Lichess4545 Ledger

Issue #096 - April 19, 2019

State of the 4545 League

by @kostasvl

The 16th season of the 4545 team league came to an end. After 8 rounds of no sole leader, the winning team is a clear winner, having a total of 12 match points. Congratulations to "Lichess Lovers" for winning the season!

• 1st place: Lichess Lovers (Winning with 12 match points, 4 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses).
• 2nd place: Snow White and the Seven Najdorfs (Having 11 match points and 37 game points. 5 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses).
• 3rd place: 8 Devils Spawns from 64 Chambers of Death (Having 11 match points and 37 game points. 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses. They lost to "Snow White and the Seven Najdorfs" in their direct match though, so they placed third).

For detailed standings of the season click here. The start of next season isn't decided yet. However you may enter your e-mail in this form to be notified when registrations for the new season open.

For those that participated in this season of the team league, please take the time to fill out this end of season form, so that the moderators can know how to improve the league. Click here to complete the form. 

Side-leagues News

by @kostasvl

We introduce you this new chapter in the weekly ledger. We decided to split up the State of the 4545 league in 2 chapters. One that will focus exclusively on the team league and one that will have news about the rest of the leagues and events of the lichess4545 community. We also received some of the feedback that you sent in the form to improve the ledger and will consider to make new changes and additions to the ledger.

NM ChristopherChabris is leading the Open section of LoneWolf after 4 rounds with a 4/4 score. There are 6 players following with 3.5 points behind him. For detailed standings click here. In the U1800 section there are 3 leaders with a 4/4 score, @Injektilo, @asdarqw and @Adri89. There are 4 players following them with 3.5 points each. Also 2 of the leaders, @Adri89 and @asdarqw are paired together this week. For detailed standings of the U1800 section click here.

After 3 rounds of the 6th season of the 960 League, @Grzybozbur and @Somethingpretentious are ahead of the rest players with a 3/3 score each. They are followed by @sgis and the bot of the league @Vetinari_Computer who have 2.5 points each. For detailed standings click here.

Blitz Battle #59 was a successful blitz battle after a long time. A big thanks to @Somethingpretentious for hosting the event. 14 members participated.

• 1st place: Somethingpretentious (Scoring 7/8 points).
• 2nd place: mronemore (With a 6/8 score).
• 3rd place: Forhavu (With a 5.5/8 score).
• U1600 winner: Tsatsa64 (Scoring 4/8).

You can find all details of the battle here.

The Series league will end within the next week as some groups haven't finished yet all of their games. Congratulations to Group F for finishing all of their games first, having also one late entry. Detailed standings of all groups will be published in the next edition.

The 4th season of Rapid-battle ended successfully last week. @Erinyu won the final match against @Assasin_in_White (2.5-1.5) in Division 1. In the 2nd division @RealRobbert won @rampichino with a score of 4-2. Congratulations to both @Erinyu and @RealRobbert for winning! You can find detailed results in this sheet. Registrations for the new season are already open and will close late on Sunday. To register for the next rapid battle fill out this form.

The 4th season of the crazyhouse league has just ended. This season the league switched from an individual to a team league. It was an experimental season as the crazyhouse site is under development by @colwem. The league had 4 teams with 5 players in each team. Congratulations to "Finnish Them" led by @TheFinnisher on board 1 for winning the season. @okei on board 2 had also won or tied for first in the previous three individual leagues. The rapid battle champion @erinyu was their board 3, @colwem who is programming the new crazyhouse site was their board 4 and @asian42 learning crazyhouse for the first time was their board 5. Special mention also goes to @VariantsOnly who scored a perfect 6/6 on board 2. For those who participated, please take the time to fill out this short end of season survey to help guide future improvements to the league.(Click here for the form). Also registration for the 5th season is already underway. Again it will be a team league but the exact format and how teams are selected is yet to be decided. To register for the new season, click here. For more information about the crazyhouse league join the #crazyhouse channel.

The April Simul will be hosted by  Mn8 and held on Saturday the 20th at 16:00 UTC. He'll be playing players that were b2 or lower in the team league.

