Lichess4545 Week 6 Update: Arr, That's a Free Knight!

The Lichess4545 league Season 48 is heading into the home stretch and with two weeks to go, a clear leader has emerged. Last week, a battle between the top two teams commenced. Immer diese billigen Patzertricks were hoping to put a stamp on their lead, while With FENs like these, who needs enemies? were focused on claiming the lead for the first time and stealing all the momentum that goes with it.

It all started on Wednesday on Board 1, when @Silkthewanderer (White, playing for FENs) took on CM @Lelouch_Vi_Brittania. These two had already faced off 2 times in the league before, with the head-to-head being 0-2 in favour of the master, so this was a tall order for White.

Nevertheless, they were able to squeeze out an upset win in an endgame and that set the tone of the match, the Patzertrickers had to play catch-up.

The 2nd game of the match happened later that day and it was also a bit of a shocker. @Rskyoz (White, playing for Patzertrickers) took on @PatchyThePirate. Rskyoz was riding a 4-game winning streak while Patchy was on a 3-game losing streak going in. That tide completely shifted on move 12, where Rskyoz unfortunately just hung a knight.

The Pirate got a break at the perfect time, never looked back, and it was now 2-0 for FENs. The Patzertrickers though were able to climb back into it and by the end of Friday, the score was 3-3 with all to play for on the weekend. @Stevenlongs was able to send FENs to 4-3 and in the final game, it was @jcarmody (FENs, playing White) as a 219 rating points underdog taking on @Catatafish (Patzertrickers, playing Black). A half point was all that was needed to secure victory and the sole lead of the league.

The author of this blog was checking on the game around move 21 and thought Black had this in the bag, with the f2 point seemingly indefensible. f2 was indeed indefensible but unfortunately for Catatafish, they opted to play 23...Ng4??, giving the advantage to jcarmody with a bit of tactical magic.

jcarmody never looked back and took it home. As a result, FENs now sit on a 5W-1D-0L record and with 11 points, they are now the clear frontrunner. Behind them? A massive 6-way tie at 9 points. All these teams hold a record of 4W-1D-1L. They are a bunch of vultures ready to pounce if FENs slip up. And the team that will get a direct shot at them first is Slay Queen. Either way, the league is unlikely to be clinched in week 7, so it should be fun all the way to the end.

Outside of these happenings, we have a few other shout-outs to give. @Lance5500chesscoach arrived in our league! They are an alternate player for the remainder of the season and started their 4545 journey in style, beating @kinG_Hunter-1. Hopefully we'll see a lot more of Lance in 4545. They already have a game lined up for this week as well.

And we also have to acknowledge the one and only @cinemashow, a Season 46 champion who now also has 100 games in Lichess4545 league under their belt. Their 100th game was a draw against @boinetnicolas.

With that, we are poised for an exciting league finish! See you soon again.

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.
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