Lichess4545 Ledger 091

Lichess4545 Ledger

Issue #091 - March 13, 2019

State of the 4545 League

by @kostasvl

Round 3 of the 4545 league has ended and we currently have 2 leading teams: "Barely Légal" and "The Mateful Eight". But there are many teams close to them, so there is still no clear advantage for any team.

Registrations for the 14th Season of Lonewolf are now open! Season begins on 19th of March. Click here if you want to register. Please also note that the pairings will be released at a different time instead of the usual 22:00 UTC, and the time will be notified and updated in the rules within the following week.

This month the moderators of Blitz Battles have prepared a huge blitz battle event. This event will be hosted on Sunday the 24th of March, a day that most members agreed on. However the exact time of the event isn't decided yet and a poll is going on in the #blitz-battle channel, so if you're interested joining the event you still have time to vote. Registrations will open a week before the battle starts and 2 hours before the battle starts you will have to confirm that you will play in the event. For more information you can ask the mods in #blitz-battle or use the summon command.

The crazyhouse team league has started. Teams are already formed and pairings for the first round will be released soon. You have time to register now and play as an alternate. For more information you can join the #crazyhouse channel and visit the website of the league: https://zh.lakin.ca/zhteam/

The March simul will be hosted by @SomethingPretentious on this Saturday March 16th @ 15:30 UTC! There will be rating restrictions. If you’re higher rated than 2000 but have a blindfold account that is below 2000 then you can play! So if you want to play blindfold with a blindfold account maybe start working on getting yourself a classical rating. There is also a prediction contest in #4545-simul to see who will predict most accurate the performance of @Somethingpretentious in this simultaneous exhibition.

There is also a new correspondence tournament that will start soon. For more information and to register for this tournament join the #correspondence channel.

Interview

by @adande1 and @kostasvl with @alex_slow

We are introducing a new featured player interview section in this edition of the ledger. Each week we will try and interview a league member to recognize a noteworthy accomplishment (and/or failure or something else entirely) and get to know them a little better!

We kick off this week with an interview with alex_slow, winner of Lonewolf #13 (Open). This is his first win and top three finish in the Lonewolf League.

Tell us a little something about yourself. How long have you been playing chess and what is your history/ participation with the different leagues in the community?

I am 31 years old and learned how to play chess when I was 7 if I remember correct. I played OTB in the school, but was mostly retained from chess during University time and after. Then I started again on lichess around 6 years ago and still play. Last 1.5 years I actually got opportunity to play OTB again.

I joined the LoneWolf / League 4545 at season 2 and played here and there from that time. I think I actually participated in all chess activities of 4545 community besides variants.

Please answer some fun facts below

Favorite opening as White: English

Favorite opening as Black against 1.e4: Pirc

Favorite opening as Black against 1.d4: NID / QID

Favorite chess icon/ inspiration: did not think about it too much. Though as a more positional player I appreciate Capablanca’s and Petrosian’s play

Most memorable achievement (preferably chess related): got National CM title two months ago :) Kind of a dream from childhood, though back in those days I did not actually think I would be able to achieve that.

Most memorable failure (preferably chess related): Idk, I do not take playing like a shit from time to time as a big failure. Although ok, I did not get CM norm earlier, half a year ago, losing last game out of better position to not very strong opponent after a really great tournament. Draw would have been enough :)

What role does chess play in your life?

Hobby. I don’t get money from it and most likely will never do. I did enjoy OTB chess during my free time, but when I am back to work other things will pop up.

Do you have any goals with respect to chess?

Well, I got national CM. Not that I planned to get more. Maybe FIDE title one day if I get to play more FIDE tournaments.

Talk about your recent performance and the biggest factors behind your success.

Well, talking about last LoneWolf - being higher-rated helps a bit :) Although this is also a responsibility, like “you have to win” even if your opp playing good chess. And then some luck: quite a few of stronger opps did not show up to our games, and @Leverkuhn simply resigned in equal position.

Describe your chess regimen. What chess resources (books, applications, websites etc.) do you use regularly and how did these help you?

I don’t have special regime for chess. When I am active on lichess I play 4, maximum 6 Classical games per day. I really like St. Louis Chess Club videos and watched a lot of them. Also opening explorer on lichess is amazing for studying. I actually never used and don’t think will ever need other sites to play than lichess.

