Lichess4545 Week 7 Update: Tangled Standings and Chat with a Fiber Artist

The league is heating up for an exciting finish, week 8 is going to be tense. So many teams are still in play for the podium and things are far from settled. Going into round 7, no team was left undefeated; we had a 5-way tie at the top. Everyone was sitting on a 5W-1L record and the only question was: Who is going to position themselves the best for the league grand finale?

Well, surprisingly, the answer to the question is quite simple as only one of the aforementioned 5 teams managed to win this week! Unlikely, but that's exactly what happened.

Let's start off with Elo from the other side who were at the top of the table by virtue of tiebreaks. They did start the round well, going up 2-1, but then it quickly went south and, in the end, May I offer you a pawn in these trying times? (4W-1D-1L) took control, coming back and beating the Eloists 5-3.

This match also featured the milestone 100th game for @SedNomini, who drew against @Hesperian. Congratulations on 100 league games! And a little tactical exercise for all of you: can you find the tactical idea for White on move 30? That could have altered the game and given SedNomini even more reasons to celebrate, if they found it. Still, we think they are happy with their team winning this round, vaulting themselves into league championship contention.

Two 5W-1L teams squared off against each other in a battle of Blunder? I hardly know her versus Proof by Checkmate. The Proofers never trailed in this one, going up 3-0, then being tied 3-3, then going up again 4-3 only to be denied victory after all. The match ended 4-4, with both teams effectively losing a bit of ground in the championship hunt.

Highlights of this match? The starter, between @basyaar and @PhilippBrandenbrett was a wild affair in which basyaar extended their winning streak to 5.

And of course, the board 1 showdown between @eXoF1343 and @yaminejamal1 where it seemed for a moment that their perfect league record (6 for 6 before this game) might be in jeopardy, only for them to pull it off yet again after White gave them an opening. After 36.Nxg2, what would you play?

Well, yaminejamal1 spotted the winning idea in time pressure and continues their dominance.

This leaves us with the last match between 5W-1L teams, and this one was not a close affair. Think Like a Grandpatzer dominated headbangingparrot to the tune of a 7-1 victory. That included two games under 15 moves and an impressive league debut victory for @DanacChess, who stepped in on board 1 as an alternate and got off to a great start!

So, where does this all leave us? An exciting league finish ahead! As you can see in the table below, we have one team on 12 match points (that is the 6W-1L record of the Grandpatzers) and a bunch of vultures right behind.

In the final round of the season, Grandpatzers are meeting Better Call Tall who have quietly risen and now have a shot to win it all! But due to the tiebreaker situation, even beating the leaders might not be enough. May I offer you a pawn in these trying times? will not only be trying to win their round 8 game against Blunder? I hardly know her, but they will go after every game point to ensure the best possible tiebreaks. It is that close.

Finally, we have to give a shoutout to the league legend @scarff, who is about to hit their 300th league game and be the first 4545 member to achieve this feat. In this game, they are scheduled to face @sir_bongcloud.

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Interview with macha1313

This week, we have an interview! @Subhraneil24 conducted it with @macha1313, who has been playing in our as an alternate for 3 seasons. Lets meet them!

Give us a brief introduction about yourself.

I'm from the Midwest US (for those in the know, Go Hawks!) and outside of chess I'm very active with a couple handbell groups, both as a player and director, and often attend local festivals and clinics. Every now and again, I'll even arrange a piece for bells. I also am an avid fiber artist, which means I knit, crochet, sew, embroider, and a whole bunch of other stuff with string and thread. And I also love cycling! I try to get in a century (meaning a 100mi/161km ride) each summer, usually on the back of a tandem with my uncle, who is also the guy that helped me get back into chess.

How you got introduced to chess and how long you've been playing it & what it means to you?

Like most of the world, I got into chess for brief time right after Queen's Gambit. I didn't stick with it then, but last year my uncle retired and got into chess as a way to "keep sharp" and convinced me to start playing again. He also convinced me to join the chess club at the senior center, which I now go to most weeks. If you ever face an interesting line in an opening from me, those guys helped me find it! As for what chess means to me, I think I'm still figuring that out. When I first started, it felt like a way to prove I'm "smart," but that was an unhealthy way to look at it. It led to a lot of terrible self-talk when I lost games, so I do my best to not think that way any more.

Virtually, most people prefers shorter time controlled games, what's makes you play this league with longer time controlled classical games?

In general, I'm just not good at fast chess! Partly because I'm new-ish, but I've always been a person that likes to think things through carefully. My favorite side league is actually Series, which is a round-robin format with a time control of 90+30. That's long enough that I can really examine each position without having to worry about losing on time for the vast majority of games.

How is the overall experience of playing lichess 4545 league? (You can share your best performances, best games and such stuff as well)

This league has been an absolute blast! I launched into the 1200s with a 4545 game (twice now) but I think the first one is a good example of why you ought to always keep fighting, no matter how the game has been going. You'll see I blunder pretty early on, and really, I ought to have lost. But my opponent blundered quite badly as well, and if I had resigned when I was sure I was losing, I would have given up this eventual win.

What does this community means to you? (You can share if you've made new friends from here)

I think this league is what kept me in chess this time around. So many people are incredibly helpful and encouraging. A huge shoutout especially to @jg777, @bufferunderrun, and @TristanBrown17 for welcoming me into streaming (which I really need to get back to!) and @jdw10 for sending me encouragement and advice after my games. There are many more folks that have given me tips or cheered me on, but those people really stand out.

Tell us about your ambitions regarding this league.

I think my first ambition is the same as almost all of us, to get better at chess. And like mentioned above, I want to start streaming regularly again, whether that's my own games or commentary. But I'd also like to be more involved in the ledger and maybe start modding on a side league, and I'm attempting to get back into coding so that I can help with the backend as well. I also started up an offtopic channel, #offtopic-yarn-folks that I'd love to see more people in!

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Lichess4545 is an online chess league for people who like playing long time control games online. Players are assigned to teams and play one game per week with a 45+45 time control. For more information visit our league home page.
LoneWolf is a side league of the Lichess4545 league. It is an 11-round Swiss tournament where players play one game per week with a 30+30 time control. For more information about the LoneWolf tournament visit the LoneWolf homepage.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA).
Contributions to this edition by Tranzoo, Subhraneil24 with interview with macha1313