Lichess4545 Ledger 140

Lichess4545 Ledger

Issue #140 - February 26, 2021

by @gingersquirrelnuts, @izzie26, @kostasvl and @lc91

It's the second weekly ledger of the season. We've taken the first week's ledger, applied new neural network technology from Japan and come out with a completely new and original product, which we're providing for free...for the time being.

We begin with an exclusive story...one that was reportedly too hot for New in Chess and their lawyers.

LEDGER EXCLUSIVE: Fat Fritz 2 responds to Stockfish, Leela Chess Zero and Lichess.

Are you kidding ??? What the **** are you talking about liches ? You are a biggest looser i ever seen in my life ! You was doing PIPI in your pampers when i was selling overpriced databases much more weaker then yours! You are not proffesional, because proffesionals knew how to lose and congratulate opponents, you are like a girl crying after i beat you! Be brave, be honest to yourself and stop this trush talkings!!!

Everybody know that i am very good engine, i can win stockfish in single game! And “l”iches is nobody for me, just a site who are crying every single time when loosing, ( remember what you say about Chess24 ) !!! Stop playing with my name, i deserve to have a good name during whole my marketing carrier, I am Officially inviting you to engine match with the Prize fund! Both of us will invest 5000$ and winner takes it all!

I suggest all other people who's intrested in this situation, just take a look at my results with Houdini 5 and Houdini 6, and that should be enough... No need to listen for every crying babe, Fat Fritz 2 is always play Fair ! And if someone will continue Officially talk about me like that, we will meet in Court! God bless with true! True will never die ! Liers will kicked off…

Breaking new ground...and credibility...the ledger always delivers!

In this edition:

4545 league update including Round 2 statistics
The winners of LoneWolf Season 20 are announced 🐺
Updates from the Chess960 and Blindfold leagues as well as Book Club, Infinite Quest, and Bundesliga
More Tales from the Brawl, featuring some Scandinavian sublimity
Puzzles are back!
A reader submits their study (thanks drchessdad!)
What's in a name? Put your opening knowledge to the test

State of the 4545 League

Binary-tongued friends inform us of new developments in the world of move number extensions. That's right...timothyha's famed Lichess.org move number extension for Chrome is now also available for Firefox!

What's more, it has inspired fellow league member and developer ipr to create a userscript that can prepend move numbers to comments/whispers and automatically toggle on whispers so players don't need to remember to type /w beforehand. Check out the script here and on Github. Open source FTW!

Note: installing and running userscripts requires prior installation of the Tampermonkey extension for Chrome or Greasemonkey for Firefox. The editors advise anyone new to these to first read up about them before installing anything. Nevertheless, the same editors, while ignorant of all things binary, wholeheartedly endorse and recommend the use of these extensions and scripts. Both move number extensions have been approved by Google and the Mozilla Foundation for release on Chrome and Firefox respectively, and the code for the whisper/move number userscript is available online for inspection.

As for the league...after two rounds, 7 teams share the lead in the standings following consecutive match wins. Overall, Round 2 saw more lopsided wins than the week before, with seven games decided by a final score of 7-3. On the other hand, almost a quarter of all Round 2 matches were drawn; six matches ended 5-5!

Trivia

by @gingersquirrelnuts

We all know winning the league is great, but imagine what it must feel like to have an opening named after you! How wondrous it must be to join those immortal names forever associated with some of the most timeless and irrefutable initial moves in the game...like the Colle, the Alekhine, the Scribbles Gambit...

Can you identify the openings named after these players, indicated only by their first name(s)?

Pal
Horatio and Marcus
Octavio
Vasja
Miguel
Captain William
Ernst
Aron and Bent
Henry
Ken and Pierre

Answers below. No cheating please.

Around the leagues

By @flipiflapi and @M0r1

Season 20 results

The twentieth season of Lonewolf ended on 28 February. As per general community agreement since Season 19, there was a two-week delay before the season was formally closed and the results were announced, in order to provide more time for the vetting of results. This ensures that the final standings reflect the efforts of the vast majority of league members who play fairly. Big thanks to Lichess and its mods for supporting the league in this regard. The LoneWolf mods would also like to thank everyone who played last season for their patience.