How has this League and the community affected your experience of the game?

LoneWolf and League 4545 is a really good alternative to competitive OTB chess. Not everyone has opportunity to play OTB (including me for a long time), but you can always get a portion of some serious chess here.

What advice, if any, do you have for the average player in the league to improve his/ her chess?

Idk, enjoy the game probably. There are lots of materials to study available if you really like it.

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with the community?

Well, overall I’d like to thanks mods for running this chess league and lichess.org for its existence :)

If you liked the featured player interview and have any thoughts on who and/ or what you’d like hear next feel free to post in #lichessledger or DM @adande1. For complaints DM @glbert (and he’ll tell you what to do about them).

Weekly Stats

by @kraaft and @Somethingpretentious

Stats for Season 16 Rounds 3:

The fastest mate was white on move 13 found in Gamelink White: titan_twelve, Black: shakaali.
The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: roso97, Black: ma1ah.
The fastest resign was black on move 12 found in Gamelink White: brundd, Black: rolihlahla.
The biggest upset was 364 points in Gamelink White: rsava, Black: glaciersix.
The longest game ended with black on move 103 Gamelink White: footpath, Black: leinax.
109 was the highest ACPL in Gamelink White: auroach, Black: oddsox.
7 was the lowest ACPL in Gamelink White: brundd, Black: rolihlahla.
Combined maximum ACPL was 189 in Gamelink White: auroach, Black: oddsox.
Combined minimum ACPL was 30 in Gamelink White: mronemore, Black: tushar20008.
The longest think was 28 minutes 26.0 seconds on move 20 in Gamelink White: kn960, Black: astralfenix.
The most time left was 64 minutes 18.0 seconds in Gamelink White: litlee, Black: edwarde.
The most time spent was 109 minutes 20.0 seconds in Gamelink White: footpath, Black: leinax.

-PGNs-

Rapid battle

Stats for Season 4 Rounds 1 & 2:

The fastest mate was white on move 20 found in Gamelink White: razzld, Black: upgoerfive.
The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: okei, Black: badplayer_cm.
The fastest resign was white on move 6 found in Gamelink White: seius, Black: adande1.
The biggest upset was 573 points in Gamelink White: seius, Black: myle.
The longest game ended with white on move 84 Gamelink White: tushar20008, Black: grizzzly1000.
175 was the highest ACPL in Gamelink White: seius, Black: adande1.
4 was the lowest ACPL in Gamelink White: seius, Black: adande1.
Combined maximum ACPL was 214 in Gamelink White: okei, Black: shakaali.
Combined minimum ACPL was 32 in Gamelink White: brundd, Black: mmb4854.
The longest think was 8 minutes 13.0 seconds on move 17 in Gamelink White: kostasvl, Black: mathijshuis.
The most time left was 15 minutes 16.0 seconds in Gamelink White: okei, Black: badplayer_cm.
The most time spent was 28 minutes 12.0 seconds in Gamelink White: tushar20008, Black: grizzzly1000.

-PGNs-

Chess Puzzles

Click on the images for the solution.


Aleksandr88_62 (1969) - okei (1936) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	RealRobbert (1844) - FairyTaleTime (1880) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	adande1 (1765) - RookTown (1712) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	auroach (1595) - oddsox (1640) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
lovlas (2472) - TheTacticianMagician (2081) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	mdcasey (1747) - lapetitemort (1572) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	mdcasey (1747) - lapetitemort (1572) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	Mixalaki2705 (1751) - oddskill (1700) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.
Rapid
SecretCaveman (1973) - krispl (1902) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	yago666 (2009) - Grizzzly1000 (1953) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	ErinYu (2345) - Grizzzly1000 (1942) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	okei (1926) - Lelouch_Vi_Brittania (2142) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.
krispl (1902) - Assassin_in_White (2417) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	badplayer_CM (2136) - okei (1930) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	dmavro (1666) - mathijshuis (1784) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	DrOdnat (1662) - momor (1615) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
mathijshuis (1792) - Numberman768 (1622) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.

Chessboard images provided by lenik terenin.

Please feel free to join #lichessledger on slack if you would like to contribute towards the ledger in any way, or provide any feedback. Both are highly encouraged and appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Thanks to @adande1, @alex_slow, @kostasvl, @kraaft, @Somethingpretentious and @Spiteknight.