Lichess4545 Ledger 098

Lichess4545 Ledger

Issue #098 - May 3, 2019

State of the 4545 League

by @kostasvl

The 17th season of the 4545 League starts on May 13th, 2019. Registrations are currently open and teams will be formed on May 6th. Click here to register now. The game reviews by IM Astaneh were completed yesterday and you can find both the parts of the stream in the Video chapter of the Ledger. We promise you that this time we will have a safe copy of the reviews.

Side-leagues News

by @kostasvl

In the Open section of LoneWolf, @swornt is the sole leader with a score of 5.5/6 and he is followed by @moritex and @KnightyKnight1996, both having 5/6 points. For detailed standings click here. Board 1 game of the week is @moritex vs @KnightyKnight1996.
In the U1800 section, @Jmvanaclocha is tied for first with @mathijshuis. Both players have scored 5.5/6 and they are followed by 4 players with a half-point difference. For detailed standings click here. Board 1 game of the week is @Jmvanaclocha vs @mathijshuis.

There are only 2 rounds left for the 960 league to end and things there are not clear yet. BOT @Vetinari_Computer is a step above all with 4.5/5, and is followed by 3 people, all having 4/5 points. It'll be a close season for all the top places. Click here for detailed standings. Board 1 game of the week is @Isachess vs BOT @Vetinari_Computer.

The 6th season of Series will start soon and registrations will open around Sunday. Make sure you join the #series-general channel to stay tuned.

Interview

by @adande1 and @kostasvl with "Lichess Lovers"

This week we get to meet members of the winning team from Lichess4545 League Season#16. “Lichess Lovers” won Season #16 in what turned out to be a nail-biting finish to a very competitive season that had 4 teams competing for first place after the penultimate round. However, Lichess Lovers were always the favorite to win after leading in the standings for much of the season, not having lost a single round and scoring the most game points. Perhaps fittingly enough, they cemented their season win by drawing the last round, ending the season with 4 wins, 4 draws and no losses, proving that sometimes in chess it’s the draws (or avoiding losses) that counts more than your wins!

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

Jessehf: I am 26 years old, who started playing chess seriously, right around 6 years ago. I was introduced to the 4545 league in season 14, before that I played lonewolf twice, where my best result was the second time I played ending at 10^th place.

paolone: I'm Paolo (Paolone = Big Paul). I started play chess in first year of mid-schools (11 y.o.) but I studied seriously the game only from 16 y.o. For years I played only on-line, first on FICS and then on lichess. In these days we (I and other italian guys) have won also the FICS Team League but, in this case, only one division (the last and least important). I played my first OTB tourneys only few years ago and I got a 1st national category title (about 1800 FIDE ELO) but I was not happy of my performances: I had panick attacks before playing in real OTB competitions and so I stopped that experience. Anyay I hope in future to come back to play real chess

rampichino: I am 44 years old. I am living in Milan. I started to play chess when I was 20 but only 8 years ago I take it seriously. I started to play the FICS league where I met all the Italian chess friends online. The Italian channel was very active but once Lichess appears, a lot of players moved from FICS to Lichess and we tried to make an Italian team. I started on the season 9 and I never missed a season. I usually play the lonewolf and the blitz battle too.

calcium237: My “real” name is Jannik and I’m from Germany. This was my third season of 4545 which I discovered on reddit and even though it’s a lot of fun time has prevented me from joining other leagues. My go to fun fact in these situations is that I’ve never broken a bone in my life.

Toffeeman: Hello, I’m Toffeeman, from the NYC area in the US. I’ve never played chess competitively OTB and my history of competing in chess begins and ends in the 4545 league! Season 16 was my 8^th full season in the league and the first time I have finished top 3, let alone first.

pedropablo72: For many seasons I attended a group of italians that tries to play altogether in same team. It has not always been possible in all seasons but often it happened. On Lichess, for many seasons, I played even the LoneWolf that is a good test to play against usually stronger opponents, since I usually attend the Open division, rather that for under 1800.

leo2dipikke: I'm an aficionado of chess but I'm not a ostinate player, rather let's say, an occasional player.

LucaGaglia73: My real name is Luca and I'm 45 years old. I fell in love with Chess for the first time in the middle of 80's thanks to the World Championship Matches between Kasparov and Karpov. At those times there was only a cousin of mine who knew the rules of the game so he was my first teacher. Unfortunately we couldn't play very often , so I taught the rules to my mother and she became my first opponent!