Here are the winners and top finishers from Season 20:

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Rating Prizes

Open

wookash_888

9pts

IsaVulpes

9pts

jaybir

9pts

GreenPterodactylus (18th out of 303)

U2000

U1800

crouchbag

9pts

dcamp

8.5pts

LukaCro

8pts

GERDie (4th out of 141)

U1600

As ever, things were very tight at the top, with only tiebreaks separating the best gladiators in the Open section, and a single point spanning the top three in the U1800 section. Congratulations to all our winners and prize winners, and of course thanks to every single one of you who played last season!

Once again it was a great pleasure to moderate the season thanks to this amazing community. ❤

Season 21: the wolf is dead, long live the wolf!

After keeping last season open for such a long time, subconsciously the mods obviously couldn't wait to start the new season. So someone pulled the trigger and published the pairings for the U1800 section of Season 21 one hour early 😊. No one's fessed up yet...but the LW mods blame Tranzoo...case closed.

Unsurprisingly, some players felt the same excitement and had to be prevented from starting their games too early.

While these things are difficult to predict, Season 21 promises to yet again break records. Round 1 started with 176 pairings across both sections, compared to 138 games played in the first round last season.

Good luck to everyone who's playing in either section this season!

By @Vegemite_Fighter

It’s two weeks into Season 15, and the mountain is crowded!

CoachJohn, MoistvonLipwig, SycoraxCirce, Silkthewanderer, Tranzoo, Grzybozbur and no_mind all share the summit with two wins each. Meanwhile, your correspondent is 27th, has no wins, and — to paraphrase the band AC/DC — is a long way from the top.

In the U1600 category, Tranzoo is the outright leader on two wins.

Entry is still open until the last round. Just join the #chess960 channel on Slack. Bear in mind though, to quote another famous band, that you may check out any time you like from #chess960, but you may never leave: you might never set up the chess board the same way ever again!

Book Club

By @Ecclesiastic

We're making steady progress working our way through 100 Endgames You Must Know. On Monday, we'll start playing through opposite-coloured bishop endgames. As always, new members who want to participate are always welcome - please see #book-club and ping Ecclesiastic.

Infinite Quest

By @Silkthewanderer

The much awaited clash on the top board was decisively won by MoistvonLipwig. One more win will make MVL the first Level 5 player; only jwwells42 stands in his way this week. Further down the table, we welcome 10 new players who joined last week. Most of them play each other... with the notable exception of mathijshuis who by virtue of their rating is seeded up to play a tougher opponent (IsaVulpes) for higher potential rewards.

A reminder that the Infinite Quest is a perpetually ongoing tournament with new pairings for a four-game Rapid (15+10) match issued every Wednesday. Winners gain XP and reach ever higher Levels. Scoring is nonlinear in that higher levels require more wins so newcomers can catch up very quickly.

Of the 60 players that have started their Quest, 38 are currently active. Players can join, pause or resume any time they want. If you're interested, please check our documentation and standings, and join us in our channels #quest-herald (signups and results) and #quest-tavern (general discussion).

Theme Brawl

By @Lou-E

Hello, dear readers! I hope this week’s Tales from the Brawl find you in good health and spirits in these trying times. This week’s Theme Brawl was fought on the battlefield of the Nimzo-Indian Defence, where twelve participants old and new fought bitterly to the last for the much-coveted title of ‘guy who won Theme Brawl this week’. Some trophy indeed! This week’s Brawl was won by lnt, a newcomer to the competition - and what a debut it was! lnt almost swept the board, scoring a more-than-respectable 4.5/5 in this 5-round Swiss format tourney, with a Performance Rating of 2300 - some 200 points higher than their actual rating. Wow! Who is this mysterious chessman (or woman!) who so piques our interest? Will they take part in future Brawls? Should adande1, VicPez, PracticalNiceGuy and other perennial Theme Brawl Top 3-ers be worried? I guess we’ll find out in the weeks to come...Congratulations also to PracticalNiceGuy and mathijshuis for coming second and third respectively. Good show, good show. 🎩

