellent leadership!

First, they won a lovely miniature against @DonGiovanni1406 in the second game of the match to put the Dingers ahead two-nil.

https://lichess.org/h7umDO9Z

Things then got a little hairy, with the Dingers’ lead slipping away and both teams going back and forth. It all came down to the wire in the final game...and when most Europeans were having sweet chess dreams in their sleep, @Rskyoz chose to step up to play a second game after their teammate couldn't make it.

https://lichess.org/TTPYu0c3

In a wild French Exchange game (yes, really), @Rskyoz (as White) showed no mercy to @Clarinetref for imperilling their king, grabbed the upset point, and propelled "Ding! There it is" to a perfect 3-0 record and title contention.

@caodanny is inducted into the “100 games club”

We all know that the league would be nothing without its players (eds. - but isn’t that kinda obvious?) . And we know that we have quite a few players who’ve been around for a while...enough to play over 100 league games! Think of all the other productive things they could have done if they hadn’t entered the league...(actually don’t). Anyway, 100 games is some commitment, and we salute all the members of our “100 club”, including the latest inductee - the one and only @Caodanny!

@Caodanny has been with us since season 21, which is pretty impressive. They have dabbled in some LoneWolf too - well, they played one LW game and then stopped...presumably because it didn't quite measure up to the epicness of 4545 (or so Tranzoo assumes, noting the implication that 4545 is 100 times better than LW. Other mods vehemently disagree. How can anything be more epic than a wolf!!)

@Caodanny's biggest claim to fame came in season 32 when their team, "Two Bishops, Two Steeds, Two Well-Hidden Beads” earned the silver medal. @Caodanny was a crucial contributor to this achievement by scoring 5.5 points from 7 games that season.

Last week, in their hundredth career league game, our hero demonstrated resilience by coming back from adversity to defeat a higher rated opponent, thus celebrating the record in style (and contributing to an eventual 4-4 match draw for their team).

Here's to you, @Caodanny - we appreciate your seemingly unwavering loyalty to the league. All the best in your next 100 games!

@Electricfalcon delivers “The Royal Smotherfork”

Round 3 kicked off on Tuesday with a bang as another veteran, @electricfalcon, inched their way towards the "100 club" by playing their 96th league game, which featured a spectacular ending that caught the eye of many league players.

https://lichess.org/hxFr0vC1#35

Any smothered mate is noteworthy, but one with a bonus royal fork is even cooler. Readers are invited to send in their names for this new tactic - Smo-Royale? Royal Suffocation? The Royal Smotherfork? (eds. - please stop)

Kudos to @Covni for allowing mate on the board. EF’s early point helped “ChatGPT vs Chesster: Judgement Day” secure a 5-3 match victory - their first of the season!

Contenders shaping up

After week 3, things are hotting up in the race for the title. Five perfect teams remain, which means that round 4 features some mouth watering match-ups. We’ve already mentioned “Ding, there it is” - they’ll put their perfect record on the line against tournament leaders “The Cambridge Spring Breakers.” In another showdown between two perfect teams, “increasing our activity through harmonious piece play in order to deliver mate against the opponent's king: the team” (ioathppiotdmatok:tt) meet “MrScribbles' Lost Pawns Collection”. “Chessmaster Ate My Hamster” also have a perfect record (pets aside).

Looking ahead

We look forward to recapping Round 4 next week, and in a few days we’ll publish a recap of the latest LoneWolf (S28) and Chess960 (S24) seasons.

Finally, let’s give a huge shoutout to all our participants in our various leagues. The mods tell us that everyone’s scheduling efforts have been excellent this season. Let’s hope this continues, so the mods have an easy life, and continue to reward the Ledger editors for suppressing scurrilous rumours of mod yacht flotillas. So keep shuffling those pieces...or offshore accounts...whatever floats your boat(s).

---

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