I began to study strategy and tactics seriously only 3 years ago ,when I found a new job and I have a lot of free time ,so I decided to became a member of a chess club near my home and the to compete in some tournaments.

Can each one of you choose and talk about one of the other teammates – and perhaps tell us something interesting you learned about them?

Jessehf: Rampichino asked me to analyse his round 7 game of this 16^th season, he had the black pieces playing vs RealRobbert who opted for the Spanish Opening, which rampichino countered with the Berlin defense, it was really fun to analyse because I am also a Berlin player and I actually learned a new line at it vs 4.d3

paolone: pedropablo72 taught me to do never resign! He also demonstrated to me how that saying worked fine, recovering impossible games. Other this, pedro is our main promoter for a lot of years: also the idea to create a team to play this kind (team league) of competitions it was an idea of him.

rampichino: Pedropablo72 is the one that convince me to join the FICS league about 7 years ago (more or less), and about 1 years ago, I convince him to make an Italian team! We named it “piazza.degli.scacchi” that is the name of an Italian chess forum, where we talk about chess and we organized tournament. I do not know “in person” any of the online friends except LucaGaglia73 that is a member of my local chess club.

calcium237: I learned that Luca is a beast at chess. 8/8, would play with him again.

Toffeeman: I found out that jessehf plays on Zen mode to not let the outside distractions get to him in-game. I think this is a really good idea and one I plan on using in future leagues.

pedropablo72: One surprising fact is that, only today, I noticed that our 8th board (LucaGaglia73) won all his games, when instead I believed that the best performance was that of leo2dipikke, in 7th board, winning 7 of 8. Another discovery is that our friend rampichino played seven of the eight games, when I usually mocked him as he was that one predestined to win whereby forfeit but it seems that, this time,finally he won some games playing really.

LucaGaglia73: Well, I only know one of my mates ,Rampichino, he's a member of my chess club. He's the one who invited me to compete in the 45+45 league on Lichess.

Please answer some fun facts below

Toughest Opponent and/ or Team (Actual or perceived):

Jessehf: Assassin_In_White

rampichino: RealRobbert was the toughest opponent. He beat me on the rapid battle final and after some weeks later I play again against him in the League. Probably I was a bit worried about the previous final match and I played too passive….

Toffeeman: Barely Legal

pedropablo72: Really, at start of each round we had the feeling that all our opponents were insuperable and that their rating were infinitely higher than ours. I don't believe that had been an opponent, team or player, toughest in absolute way. Obstacles there have been with everybody, as we can see, since the outcame came to an end, only at last round.

LucaGaglia73: To me the toughest opponent team was “Snow White and the Seven Najdorfs”

Easiest Opponent and/ or Team (Actual or perceived):

Jessehf: None

rampichino: The easiest game was in round 6 where I met Sesquipedalism. I played the two knights defence. We were out of theory earlier and I got a strong initiative that bring me to give mate in only 11 moves! Gamelink

Toffeeman: 99 Problems but a Queen ain’t one

pedropablo72: Same as previous answer, see above.

LucaGaglia73: Personally I think there wasn't an easiest team

Most memorable win(s) from Season #16:

Jessehf: I didn’t win a single game

paolone: Surely that against "okey": Gamelink. I'm so proud of my 31.Nd5 sac move. I don't care if stockfish said it was a mistake, humans have another feeling for moves and positions. It doesn't happen so often that I sacrificed a piece to get activer play but in that case I didn't find any other plan: so I did that move and I won!

calcium237: Maybe it’s just recency bias but I would say my last match vs Showboater. I enjoyed my attack and playing for the season added some intensity. Gamelink

Toffeeman: Beating SirNatealot with black, my highest rating scalp in the 4545 league, by calling out his bank rank issues. Gamelink

pedropablo72: Gamelink it has been probably the toughest game, where I had a sure advantage that, later, I wasted, giving to the opponent the chance to lead the game with a material gain. At end, anyway, I have been able to take advantage of some his inaccuracies, managing, at my best, the queen to get a decisive advantage.