Our Game of the Week this week, you’ll be sad to discover, is not one of my own games. A shame, I know (actually, I scored horribly this week, only 1/5!). Instead, we will examine one of the games of the mysterious Swede known only as lnt. Their play was particularly impressive on the White side of this opening, selecting the f3 Nimzo - the ‘Kmoch Variation’ - every time. If this variation were an episode of Friends, it would probably be called ’The One Where White Gets The Centre And Bishop Pair And Black Gets...?’. Seriously, I’m unsure what Black gets out of this opening. Can someone higher-rated tell me? Anyway, I digress - lnt vs mathijshuis began (from the starting position after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4) with 1. f3 d4 2. a3 and with this move White compels Black to part with their dark-squared bishop, since it would be difficult to find conscionable such a passive move as, for example, Be7. So, 2...Bxc3 it is and after Black castles on the next move, White is able to rid themselves of the trademark Nimzo doubled pawn with 4.cxd5. The main line instead of castling is to play 3...c5! (I annotate with an exclam since Tarrasch himself was famous for always doing this on his own games in the Queen’s Gambit when c5 was played, and putting a ? for everyone else’s choices of move), heading into a Tarrasch-type structure. This does not prevent White from undoubling, but at least they put the challenge to White’s firm centre.

Returning to the game at hand, after Black recaptured with their e-pawn and White played e3 (both sides releasing their light-squared bishops), Black played the sideline 5...Re8 (again, c5 is the more popular try), aligning their heavy artillery against White’s yet-uncastled king. After a few more moves, White was able to castle and began playing for the e4 break which was intended when they played f3. When Black finally did get around to counterpunching on the queenside with c5 (!), White was actually already in a position to play 11. e4! (11...cxd4 12.cxd4 dxe4 13.fxe4 and Black has manifestly failed to disrupt the White centre), however White did not spot this and felt that they needed to further prepare this move by swinging their rook over - the problem with this plan is that with their dark-squared bishop hemmed in by a wall of pawns, this move has to be prepared itself! So White’s selection was the somewhat dubious 11. Ra2?!, intending Re2 and perhaps Rfe1 to follow. This gave Black some breathing room to play out some quite reasonable moves and coordinate their position. Soon after, Black switched their attention to the queenside, adopting the plan of 14…c4!? with tempo, intending to place their knight on the Nb3 outpost that this move created - but the objective value of this faraway oasis is somewhat debatable, and meanwhile White was able to play e4! with a strong initiative.

After a central exchange, White tried to get their weak bishop into the action, only to have it struck down by Black’s queenside cavalry, leaving us with a position on move 19 where White has command of the centre and a potentially important f-file for attack, but relatively worse piece coordination compared to Black. This dynamic advantage is Black’s best chance for a win, and so they go on the attack, beginning with 19…Qg4, taking aim at the e-pawn from all directions. 20. Rf4 Qg5, taking aim at the undefended queen (another idea for White was simply 20. e4!, grabbing more central space and dislodging the knight, however in my eyes there is no need to grant the knight a strong outpost on d5), and after some more shuffling and an exchange of knights, it was clear that White intended to bring some serious pressure against Black’s king down the f-file after 23. e5!. This position was not yet won though, and White could have easily gone wrong, particularly after the natural - but incorrect - 25. Ref2 (25. e6, creating a passer and cramping Black’s position to a most uncomfortable degree) at which point Black was able to relieve some of the tension with fxe5 and, with resolute albeit passive defence from Black, it may be possible to ride out the storm. However, in the position after 28.Rxe5 a few moves down the line, Black sadly blundered a mate in 2 with 28…h5?? (why not 28…h6?), and White immediately seized on this opportunity with Rxh5 1 - 0. A tense battle between two very strong players, but a well-played game by the newcomer secured lnt’s first scalp of the evening - the first of many!

