Lichess4545 Ledger 013

Lichess4545 Ledger

Issue #013 - January 23, 2017

State of the League

Thank you to all the players who've made this season one of the smoothest ever! I'm sure both 4545 and lonewolf mods would agree. There are constant improvements every week from the team of developers for our wonderful site and @chesster. Also be sure to check below for @FelixNL's writeup for the ledger, GM Blunders in Wijk aan Zee. He was able to visit the Tata Steel Chess Tournament recently with a press pass.

The first notable league change to mention is that there is now a page to view alternate searches. This is especially useful for captains who can make sure all boards on their team have responsive players scheduling matches during a particular round. I hope this is also helpful for those who are alternates to see active alternate searches as well. The page can be found at https://www.lichess4545.com/team4545/season/6/alternates/

Second, the first blitz-battle tournament occured over this past weekend with the tremendous help and frantic work of @cyanfish, @lakinwecker, @chessicstudent, @seb32, and @somethingpretentious. Congratulations to @Abhy0024 who acheived a perfect score to claim the number one spot! For more information, please visit the slack channel #blitz-battle and the site. In short, this is a 3+2 tournament only for members of the lichess4545 community. Future editions will likely occur depending on moderator availability to run the tournament. @iebrian has graciously volunteered to spearhead that effort.

Are you planning to go to an OTB tournament soon? Would you like to share some thoughts or experiences? Please contact @prune2000 and/or @lovlas. Your experience might be featured in a future issue of the lichess4545 ledger.

Notable lichess4545 community member video/contributions:

@commonboy has joined the rank of chess youtubers. He has already uploaded several videos live commentating his games. See his blitz battle playlist of all 8 games (here)

@Atrophied live commentates his 45+45 game vs fellow lichess coach and CM @VNeustroev and his Lonewolf game vs @Bolsa (here)

@quirked has developed a great study tool: "Hey everyone, just wanted to share something I've been working on. I don't like tactics puzzles that much because they tell you that there is a solution, so I made a stack of "play the best move" puzzles taken from critical positions of my OTB games. Some of them are tactical, some more positional, and each time you just have to find the best move, whether or not there is a "solution"

I put them all together as a study in lichess, each chapter is a different puzzle. (Chapter 1 embedded below - Click "open" below to follow to the study with 58 other chapters)

Stats from Round 3 of 45+45: Thanks to @somethingpretentious for his work to automate the process of coming up with these stats. It is much appreciated!

Biggest upset: 154 point difference ZweiSpeedruns 1404 beats jshholland 1558 Gamelink
Lowest ACPL game: 9 ACPL TIE
- ZweiSpeedruns against jshholland Gamelink
- a3516845 against FakeEmperor Gamelink
- Fuzz0410 against Treppenhouse Gamelink
Lowest combined ACPL game: 29 combined ACPL gandalf013 vs barry_stipplebanger Gamelink
Highest ACPL game: 104 ACPL by Glad_He_Ate_Her in loss to ChukoDiman Gamelink
Highest combined ACPL game: 160 combined ACPL DK_Chess vs napolean15 Gamelink
Longest game: Reached move 84 badplayer_CM vs Aliquantus Gamelink
Shortest game: Ends on move 14 Dzoniak vs MrPantz Gamelink
Quickest mate: Mate on move 14 by Dzoniak vs MrPantz Gamelink

Stats from Round 2 of Lonewolf:

Biggest upset: 299 point difference uturuncoglu 1935 vs retiy100 2234 Gamelink
Lowest ACPL game: 5 ACPL Seb32 against dose7781 Gamelink
Lowest combined ACPL game: 25 combined ACPL CommonBoy vs Tapcon Gamelink
Highest ACPL game: 92 ACPL CaptNCarter in loss vs hillrp Gamelink
Highest combined ACPL game: 153 combined ACPL hillrp vs CaptNCarter Gamelink
Longest game: Reached move 77 cyanfish vs Beauvain Gamelink
Shortest game:Ends on move 17 ChukoDiman vs hitecherik Gamelink
Quickest mate: Mate on move 22 by JakobKS vs Boviced Gamelink

Finally as always feel free to join #lichessledger on slack if you want to help or contribute in any way to this newsletter.

Chess For You

We have a very special contribution today from a new contributor to the ledger @FelixNL. Definitely check out the official lichess blog as well for another write-up by @FelixNL here which recaps week 1 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. (@FelixNL has included some puzzles below. You can click "open" to visit the study on lichess to see the entire games).

GM Blunders in Wijk aan Zee

by @FelixNL

Having visited the Tata Steel Chess tournament myself in Wijk aan Zee, I’ve seen many beautiful but also many not-so-pretty moves. A wise man once said: “A master has failed more than the amateur has ever tried.” And as luck would have it, the saying could not have been more true in round 7. I’d like to show you three positions that occurred in round 7 in which the Grandmaster playing had made a mistake that cost him/her either a possible draw or a possible win. Try the positions for yourself, and before checking the solution see if you can come up with a better move! Are you better than a Grandmaster?

The first position comes from the game between Dutch talent Jorden van Foreest and tournament leader Gawain Jones. Van Foreest played 49.Qc3 to save his queen. Can you find a better move in the position?

Solution:

Don’t just be scared of the discovery with a knight move, d1 also has to be defended! After Qc3 Qd1+ the knight is getting active and white has to give up the exchange just to prevent the mating nets and the promotion of the e pawn, after which black has a winning endgame. To both guard the rook and prevent any scary discoveries winning the rook afterwards (such as Qc1? ..Nc2+!), Rc1! is an only move.

If you didn’t get that one, maybe the second puzzle will suit you better. In the game between the other tournament leader Markus Ragger and Sopiko Guramishvili, Guramishvili played 27..Qd6? Can you see white’s threat and hold on for longer than Sopiko did?

Solution:

The threats in this position for white are h5 and Nxg6 if black plays Qd6. To avoid both threats the best, though counterintuitive, remedy is Qe8!. Though passive, it stops any direct threats for now and white isn’t able to break through the kingside. The simple h5 works as well, and though white is still the preferred side in either line, it’s definitely not lost yet.

Now for the third and final blunder. Who didn’t expect this one . Carlsen played 56 Bf7+ which, while still winning, makes for a tougher endgame than the best move in this position. In fact, endgame lord Carlsen did not manage to win from this position with white! Can you squeeze out a full point in this game?

Solution:

After Rc8+! the king has nowhere left to run and will be mated in the corner in two more moves! Rf7 and Rh8 will follow next. Intervening with the black rook loses the house. If you missed it, no worries, both Carlsen and Giri missed this relatively simple variation with 50 minutes left on the clock. If you did get it, have you seen this game before?

The best moves can be tough to find for anyone. If you got at least one of these moves, you have something to boast about the next time you meet a Grandmaster.

Chess Puzzle

From a round 3 game in 45+45 on board 2: @nork vs @urjah. White just played Ne2. Black to move. White should have watched for his undefended pieces.

For the answer see gamelink.

Gamelink

GM Blunders in Wijk aan Zee by @FelixNL.

Thanks to @somethingpretentious for their contributions. Thanks to @petruchio for his help in editing this issue.