LucaGaglia73: Probably the one with zher0 ( Gamelink ) and the one with razarip: Gamelink

Most memorable loss(es) from Season #16:

Jessehf: It was in round 6 vs Zenchess where I had worked really hard to get a winning position in the endgame then I blundered by playing 40.e4 and right after I played the move I realized the blunder that I just made, it was so tilting with the time pressure that I continued to make mistakes up to the point where it was no longer even an equal position and I ended up losing the game from a position where I had more than +3. Gamelink

paolone: Oh yes of course: I don't play memorable games when I win, think when I lose. . For real, in this team league I lost two games but no one of them was memorable.

calcium237: The loss vs. Mahmut84 was the one that annoyed me the most. I felt like I had a winning position but totally missed Nxe5 after 23. Qd3. Mahmut did a good job of finding it and punishing me for it afterwards.Gamelink

Toffeeman: Getting beat in my last game with the season on the line by Tinkerphyte (thanks for the carry teammates!).Gamelink

pedropablo72

Gamelink This is the game that, more than others, I've not been to handle in the ending and that I badly lost, suffering a childish mate, in spite that earlier I had gotten a strong advantage.

LucaGaglia73: I lost only one game with fittyz, but then it came out he was a cheater.

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?

Jessehf: I requested to have all the Italian teammates: paolone, rampichino, pedropablo72 and Lucagaglia73 from season 15 because I knew they are all very strong.

paolone: I and other italian friends of me, requested to play togheter but, when we registered us in the compitition, we didn't know there should have been 8 players for team, so we were "only" five: (I, pedro, rampichino, luca and Leo), then lichess gave us other three players. There was only one of them that we already knew, it was Jessehf, with whom we had played in previous season.

rampichino: We are a very active Italian online chess group. Every season we try to make a team.

calcium237: I didn’t request anyone but I know that the Italians and jessehf did.

Toffeeman: I believe some of my teammates knew each other, but I joined as a solo player, like I’ve done every season

pedropablo72: As I already told, we five italians were already a group of friends and we asked to play together but jessehf had already been in our team, too, in previous season.

leo2dipikke: I joined the team since I know virtually almost all teammates, more or less, and we come from other historic groups or well known platforms, anyway all teammates are very nice people.

LucaGaglia73: The member Rampichino invited me to join the team after my first 45+45 league (in which I took part as an alternate)

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

Jessehf: It took us more or less like a week to decide the name, but we also considered Italian Names like “Giuoco Piano”.

Toffeeman: After learning that many of my teammates were from Italy, I suggested the Italian Gamers, but we decided to show our dedication to our favorite website, lichess!

LucaGaglia73: We have a WhatsApp channel where everyone of us bring a name,then the with most preferences was chosen as the official name.

How did you decide on your team captain? Do you believe that a team captain has a significant role to play in the team league or do you think of it as more of an “honorary” title with all the automation?

Jessehf: We decided to choose the same captain as season 15 because we know he does a good job. And it is not very significant in my personal opinion.

rampichino: The team captain has an important role. Paolone likes to do the captain and we are happy about it.

calcium237: paolone volunteered and that’s how the captain was choosen. In an ideal season the captain shouldn’t have a lot of responsibility because everybody takes care of scheduling, responding etc. by themselves. However, if something goes wrong it is good to have somebody who is responsible to get things back in order.

Toffeeman: We took the suggestion of paolone, who wanted to be captain. I think it was important that we had a bilingual captain as well, so I thought this was good

pedropablo72: Since most of team's members were italian, also other teammates, I suppose, agreed to have an italian captain, also to be able to help everyone about language issues. More, Paolone, as usual, showed to be always present, following also the matches of each player.

The captain's role is very substantial because, very often, he has to support who could have some lack of confidence, maybe for some defeats in a row. He is also useful to manage promptly the absence of some teammates and requiring for an alternate.

LucaGaglia73: There was already a captain when I joined the team. I think the captain is a very important role.

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

Jessehf: The most supportive was definitely paolone, he always was encouraging us to keep going.

paolone: There was a little difference between italian group and whole group. While we italians were friends for many years and we kept us in contact whereby What's up, with the rest of the team we used the team's slack channel and also the chat of played games, where we had the chance to talk about current game in progress and enforce our relation with other teammates.

rampichino: We have two separate channels. The official on the slack and the “Italian” one on whatsapp. In both we tried to be active. In the Italian we talk sometime about other topics...but we tried to be focused on chess. Obviously is forbidden to talk about the game while we are playng...

calcium237: We mostly stuck to chess and support before and after the games in our slack channel. All of my team members were supportive but the title of most supportive would have to go paolone.