The Fantasy contest of Season 16 was won again by @Somethingpretentious who had also won the 15th season contest. Congratulations to him for picking the best players to win the contest and if you want to know his secret to win... Become the league!

Interview

by @adande1 and @kostasvl with "The Dark Knights" of Season 15

This week we get to meet some of the members of the winning team from Lichess4545 League Season#15. “The Dark Knights” scored an impressive victory last season winning all 8 rounds – the first time a team has done this in the history of the league. Four of the team members got paired again this season to be part of “Return of the Sac” which was in contention for the top spot again after Round 7 but unfortunately fell away after one of their new additions was identified as a cheat.

Briefly introduce yourselves and tell us about your history/ participation in the 4545 and other leagues in the community?

Lethgo: I am a 42-year-old engineer trying to fit in some chess between work and family commitments. This was my second season in the league and first time on a team that didn’t finish in last place. I have also played occasionally in the Lone Wolf League.

BigEvo8: Hello, I'm bigevo8 and I discovered the Lichess4545 league through Reddit. I wanted to get better by playing longer time controls online and the league does a really good job of offering this.

Kostasvl: I first entered the 4545 community around June 2018. I actually liked the idea of some swiss tournaments because lichess had put off that option many years ago if I recall correctly. I first entered for the 960 league as the time control for the team league and lonewolf seemed too long for me. After a couple of months though I also joined lonewolf and then also some side leagues of the community.

Please answer some fun facts below

Toughest Opponent team (Actual or perceived):

BigEvo8: I'd say the toughest team was probably Caruana Leaked Our Prep (which is a great name by the way) with ErinYu on top board and lots of other 4545 veterans. This was a really tough match. We got some luck in with Zher0's connection, kostasvl somehow holding a draw down a piece (and on time) and my game with RealRobbert which has to be seen to be believed. (Shameless plug: all games are available in my season study here)

Most memorable win(s) from Season #15:

Lethgo: My win against Showboater. It was selected for the end of season review. (gamelink)

BigEvo8: My most memorable win was against Urjah (gamelink). I think the most memorable team win for me was astralfenix's win against MoiRon (gamelink)

Most memorable loss(es) from Season #15:

Lethgo: I was lucky enough to only have one defeat against jwwells42 (https://lichess.org/lN40jjet)

BigEvo8: Most memorable loss was my game against Phantom (gamelink) where I completely mis-read the endgame.

Tell us how your team was formed? Did any of you know each from before and/ or requested to be put together or was this a completely random team?

All: It was a completely random team. I didn't know any of my teammates before the team was formed.

How did you come up with your team name? Were there any alternative names you’d also considered?

Kostasvl: We all proposed some names and then made a poll to decide which name to choose.

BigEvo8: Another name was Return of the Sac (with reference to the Mark Morrison song ‘Return of the Mac’) which was our name this season

How did you decide on your team captain? Did kostasvl “volunteer” himself as he normally does for everything? ?

Lethgo: We kept insisting on kostasvl being captain until he gave in and accepted the role. He did a great job.

BigEvo8: I think kostasvl put himself forward, but he's a natural leader so it wasn't difficult nominating him as captain.

Kostasvl: I remember that from the beginning of the season I started right away by telling my teammates that we had to choose a name and a captain. To choose a captain I first checked if anyone had previously played a season and say that BigEvo8 and Lethgo had, so I proposed one of them as captain. However, everyone then proposed me as captain given the activity I had on the team.

Take us behind the scenes of what it was like to be part of the winning team. What were the team dynamics like?

Kostasvl: Before each week started, every Saturday or Sunday I was sending a message pinging everyone asking whether they would be available for the next round and people reacted to that message with a check mark or a :x:. Also when each round started I was pinging then to see if everyone contacted their opponent. After some point though I asked to see if someone got bothered by the ping so I was just pinging the ones that wanted to get a notification. We weren't discussing that much the games if I recall correctly.

BigEvo8: From the beginning kostasvl was pushing us to get the most match points. I thought it was overconfidence at first but looking back it was good to set a high goal of winning as many matches as possible and be motivated towards it. Behind the scenes we had quite a good group encouraging each other and being supportive in defeat.

Lethgo: All team members were very supportive.

