Lichess4545: Empires Rise When Kings Fall

Chess960 League crowns champion, gains players and kicks off new season with arena tournament!

Our Chess960 league recently concluded Season 37 with a stunning finale! Perennial frontrunner @Moistvonlipwig clinched their third consecutive championship vs. @Tellerwascher who was playing in their 100th league game. MVL teetered on the edge of checkmate and timeout before forcing Tellerwascher into a resignable position. It was a wild game!

Finishing in second place was @Thulp in their Chess960 debut. Previously, they had played in LoneWolf about four years ago. Third place goes to @NLance, another returning veteran, who won a tiebreaker. The U1600 award goes to @Billy_Sprinkle with a season performance rating of 1815. Congratulations to everyone on your accomplishments and thanks to everyone who played!

This was our second biggest season in both active players and games played. Between regulars, early withdrawals and late joiners there were 51 players who contributed to a total of 134 games. This continues an upward trend that has accelerated in the past several months (each season lasts seven weeks).

We are turning the page on this season but the book won’t be closed for long. Season 38 begins Monday, September 29th and registration is now open to members of the Lichess4545 Slack workspace. Chess960 League is a 20+20 Swiss tournament with seven rounds. The longer time control aligns with the classical spirit valued by players from other leagues in the Lichess4545 community. If you are interested in joining Chess960 then we recommend that you establish a classical rating and join either 4545 or LoneWolf first. No chess960 rating is necessary.

But first we welcome everyone to participate in the10+10 Chess960 arena tournament this Saturday, September 27th! We had great turnout in June for our last one with 2,525 players. It was a lot of fun. Anyone with an account of at least 14 days old can play. We hope to see you there!

recap by @baberle

Featured Games

Here is an annotated game from this season by @glbert against @NLance.

study by @glbert

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August's Game of the Month, as voted on by the league community, is @Feet_Barbie's round 2 victory over @far1108. This sparkling 18 move win with a Smith-Morra Gambit garnered some comparisons to Marc Esserman's play style.

game of the month by @Mennonite

The Season 44 championship interview has finally been completed!

After a few weeks of delay, we finally have the season 44 championship interview ready! Despite the heroic efforts of many who tried to stop them, this team resisted all of the doomed efforts of the Jedi and finished on top, with an empire beyond imagination. Can you remember who they are?

If you guessed "Doctor: You have 45 minutes to live with an additional 45 seconds per move!" you are wrong. They won the best team name competition (which according to past ledgers is the real competition, so congratulations to them!) but they actually finished near the bottom of the standings. No, the winning team is “The Empire Strikes Back-Rank”, and we interviewed team members @muksia, @aldric123, @Warvold, @ColtonMTotland, @Kyriakos1301, and @lanyangyangg!

Interview by @fork2020

First, congratulations on your victory. How does it feel to be the champions?

muksia: Nothing unusual, Empire always win. So business as usual

aldric123: It feels good. At first it seemed like we'd likely manage it, leading a lot of the season, then we lost a week, and it got murky. We just managed to edge it out in the final week.

Warvold: Amazing and still hard to believe, to be honest! It was my very first time playing in Lichess4545, and I signed up with no expectations beyond having fun and hopefully improving my chess. Watching my teammate's final, decisive game was a mix of tension, adrenaline, and then pure euphoria when we won!

ColtonMTotland: I’m new to the Lichess4545 League, but the difficulty of winning it all is not lost on me. We played a great season but still there were moments that could have cost us a top 3 finish. It feels like a real accomplishment and I’m happy to share it with the team

Kyriakos1301: I feel very fortunate to be part of the winning team. We had a great group of people and I am really proud of the way we supported each other.

What matchup do you believe was the most critical during your run to the championship?

muksia: Ofc the last match of the series in which the empire has to fight whole galaxy and their witch craft (blunder the piece in winning position)

aldric123: I was moving the week we lost. That lost had to be pretty critical, but edging it all out in the final week felt the most vital. We only had to draw because of tiebreak points, but we almost didn't do that.

Warvold: Definitely my last game! Losing it would have meant losing the entire final, as we were already trailing. Massive shoutout to my teammate ColtonMTotland, not only for helping me prepare, but also for casually showing me the exact line my opponent ended up playing... less than five minutes before the game.

ColtonMTotland: In my opinion it was our round 7 match against the Brotherhood of Wood. Our team lost the previous week against a team featuring most of the defending champs from season 43. We needed a result in round 7 that would get us into the championship match. Our match with the Brotherhood came down to the wire, but we were able to secure a crucial win.

Kyriakos1301: Definitely bouncing back from a loss in round 7, felt great, and kept us going in the right direction.

lanyangyangg: The last match against ctrl+alt+defeat was definitely the most critical, and it was an even match. Each game was much more tense, with the last game having dozens of spectators. This is also when i realized we had a good chance to win it all, knowing my teammates I knew we were capable of closing this one out, though it was still a difficult match.