Toffeeman: Generally, we maintained positivity in our chat and gave tips/advice after games to each other. We kept our chat focused on the league and it paid off!

pedropablo72: Between us italians, since we knew us for many years and attending same on-line group, the comunication has been always habitual also outside of team league, but this has been improved with the progress of the competition, pushed by good outcames that placed our team in higher positions of the standing. In particular way, in last days the messages raised, especially to support who had to play his game. In spite of lthe lack about english, suffered by some of us, also the official channel (on slack) of our team, has been rather animated

LucaGaglia73: We exchange A LOT of messages, and we try to support each other

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

Jessehf: The only good thing from my part that I felt was the biggest contribution was the draw vs ErinYu.

paolone: I'm enough happy of my performance (4.5 on 8). My best skill has been to try to stay in game also when I saw me lost, in this way I saved some games getting a draw where there was a defeat to wait me. I'm so resolute only playing in a team, when I play for myself, if the position is bad and depressing, I resign.

rampichino: During the last season I had a good performance. I lost only two games and I had 4 draws!

calcium237: One big factor was that we never forfeited a game (if I remember correctly). Everybody always showed up on time and didn’t cheat. As a German I know that being punctual and playing by the rules is important.

Toffeeman: I think our team was very strong on the lower boards and it helped us greatly, both Luca and Leo posted very positive scores and made sure that we were a tough team to beat on the whole

pedropablo72: Certainly the strong bond in our group that has been created also with other foreign (not italian) teammates. In particular way with Jessefh, always very active in his analysis.

LucaGaglia73: Our team performance was simply great!!! Probably the biggest factor was that we are very unite and can ask advice each other . Plus the strong support we gave each other helped everyone of us to give our best.

What advice do you have for other teams trying to win?

Jessehf: Work hard, and choose teammates that you feel comfortable with.

paolone: To be a team and not only a pack of strangers. It's important to do feeling supported and "followed" all players, so they will play in more resolute way (as It happens, me too)

rampichino: Three factors are important:

A team strong “team cohesion” with an active
Every player need to take the game seriously. He need to play for the team!
It is important to avoid cheaters, otherwise at the end of the season will be an obstacle to get the first position. So if in the team you feel that some players had strange performance, it is better to warning him earlier!

calcium237: Win chess games and don’t lose chess games

Toffeeman: Stay positive and keep points in the chat relevant. Play together and be willing to talk through different problems/issues as team

pedropablo72: Looking that all TL teams are very rating balanced and therefore all teams have in theory same chances to wn, the most important side is own the spirit of team. The wish to give a good impression to other teammates, will push all ones to do their best in each game and, however, at least, push all mates to honour in best way their commitment for the team, avoiding to miss a game. Indeed, I believe to remember that no one of us had ever lost a game for forfeit

LucaGaglia73: I can suggest to stay unite as one, help each other like we did.

Have you discussed the possibility of trying to return together as a team next season?

Jessehf: Of course, I would love it.

paolone: About our italian group it will happen as it's always happened in the past. Anyway I would like to preserve also other teammates to present newly same team at start of next season. There is a saying: "winner team has to be not changed"

rampichino: Yes. We will try to play again with our Italian team!

calcium237: We haven’t discussed it. Would be a lot of pressure though going for the repeat.

Toffeeman: Not yet, but I’m open to it!

pedropablo72: In my opinion, surely I'll ask to all my mates to register us newly together for next season. Don't change a winner team.

LucaGaglia73: Not yet, but I do hope so!

Share your thoughts about having 8 boards vs. 6 boards per team for the first time last season? Given a choice, would you prefer to have more or less boards??

Jessehf: I would like to have same number of boards.

paolone: At first view, I was a bit uncertain, but then I saw many advantages: games on any board (excepting first and last) are always more balanced, the outcome stands in balance for more games, so a lot of nice points for 8 boards!

rampichino: I prefer more boards! There are more possibilities to chat..

calcium237: Personally I would prefer 6 boards. 8 was a bit too much for my taste to go over each game and thus I wasn’t able to keep up with all of my teammates last season.

Toffeeman: I thought it was definitely interesting. I think it gave us midrange rating players the ability to play people more at that level.

pedropablo72: Surely it has been a news that made most winsome the competition but also more balanced. Additionally, as said, for us, that are an italian group of friends, it gave us more chances to get all ones in same team.

leo2dipikke: In this season the team made by 8 boards has been, in my humble opinion, a good choice, I could say "compensatory". I saw a top player like Jessehf to suffer a lot against higher rating opponents but on other hand, Luca against "docile" opponents but at end. a bit of lucky gave us a very good outcame.