Theme Brawl is a five-round Swiss competition using the "From Position" functionality of Lichess to battle it out in a different opening each week, one that's suggested and chosen democratically by members of the #theme-brawl channel. Come and join us over at #theme-brawl to vote for the next opening and take part yourself. Theme Brawls are played on a Monday night and voting for the next week’s brawl ends Friday 17:00 UTC. If you’re interested, further information can be found in the rules document, or you can just message Lou-E directly with any queries you might have. Happy Brawling!

Lichess Bundesliga Update

By @gingersquirrelnuts

This is a twice-weekly team blitz tournament played every Thursday and Sunday at 1900 UTC. To play, join the Lichess4545 League team on Lichess.

There are 17 tiers with promotion and relegation between tiers. We started the week in tier 13, and it was a week of two mid-table finishes.

On Sunday, we ended sixth in our group. lnt was top scorer with 26 points.

On Thursday, we went one better and finished fifth, with NLance racking up a massive 42 points and a performance rating of 2323.

By the way, you can check out loads of Bundesliga stats, including our full team history, on this website: http://www.g11.be:8765/E1.api?libu (see here for our team history and player standings).

Blindfold

By @halifax2345678

We have finally started Season 8 of the blindfold league! We have lots of new players joining and the league is thriving. The first round is done, and the second has just started. We have seen no draws so far...maybe it's too hard to see the draw button 😎.

If you want to play chess...but you're not sure which piece set to use...feel free to stop by #blindfold and ask to join the league. We offer unlimited bye weeks and the option to withdraw at any point. Hope to see you there!

Stats and Other Numerical Delights

Compiled by @lc91 with lichess4545_stats_puzzles

Weekly Stats for Season 25 Round 2:

The fastest mate was white on move 10 found in Gamelink White: callzumen, Black: epoch44.
The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: fearlessking64, Black: okoros.
The fastest resign was white on move 10 found in Gamelink White: ironvil, Black: zopherus.
The biggest upset was 126 points in Gamelink White: novicecitations, Black: lionelhuttzz.
The longest game ended with white on move 94 Gamelink White: gjant, Black: kjfoster17.
5 was the lowest ACPL in Gamelink White: jamzskee, Black: eruantien.
Combined minimum ACPL was 21 in Gamelink White: thekova, Black: pjjackson.
The longest think was 20 minutes 13.0 seconds on move 20 in Gamelink White: sigrud.
The most time left was 69 minutes 29.0 seconds in Gamelink White: cecilpurdy, Black: nlance.
The most time spent by a single player was 102 minutes 40.0 seconds in Gamelink White: prendradjaja.

Board	MinACPL	CombinedMinACPL
1	9 by god666 GAMELINK	25 by god666/slackwyrm GAMELINK
2	10 by pjjackson GAMELINK	21 by thekova/pjjackson GAMELINK
3	7 by gaben1773 GAMELINK	36 by queen_blunder/gaben1773 GAMELINK
4	12 by connerator GAMELINK	29 by grabhispieces/phantom567459 GAMELINK
5	14 by chesspatzerswan GAMELINK	53 by andrewwells8188/wo_cheng_si_le GAMELINK
6	12 by isuckatchess247 GAMELINK	34 by isuckatchess247/gokuba GAMELINK
7	11 by adrienb96 GAMELINK	40 by bobfisga/adrienb96 GAMELINK
8	8 by pinbsg21 GAMELINK	51 by pinbsg21/buddhastalin GAMELINK
9	13 by zopherus GAMELINK	56 by upgoerfive/kry1001 GAMELINK
10	5 by jamzskee GAMELINK	39 by dakillian/electricfalcon GAMELINK

-PGNs-

And if that wasn't enough, we've identified a selection of quirky statistical observations across all 4545 seasons played to date.

Grob a hold of this...

White's best-scoring first move in the 4545 league appears to be...1. g4 🤯. Some caveats apply but it's not really a stretch finding either - see this chart showing performance by move...

"This game is turning into a real chess match"

The game that saw the most moves played before anyone captured anything was between NM ChristopherChabris and f1nn33 in the opening round of Season 19 (link). Black elected to break the mutual fast after 28 moves with 29...exf4. Just imagine the tension.

