THINK Chess Blog #12- Happy New Year!

THINK Chess

If you are not already a member of THINK Chess and have found this by accident, we are a friendly, active, growing community that hosts various events and competitions, including participating in the Lichess Liga. Join here at this link: https://lichess.org/team/think

Happy New Year

Before we get into it, happy New Year! We hope that 2023 will be filled with action and great things for THINK!

Liga

Here we are again... the Liga! We equalled our highest ever league finish (6A) however, unfortunately, we just got relegated... https://lichess.org/tournament/UGPteH1V. Thank you to all who participate in the Liga to get some points for THINK! Illuin was our top scorer with a whopping 33 points. Illuin also defeated two titled players, including this game...

https://lichess.org/9L7Ueb9E

I will mostly spare you my commentary, but humor me for a little bit. The game begins as an Indian Defence, then there are some mistakes made on both sides. What ended up being the decider in this game was 39. h3??, which allows Black to go after White's remaining pawns while protecting their own.

Support the troops if you have time in the Liga on New Year's Day! https://lichess.org/tournament/oTqKEcag

THINK Club Championship

We are now at the knockout stage of the THINK Club Championship! I will spare you all the blunders I made, but let's take a look at a couple of games from the group stage. (To view results and fixtures, click here.) At the time of writing, Mansoul has already made the quarter-finals and KenulL_76 is the lowest rated player left in the competition! Past champions include vic2r and the current holder, Dark-Bi5hop. Who will be crowned champion?

Two group stage games:
Game #1: chessmessi14 vs JeremyIsFishing- 1/2-1/2
The first group stage game, was actually one of mine, against JeremyIsFishing. We played out an insanely accurate game, with just one inaccuracy between us, and the game ended in a draw. This was probably the most accurate game I have played.

https://lichess.org/HmyfYYks

Game #2: Murphy_the_Irish_red vs Eniacknight- 1-0
The game began with an Indian Defence, Reversed Chigorin. Murphy_the_Irish_red had an advantage throughout, and eventually converted it with only one blunder.

Only knockout stage game at the time of writing is Mansoul vs Kempere.

Game #3: Mansoul vs Kempere- 1-0
Kempere blundered a rook early on in a Steinitz Countergambit, but defended well afterwards. However, the material advantage prevailed.

https://lichess.org/etuoIQAB

Again, to view results and fixtures, click here.
Good luck to everyone still in this competition!

THINK Masters

We will be hosting another THINK Masters tournament this 2023. It will most likely be a knockout format, but go here for updates on that. There will be a round for almost every variant! The current champion is J3742- can someone dethrone them or will they retain their title?

THINK Classical Tournament

For some more concrete information, we will have a Classical tournament in February 2023. Registration is now open and will be open until February 5. Register here. I won this same tournament two years ago- current champion is royalblue04- whose account has since been closed. Who will be champion?

Outro

That's all for now- and again, a happy new year!