Talk about your team performance and the biggest factors that you felt contributed to your success as a team.

Kostasvl: To be honest I don't know what is the biggest factor that lead to victory.

Lethgo: I think it helped that everybody played all eight rounds with no alternates. No one quit during the games and several times we got a draw from a lost position or a win from an even position.

What advice do you have other teams trying to win?

Kostasvl: Just have fun. That was our main priority and I as a captain in cases where I should decide whether to choose the best for the team or what a player wants I always let the player decide. When that player was me though I always chose what I thought it'd be best for the team.

Tell us about the amazing study BigEvo8 created last season. When did you start putting it together and how long did it take you? Had you created similar studies in the past or was this your first attempt?

BigEvo8: So my study took about nine to 10 hours to make over the course of two or three weekends. I only started putting it together seriously after we had won the league - I don't think I'd created puzzles before but I'd seen them as Lichess has a lot of cool learning features for beginners/intermediate players (which I highly recommend checking out if you have access to a desktop and want to go over the basics). Trial and error is how I learned to put the puzzles together by having a couple of screens open and trying to see what it would look like on the other side.

Kostasvl: Yeah this study by Bigevo8 is a true masterpiece. One day he just posted the link in the channel and said “I made a study that is like a short history of our team.”

When did you decide that you were going to try and return together as a team this season?

Kostasvl: In the end of the season I had the idea of re-making the same team again. Everyone agreed to it. And indeed next season 5 of the 6 previous members were on the same team. Unfortunately astralfenix couldn't be in the team because he had a similar rating to Bigevo8. Probably it was a 50-50 chance for each of them to join the new team.

Why/ how did astralfenix not end up with the rest of the team members this season?

Kostasvl: As stated above, he had a similar rating to Bigevo8 so it was 50-50 to join the new team.

Has anyone heard from SentinelCrush or knows why he chose not to return this season?

Kostasvl: Unfortunately not. I tried to contact him once I noticed he had his account closed but nothing.

BigEvo8: SentinelCrush closing their account was a little bit out of the blue. I understand there's been a discussion about potential misconduct but it looks like SentinelCrush simply chose to close their account. If you're asking my opinion about whether SentinelCrush cheated I find this hard to believe given this game and this game.

Lethgo: No.

Share your thoughts about having two additional boards per team this season? How, if at all, has this changed the team dynamics?

Kostasvl: I really enjoyed this season. 8 boards was a nice change. I don't know if that changed the team dynamics at all. To be honest, I would really like to see 10 boards per team in one of the future seasons but that is unlikely to happen.

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

Kostasvl: I'd like to thank the mods for all the effort they put in the league. From the experience that I have as a mod, which isn't that much, I have to say that the mods must have put too much time and too much effort for the league to be the way it is now. And to everyone that participates to the league, enjoy it. It's really awesome!

Lethgo & BigEvo8: Appreciate everybody, especially the mods who dedicate the time to make this happen.

Thanks for taking the time and let’s hope we see you back again as a team in future seasons!

Weekly Stats

by @kraaft, @RobUmbra and @Somethingpretentious
 

Stats for Season 14 Round 4:

• The fastest mate was black on move 15 found in Gamelink White: totallycrazybishop, Black: furrykef.
• The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: zimny_toster, Black: grizzzly1000.
• The fastest resign was black on move 15 found in Gamelink White: upgoerfive, Black: mad_shaving.
• The biggest upset was 304 points in Gamelink White: tianmu, Black: lostearthworm.
• The longest game ended with black on move 79 Gamelink White: sigmaalgebra, Black: asdarqw.
• 132 was the highest ACPL in Gamelink White: iqb, Black: janetheus.
• 9 was the lowest ACPL in Gamelink White: christopherchabris, Black: vacuum_cleaner, Gamelink White: zimny_toster, Black: grizzzly1000.
• Combined maximum ACPL was 221 in Gamelink White: noeom, Black: grumpar.
• Combined minimum ACPL was 21 in Gamelink White: zimny_toster, Black: grizzzly1000.
• The longest think was 25 minutes 23.0 seconds on move 35 in Gamelink White: superbohemio, Black: journey_to_nm.
• The most time left was 52 minutes 35.0 seconds in Gamelink White: sigmaalgebra, Black: asdarqw.
• The most time spent was 62 minutes 34.0 seconds in Gamelink White: adri89, Black: sinquefieldcup.