LucaGaglia73: I think that more boards are available, more chances there are for new players to take part in the League with a team, which is a special and beautiful experience!

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

Jessehf: I would like to thank all my teammates they were the only reason why we won, I only scored 1.5/8 really lame performance.

paolone: I want to thanks all teammates to have played with big care all games: no one forfait a game, no one gave up easily. They did all a really good job.

A big thanks also to lichess and tl4545 mods to have banned some cheaters: well done!

rampichino: I am grateful to all the players that do their maximum during the season. I am grateful to jessehf that analysed one of my game and I learn a lot from his analysis. And finally I liked to remember our online italian chess friend “Giampy62”. He passed away during the last League season. For all the Italian team was a sad news and I would like to dedicate our victory to him. Ciao Giampy!

calcium237: Thanks to the whole community and especially the mods who make everything run smoothly. I enjoy being part of this community and hope that it keeps existing for a long time.

Toffeeman: This league is my competitive chess outlet and I’ve loved all of my seasons here. My only regret is that I don’t have time to do the Lone Wolf league as well. Thank you so much to the mods for running this great league and I hope to meet you all over the board next season.

pedropablo72: My thanksgiving goes to all ones that have made possible this competition, in addition to my teammates that made possible this success, in spite of my performances

LucaGaglia73: I would like to thank my team mates for giving me the chance to join the team and play this last season of the League, because it has been a great season for me!!!

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

If you liked the this week's interview and have any thoughts on who and/ or what you’d like hear next feel free to post in #lichessledger or DM @adande1.

Video

by @kostasvl and @mln8

IM Astaneh completed the game reviews yesterday. This time he made 2 parts because he analysed the games in great detail. The videos are really instructive and last a total of around 9 hours and 20 minutes. Enjoy the videos below:
Part 1

Παρακολούθησε το Lichess 45+45 Season 16 | Games Review {lichess.org} από τον χρήστη Astaneh στο www.twitch.tv

Part 2

Παρακολούθησε το Lichess 45+45 Season 16 | Part II {lichess.org} από τον χρήστη Astaneh στο www.twitch.tv

@mln8 made 2 videos with title: "Learning from your games". We deeply thank him for his instructive content. You can watch the videos below.
Part 1

Part 2

Weekly Stats

by @kraaft, @RobUmbra and @Somethingpretentious

Stats for Season 14 Round 6:

The fastest mate was white on move 14 found in Gamelink White: lazypeon, Black: donoran.
The fastest draw was found in Gamelink White: wookash_888, Black: prof_moriarty.
The fastest resign was black on move 9 found in Gamelink White: cerulean, Black: rampichino.
The biggest upset was 344 points in Gamelink White: emrea, Black: suprascud.
The longest game ended with black on move 108 Gamelink White: rickiboulous1, Black: jfarah.
164 was the highest ACPL in Gamelink White: iobates, Black: tactix47.
6 was the lowest ACPL in Gamelink White: mahmut69, Black: vladimirnotevski.
Combined maximum ACPL was 293 in Gamelink White: iobates, Black: tactix47.
Combined minimum ACPL was 23 in Gamelink White: cerulean, Black: rampichino.
The longest think was 15 minutes 31.0 seconds on move 22 in Gamelink White: tehler, Black: blackcat700.
The most time left was 48 minutes 11.0 seconds in Gamelink White: iqb, Black: bennat123.
The most time spent was 82 minutes 22.0 seconds in Gamelink White: rickiboulous1, Black: jfarah.

-PGNs-

Chess Puzzles

by @forhavu, @kraaft and @okei

Click on the images for the solution.


SCV-Chess (1614) - FracPhilo (1378) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	mronemore (2137) - LostEarthworm (1948) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	Atur (1557) - Rosinsvinet (1714) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.	Khramkov29 (1566) - JMHWSM (1460) Gamelink. ◯ White to play.
Atur (1557) - Rosinsvinet (1714) Gamelink. ⚫ Black to play.	Drotciv (1593) - Rabioso (1696) 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, @forhavu, @kostasvl, @kraaft, "Lichess Lovers", @mln8, @okei, @RobUmbra, @Somethingpretentious and @SpiteKnight.