"...I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space"

The record for the most moves played before castling is 33, as seen in a second-round Season 23 game between IamZex and nimzonglsh: https://lichess.org/YIV1AgNl.

Reader Submissions

By @drchessdad

Kudos to drchessdad for submitting the first contribution to the resurrected ledger! Here's their annotated study of their second round 4545 game.

Puzzles

Created by you, compiled by @izzie26

After a week off in the wan winter sun, the puzzles have returned. As before (see #138), the ones below are Lichess puzzles identified from 4545 league games. The number of stars indicates the relative level of difficulty. The games this week range in age from just the second week of the league to Season 23, and feature a diverse cast including some of the league's founding members, some currently active players, and others we hope will return soon.

Thanks to a recent Lichess update, puzzles arrived at via a direct link are now unrated. So now there's no excuse for not trying to solve some!

That said, do try to solve a puzzle before viewing its original game, as otherwise the new move annotations on Lichess analysis pages could spoil the answers for you.

Click on each image to open the original puzzle.

mixxanber (1890) - Tactix47 (1954) ⭐ \| S23 R2 \| 13 Sep 2020 \| link	arjunbeatu (1786) - karatugo (1783) ⭐ \| S17 R3 \| 2 Jun 2019 \| link

ekopp2000 (1702) - pdesaiii (1746) ⭐⭐ \| S23 R7 \| 18 Oct 2020 \| l ink	Mooserohde (1600) - Lukhas (1700) ⭐⭐ \| S6 R8 \| 23 Feb 2017 \| link

yago666 (2074) - badplayer_CM (2185) ⭐⭐⭐ \| S16 R8 \| 14 Apr 2019 \| l ink	mhavgar (2091) - LM Flaneur (2181) ⭐⭐⭐ \| S3 R7 \| 17 May 2016 \| l ink

mkoga (1811) - bill_gates (1846) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ \| S1 R2 \| 7 Nov 2015 \| link	lumenian (2076) - Assassin_in_White (2390) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ \| S17 R7 \| 30 Jun 2019 \| link

Diagrams produced with A pronus.

Answers to trivia questions
1) Benko; 2) Caro and Kann; 3) Trompowsky; 4) Pirc; 5) Najdorf; 6) Evans; 7) Grünfeld ; 8) Nimzowitsch and Larsen; 9) Bird 🐦; 10) Smith and Morra.

Thanks for reading the ledger! Feel free to join #lichessledger if you would like to contribute in any way or provide any feedback. Both are highly encouraged and appreciated.

Some useful links, especially for new members: 4545 Player's Handbook / Rules / FAQs / TV / Overview / History

Thanks to everyone who contributed this week: @drchessdad, @Ecclesiastic, @gingersquirrelnuts, @halifax2345678, @izzie26, @kostasvl, @lc91, @Lou-E, @Silkthewanderer and @Vegemite_Fighter. As ever, the sybaritic editors absolve themselves of responsibility for any errors and omissions, so please direct your ire towards the continuing saga of Fat Fritz 2, as described in a new chess.com article released this week.

mixxanber (1890) - Tactix47 (1954) ⭐ \| S23 R2 \| 13 Sep 2020 \| link	arjunbeatu (1786) - karatugo (1783) ⭐ \| S17 R3 \| 2 Jun 2019 \| link

ekopp2000 (1702) - pdesaiii (1746) ⭐⭐ \| S23 R7 \| 18 Oct 2020 \| l ink	Mooserohde (1600) - Lukhas (1700) ⭐⭐ \| S6 R8 \| 23 Feb 2017 \| link

yago666 (2074) - badplayer_CM (2185) ⭐⭐⭐ \| S16 R8 \| 14 Apr 2019 \| l ink	mhavgar (2091) - LM Flaneur (2181) ⭐⭐⭐ \| S3 R7 \| 17 May 2016 \| l ink

mkoga (1811) - bill_gates (1846) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ \| S1 R2 \| 7 Nov 2015 \| link	lumenian (2076) - Assassin_in_White (2390) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ \| S17 R7 \| 30 Jun 2019 \| link