-PGNs-

#rapid-battle

Overall season 4:

• 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 black on move 118 Gamelink White: dmavro, Black: rampichino.
• 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 237 in Gamelink White: mathijshuis, Black: realrobbert.
• Combined minimum ACPL was 30 in Gamelink White: assassin_in_white, Black: badplayer_cm.
• The longest think was 8 minutes 13.0 seconds on move 17 in Gamelink White: kostasvl, Black: mathijshuis.
• The most time left was 16 minutes 3.0 seconds in Gamelink White: realrobbert, Black: rampichino.
• The most time spent was 33 minutes 31.0 seconds in Gamelink White: dmavro, Black: rampichino.

-PGNs-

AWARDS

• Accuracy King: with an average of 31 ACPL, badplayer_cm.
• Fast Finisher: with an average gamelength of 51 ply/25 moves, toni4127.
• Marathon Man: with an average gamelength of 95 ply/47 moves, rampichino.
• Giri Award: 4 draws, lelouch_vi_brittania and mmb4854.
• Biggest rating gain: with 139 rating points, realrobbert.
• Biggest rating loss: with 53 rating points, isachess.
• Fun fact: The most popular opening played was C02 French Defense, Advance Variation

Stats for Season 16 Round 8:

• The fastest mate was black on move 25 found in Gamelink White: saxton47, Black: mynameismund.
• The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: yago666, Black: badplayer_cm.
• The fastest resign was black on move 5 found in Gamelink White: quietstorm24, Black: krisolis.
• The biggest upset was 171 points in Gamelink White: anjablaserr, Black: christopherchabris.
• The longest game ended with white on move 90 Gamelink White: sesquipedalism, Black: realrobbert.
• The longest think was 20 minutes 3.0 seconds on move 15 in Gamelink White: mixxanber, Black: isachess.
• The most time left was 66 minutes 40.0 seconds in Gamelink White: asian42, Black: tcgrif.
• The most time spent was 109 minutes 53.0 seconds in Gamelink White: sesquipedalism, Black: realrobbert.

-PGNs-

Overall Season 16:

• The fastest mate was white on move 11 found in Gamelink White: rampichino, Black: sesquipedalism.
• The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: michaeltallovsky, Black: chesspatzerswan.
• The fastest resign was black on move 5 found in Gamelink White: quietstorm24, Black: krisolis.
• The biggest upset was 265 points in Gamelink White: darubaru, Black: ubique29.
• The longest game ended with black on move 103 Gamelink White: footpath, Black: leinax.
• The longest think was 32 minutes 31.0 seconds on move 15 in Gamelink White: dmavro, Black: edwarde.
• The most time left was 70 minutes 47.0 seconds in Gamelink White: mattcrossette, Black: realrobbert.
• The most time spent was 109 minutes 53.0 seconds in Gamelink White: sesquipedalism, Black: realrobbert.

-PGNs-

AWARDS (You only qualify if you played 5 games.)

• Accuracy King: with an average of 20 ACPL, assassin_in_white and isavulpes.
• Fast Finisher: with an average gamelength of 49 ply/24 moves, grizzhog.
• Marathon Man: with an average gamelength of 118 ply/59 moves, moistvonlipwig.
• Giri Award: 4 draws, sonata2, roso97, menzc, chesspatzerfrance, isavulpes, mcastellani18, chesspatzerswan and titan_twelve.
• Biggest rating gain: with 192 rating points, darubaru.
• Biggest rating loss: with 98 rating points, jrvdwjr.
• Fun fact: The most popular opening played was:

1. D00 Queen's Pawn Game (30 played)
2. A45 Indian Game (29 played)
3. B12 Caro-Kann Defense (22 played)

MEDALS To see how you stack up: (B1 - B2 - B3 - B4 - B5 - B6- B7 - B8)

                   Games     1-0     =-=     0-1    Score
-----------------------------------------------------------
 All report games    807     373     138     296    54.7%
-----------------------------------------------------------

