THINK Blog Ep. 2

Welcome to a second week of me blogging for THINK! This week features me eliminating some sections people wanted eliminated, adding sections people wanted added, and (hopefully) having some fun with you. A random mini-project that got dumped on us at school kept this one a little shorter, but I still think it's pretty good. Let's kick things off!

They say there's never a dull moment, in THINK, but whoever "they" are, they're dead wrong. I am quite certain that there was a rather prolonged dull moment, from around 12:30 AM to 12:45 AM, yesterday morning, One True East Coast Time. Other than that, however, I am quite certain there were no dull moments this week, so let's stop dallying and take a little bit of a deeper dive.

The Opening

Last week, right before sending off the blog, I tacked on a random idea I had:

Betting lines for next week's THINK League Two games! If these are popular, I'll do it for more, but I'm starting small.
BorisOSpasky (+2) vs ligemerrill
pn2206 (-2.5) vs jaggerdog
cheesecake_assassin (-1.5) vs custardshark

This was popular.

So, who am I to argue! Let's take a look at how things panned out.

First off, we had me, matching up against @BorisOSpasky. Boris was rated about 600 points lower than me, but 5+2 is closer to rapid than the 3+0 blitz that my rating is based on, and Boris is only about 300 points away from me in rapid, so I decided to put the spread at +2 for Boris. In the first game, it really looked like he might cover it, after a dubious piece sacrifice left my king a little bit vulnerable on f2, and I hung my queen pretty fast. I played fast and tried to create counterplay. At the end of the game, I finally had mate in two... and missed it. I was dead lost again. Groaning at my stupidity, suddenly the game ended- in the heat of the moment, neither of us was watching Boris' clock, and he had flagged!

A couple more games yielded fairly smooth wins to clinch my covering the spread, and the match win. After how poorly I'd fared against @pn2206, this win was pretty important to stay afloat in the League Two race.

Meanwhile, pn and @jaggerdog were battling as well, but the underdog was faring slightly better. After some fun-looking sideline opening ideas, opposite-side castling, and an extra pawn for jagger, the game looked very balanced- the White king was more exposed, but the extra pawn balanced that out. Some quick tactics, however, showcased why exactly pn was the favorite in this match, and pretty soon I was confident that pn would cover easily. As a side note, discovered checks have always seemed (to me) the hardest tactic to note before your opponent springs it on you, so any thoughts someone has on methodology for not getting trapped by them (aside from general tactical improvement) are welcome. :)

Jagger, however, wasn't easily cowed. He again played off-beat in the opening, combining an Owen's and a French defense, then castling queenside, but it clearly wasn't awful for him, as both sides got lots of play on the opposite wings. Although pn lost off of a one-move blunder, Jagger did a great job of complicating the game while playing a stronger opponent, creating more variableness and chances for slips. And with this win, Jagger officially covered his spread! All those who bet on him, collect your imaginary money, and well done picking the underdog this week. :)

The next two games, pn admirably avoided a tilt and pulled himself together, displaying why he's the strongest player in League Two. Building up time and board advantages, he ground Jagger out until a slip came, and then he converted proceeded to convert. While Jagger had successfully made fireworks and chances for both sides in the first two games, there was honestly very little hope that pn would continue to blunder as disastrously as occurred in the second game, and pn ended up winning the match 3-1.

The Duel of the Desserts

This last match needs its own section, though, because we did indeed have @custardshark facing off against @cheesecake_assassin. Two delectable delicacies, frequently flung to wanton destruction, by two exquisite executioners. Truly, fate was kind to us in setting up a matchup like this.

I'll tell you to whom fate was unkind in the first game, though. Team Custard miscalculated a chain of captures, or so it appears, and was down a piece just twelve moves in. And that was with Cheesecake giving Custard a free London to play against. As the local parlance at the high school goes, "that's a mega O O F my dude."

As seems to be the theme for underdogs, though, Custard hit back in the second game. After Nxf7! won a pawn, it was clear that Cheesecakes didn't rule the desserts yet. Custard simply outplayed his opponent this game, staying sharper tactically and not letting off the gas pedal all game. Definitely a fun underdog win to watch.

Alas, that underdog single-game win did not translate into a match win. As we saw in my match vs pn last week, Jagger's match this week, and probably other times that I'm not remembering right now, the stronger player simply pulled themselves together and proved they were stronger by winning, fairly cleanly as well. All respect to Custard for getting even one win against a much stronger opponent, but the Cheesecakes were clearly superior in this matchup.

The Endgame

First off, Jagger recommended this week that I give people some reminders and dates/times for upcoming events, so that people can know about things generally. That sounded like a great idea to me, so here goes! All times in One True East Coast time. Anyone who uses GMT still is, like, stuck in 2020 still. Come on guys, get with the present!

LIGAS: Thursday 2:00 PM, Sunday 2:00 PM
LEAGUES: Have the whole week to schedule your match with your opponent. If you follow the league threads, you can get notified (in theory) of upcoming matches and tune in to watch, if you like!
RAPID SERIES: Friday, 2:30 PM
VARIANTS SERIES: Monday, 2:30 PM
Various inter-team battles: THINK is in a bunch of random battles this week, in multiple variants and time controls. If you are interested in any, you can review at
https://lichess.org/team/think/tournaments.

Next, betting lines! Put your bets in the THINK forum comments, so that you can have bragging rights and feel superior relative to your comrades when you are inevitably right!

@JeremyIsFishing (+1.5) vs @EniacKnight
@Dark-Bi5hop (-2) vs @Dpurgin
@IanCMason (-1.5) vs @chessmessi14
@ligemerrill (-0.5) vs @cheesecake_assassin
@custardshark (+2.5) vs @pn2206
@BorisOSpasky (+0.5) vs @Jaggerdog
@pUrpLegReeNniNga (+2) vs @Pyramidus

Knock yourselves out, be sure to bet on me, and have fun!

Nobody had anything to add to the chess humour column, so you get more xkcd instead.

As always, next week will be bigger, better, and awesome-er. That doesn't mean it will be (goodness, some of you last week seemed to believe I could actually sustain any form of interesting writing), but it's what I have to say, because it's my catchphrase.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
-@ligemerrill