Do you have a game that you'd like to share from season 44?

muksia:

Last game, of the last matchup. Perfect as expected from empire storm trooper

aldric123: I was kind of a draw-master all season. I won 1 game and lost 1 game. My win was pretty cool. It was vs mronemore involving a weird way to win a piece moving g6 to g5 on move 23 to trap his bishop.

Warvold: My favorite one:

featuring the spicy 20...Nxf2! Can't say i wasn't proud of this one!

ColtonMTotland:

This was the final game of round 7. I misplayed the opening terribly but was able to make amends by applying pressure with the bishop pair. This game was a rollercoaster of emotions and still stresses me out!

Kyriakos1301:

This was my favorite game from our past season, it was a drawn endgame but Lanya kept playing and managed to find a win. Also reading their responses at the chat was hilarious.

lanyangyangg:

This was my favourite game from the season. David was an alternate for us, and was a great personality to have in our team! It was a roller coaster of a game, going back and forth. In end he uses the force to mind control his opponent and turn the game around! This game gave us a crucial full point.

When did you first believe that you had a shot at winning it all?

muksia: Weird question. There is no believe it’s just how things are meant to be. You play to win the game

aldric123: By week 4 I figured we had an ok shot. Then after we had our 1 losing week I figured we'd likely not manage it. Then the team in the lead also lost the next week and it was back on.

Warvold: Probably around week 3, when we found ourselves at the top of the standings for the first time. I remember thinking, “This is going surprisingly well. One more win?”

ColtonMTotland: After round 3. We had played well in those first couple weeks but most of us were new to the league and just getting our bearings. In the round 3, we won again but this time with a 7-1 score. That to me is when I realized we were a contender.

Kyriakos1301: I had a good feeling early on especially after round 3, but it wasn't after DavidSilfre won his game in round 8 that i knew we got this.

Outside of your championship, what will you remember season 44 for?

muksia: It will always warm my heart in the future to remember so many awesome people cheering for the victory of Empire’s opponents and FAIL

aldric123: Is this where we are supposed to talk about the friends we made along the way? Anyway, I enjoyed the season a lot and will likely play the next one.

Warvold: Came for the good (or occasionally terrible) chess, stayed for the mythology living in the Lichess4545 community. I swear, they’re venerating some strange deities over there: doll feet, ancient scriptures (real or forged) from a god named Lovlas, and some kind of fetish around the number 45. A truly weird bunch... but incredibly welcoming! :)

ColtonMTotland: My wonderful teammates. From the start, we were a very active and supportive group. Not only was this my first Lichess4545 season, it was also my first chess team in any league. Growing up, my high school didn’t have a team and so I always just played online (World Chess Network represent!). With this, it was great to have teammates supporting me and to have my results matter as part of a larger cause.

Kyriakos1301: This was a great group of people. What I enjoyed the most was watching our games. Usually I would throw some silly moves in the chat and Warvold would tell me the correct idea :) and I also enjoyed Aaron (aldric123) going over our games afterwards.

lanyangyangg: I will remember how friendly all of my teammates were, always supporting each other, win draw or loss. (Though of course the empire never loses). I noticed in each of our games there were more empire spectators than spectators for the other team. This was what i was looking for in 4545, online classical combined with the social aspect of OTB!

Your team name is a reference to the Star Wars universe. If you had to pick a character that best represents you as a player, who would it be and why?

Warvold: Probably C-3PO, as I am overthinking things too much for my own good and am always worrying about making blunders. It helped me a lot finding good moves at decisive time but i don't think there was any game i did not end in time trouble!

muksia: Jabba the Hutt - because he the cutest of them all! Because I love power and control, and ofc it is always cool to meet the princess with chains

ColtonMTotland: Probably a Toydarian junk dealer. They are immune to the force and I’ve always felt that I am...but then again, how would one know if they’ve been mind-tricked by a Jedi? I’ll need to think on this.

What would you do if Darth Vader turned into a pumpkin?

Kyriakos1301: Now that I think about it, Darth Vader should turn into a pumpkin! They should make a Halloween version of Star Wars where he has a pumpkin for his head.

Warvold: What would I do if my supreme leader turned into an big orange authoritarian creature? Well, I don't know but that'd be bad, wouldn't it?

muksia: Quite simple - I would be on the quest to find ferry godmother so she can turn the pumpkin into the coach. I would have to possibly kill (or marry) the dragon on the way and could be that some teammates won’t handle the journey but in the end it will be worth it. What can be cooler than riding inside pumpkin Darth Vader???

ColtonMTotland: This question has led me to think about the pumpkin undermining U.S. democracy. The connection is inescapable and really disturbing

aldric123: Sorry no answer on this one.

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