   Same-side castling:             63%    White Isolated Queen Pawn:      10%
   Opposite castling:              11%    Black Isolated Queen Pawn:       9%
   Kingside pawn storm:            18%    White Pawn on 5/6/7th rank:     51%
   Queens exchanged:               48%    Black Pawn on 2/3/4th rank:     34%
   Only one side has Bishop pair:   7%    Open c/d/e file:                55%

    Move   ECO       Frequency    Score  AvElo Perf AvYear %Draws
 1: e4     B00a      431: 53.4%   57.0%  1779  1828  2019   15%
 2: d4     A40a      289: 35.8%   52.7%  1779  1806  2019   20%
 3: c4     A10        43:  5.3%   47.6%  1788  1786  2019   26%
 4: Nf3    A04        34:  4.2%   54.4%  1855  1893  2019    9%
 5: f4     A02         4:  0.4%   62.5%  1788        2019   25%
 6: g3     A00t        3:  0.3%    0.0%  1709        2019    0%
 7: b3     A01         2:  0.2%   50.0%  1881        2019    0%
 8: Nc3    A00l        1:  0.1%  100.0%  2300        2019    0%
_______________________________________________________________
TOTAL:               807:100.0%   54.7%  1783  1822  2019   17%

                   Games     1-0     =-=     0-1    Score
-----------------------------------------------------------
 All report games    202      95      23      84    52.7%
-----------------------------------------------------------

   Same-side castling:             69%    White Isolated Queen Pawn:      12%
   Opposite castling:               9%    Black Isolated Queen Pawn:       7%
   Kingside pawn storm:            17%    White Pawn on 5/6/7th rank:     50%
   Queens exchanged:               40%    Black Pawn on 2/3/4th rank:     29%
   Only one side has Bishop pair:   5%    Open c/d/e file:                51%

    Move   ECO       Frequency    Score  AvElo Perf AvYear %Draws
 1: e4     B00a      119: 58.9%   52.5%  1859  1874         13%
 2: d4     A40a       69: 34.1%   55.7%  1850  1900         10%
 3: Nf3    A04         5:  2.4%   60.0%  2164                0%
 4: f4     A02         4:  1.9%   12.5%  1850               25%
 5: c4     A10         3:  1.4%    0.0%  1840                0%
 6: Nc3    A00l        2:  0.9%  100.0%  2344                0%
_______________________________________________________________
TOTAL:               202:100.0%   52.7%  1868  1890         11%

Chess Puzzles

by @forhavu, @kraaft and @okei

Click on the images for the solution.

yago666 (2074) - badplayer_CM (2185) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	QuietStorm24 (1893) - krisolis (1947) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	Prof_Moriarty (2073) - f1nn33 (2044) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	Calcium237 (1763) - Showboater (1771) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.
Wo_Cheng_Si_Le (1830) - Queen_Blunder (1911) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	sgis (1746) - FischersOfMen (1798) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	seius (1557) - endrawes0 (1493) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
mronemore (2137) - alms (2201) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	Fianchettoed (1847) - SirNateALot (1698) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
Rapid
dmavro (1666) - mathijshuis (1784) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	Assassin_in_White (2403) - badplayer_CM (2161) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	SecretCaveman (2007) - ErinYu (2338) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	ErinYu (2334) - SecretCaveman (2010) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
yago666 (2009) - Grizzzly1000 (1953) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	seius (1243) - myle (1816) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	colwem (1549) - adande1 (1659) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	dmavro (1669) - adande1 (1689) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.
DrOdnat (1662) - momor (1615) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	RealRobbert (1661) - adande1 (1719) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	RealRobbert (1778) - rampichino (1833) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	SecretCaveman (1973) - krispl (1902) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
krispl (1902) - Assassin_in_White (2417) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	badplayer_CM (2136) - okei (1930) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	ErinYu (2345) - Grizzzly1000 (1942) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	MoiRon (1845) - krispl (1893) Gamelink. ⚫ Black 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.

Lichess4545 Ledger #096 ©2019 by Thienan Nguyen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Thanks to @adande1, @forhavu, @kostasvl, @kraaft, @okei, @RobUmbra, @Somethingpretentious and "The Dark Knights".