Season 34 kicks-off! Round 1 recapped (plus more!)

It is all in the name

We all know names are important, right? Throughout the 33 seasons of the Lichess4545 league, our players have chosen over 1,000 team names. And let's face it, from Aagaard's Army to Zugzwangers, the pun game of Lichess4545 players is strong.

Season 34 has once again proven that chess players are a quirky and creative bunch. We've got teams like "Avengers: Middlegame" leading the charge coming up with their name first, while "THE MONSTER DUCKS OF CHESS : Don't mistake our waddle for weakness" took their sweet time and ended up being the last to name themselves. Is this a sign of impending doom and flags for them? Or is this just quackery? Time will tell.

The newcomers take the stage

The first league game of the season is traditionally one that garners the most attention and Season 34 proved no different. Evidently no one warned the league rookies @Strawberrysouffle and @kanishkparmar, as they agreed on a time very quickly and chose to duke it out on Day 1. In a game where Black's king led their army from the front (although it wasn't a la Bongcloud - sorry to disappoint), both sides had winning chances in a gripping contest that eventually ended in a draw, which seemed a fair outcome, all things considered.

The newbies were playing for their respective teams "Blunder speaks for itself" and "increasing our activity through harmonious piece play in order to deliver mate against the opponent's king: the team". If only the mods could dock points from teams with overly long names (eds. - can we?). In the end, the Active Ones prevailed by 5.5 game points to 2.5.

The vets can do it doo

Moving from novice players to seasoned veterans...here's a quick trivia question for you: who's played the most 4545 league games of all? If you guessed someone other than @Scarff, then it's time to brush up on your knowledge of league history. @Scarff has played an impressive 227 games, making them the only member of the 200+ games club. And for their 33rd season they started with a wild.....Giuoco Pianissimo?? Wait what?

Yes, you read that correctly. Full credit though to @T0Sharaff8200 as Black, who decided to go all-in and castled long, thus making things permanently exciting. Indeed, Black's connected passed pawns made it as far as c2 and d3...but there they were stopped, with @Scarff managing to secure the point for both the "old guard" and Firouzja's Fashionistas, who went on to win the match 6-2.

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat (multiple times)

The story-master @izzie26 has once again cooked up stories for all Round 1 matches. You should check them all out, but the one that most caught our eye was the duel between Accidental Brilliancy and Vanguard Brigade Victors.

Accidental Brilliancy got off to a nice start. Leading by 1.5-0.5, they were poised to take control of the match in Game 4, with AB captain @rturri (as White ) taking on @jaeckobh (as Black). But things wern't looking so good when Black managed to get a forced mate-in-three sequence on the board. Was this going to be the equaliser for our Brigadiers? Alas no...Black lost the mating sequence and gave White a tactical shot, with @rturri managing to win the game to give AB a two-point cushion in the match.

The drama continued to unfold as the next two games resulted in a draw and a victory for Vanguard Brigade Victors, with the match score now 3-2 for Accidental Brilliancy. Once again, the Brigadiers could equalise in the next game...and this time, it was @woundedwolf representing VBV as Black, and @MrDetonia with White for Accidental Brilliancy. The tension was high as Black managed to gain a potentially winning position on the board (see the position below) But alas, they couldn't seal the deal, and clever @MrDetonia saw an opportunity to trap Black's queen. Talk about a change in momentum! From almost being tied at 3-3, Accidental Brilliancy once again had a two-point cushion in the match.

Perhaps it is the magic of a fitting team name, but Accidental Brilliancy indeed went on to win the match, but not after first losing Game 7 to make the score 4-3. However, in Game 8 @AlexGaul stepped up to the plate and secured a draw against @ATrueRavenclaw to clinch the match at 4.5-3.5. Kudos to these ABs - Accidental Brilliancy by name and by nature!

Danimal the fair animal

Last Thursday, Lichess suffered an outage that lasted around 30 minutes after some unannounced maintenance by their server provider. Fortunately as far as the league was concerned, no significant conflicts arose as a result. That said, @danimal_t deserves full credit for going beyond the call of duty and giving additional time to their opponent @Toonber to compensate them for time lost during Lichess's blackout, especially since @Toonber was able to win the game. It is always nice to witness such examples of great sportsmanship. May we all learn something from @danimal_t.

Zooming out

So what's the big picture after Round 1? Well, it's hard to draw any conclusions with seven rounds remaining, but MrScribbles' Lost Pawns Collection and Firouzja's Fashionistas both clobbered their opponents by 6-2 margins. Meanwhile, 16 teams are probably feeling like they just got hit by a chessboard because they suffered their first loss. They better bring their A-games in Round 2, because history tells us that only one team has ever won the league after losing their first match.

In Round 2, MrScribbles' Lost Pawns Collection will attempt to build upon their impressive victory and defeat Mellon Colle System and the Infinite Sadness with @Qudit and @leartt facing off on the top board.

Firouzja's Fashionistas will also strive to maintain their dominance as they are challenged by Drink like a Grandmaster! On Board 4, two seasoned league veterans with over 200 games between them will compete as @dkol takes on @mynameismund.

With seven weeks remaining this season, there's still time for anyone to join in on the excitement! Register here to become an alternate for Season 34. Being an alternate provides you with the chance to step up and play in a league game if a regular team member is unavailable for a given week. What's more, if you remain an alternate and choose to sign up for next season, then you'll have priority for permanent placement on a team!

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LoneWolf
Season 28 in LoneWolf is gearing up for an exciting ultimate round - especially in the Open section where no less than nine (!) players are vying for a podium finish, with all of them separated by only a single point! Currently, @defensive_resources is leading the pack with 8.5 points out of 10 and therefore holds the best chances of winning the league, as they are half a point ahead of the next three contestants. But @defensive_resources will take a half-point bye for the final round, so will join the rest of us watching @Silkthewanderer face off against @wookash_888 in the top-ranked final round pairing.

Meanwhile, the winner has already been determined in the U1800 section, with @feskslo securing a comfortable lead of two points ahead of the rest of the field with an impressive score of 9.0 out of 10. However, the competition is still fierce for the remaining podium positions. Seven players with scores of 7.0 and 6.5 points are still in the running, and the final round promises to be a thrilling one.

If you're interested in joining the next LoneWolf season, you can already register here. Season 29 will start on 20 March 2023. Further information about the LoneWolf league can be found on our website.

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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 the text by @Tranzoo, @M0r1 @izzie26
Title image by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash
Match story image by @izzie26