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Fun stats about the Lichess 2025 Winter Marathon

Stats are as always quite interesting and I have to admit it's scary how long some people played for. The dedication is admirable although I would be shattered by the end of it if I did that.

It would also be interesting to see how berserking affected stats. For example in my case I berserked 73% of the time and lost on average slightly under 1 point per game. However flipside is I got a lot more games played as I think I averaged close to 20 games per hour while person who played the longest didn't berserk and averaged under 9 games per hour but did gain rating points.

As far as my personal stats they were all over the place:

  1. I played 154 games and lost 133 points with a 41% win rate
  2. I also got my lowest ever rating of 1993 during the Marathon
  3. I'm pretty sure I said I'm tilting over a dozen times and while swearing to take a break then clicked to return to tournament and got paired again!
  4. I also got my 2nd and 3rd best wins in terms of rating of opponents.
  5. Interestingly my best win of the tournament was with my lowest rating of the tournament
Stats are as always quite interesting and I have to admit it's scary how long some people played for. The dedication is admirable although I would be shattered by the end of it if I did that. It would also be interesting to see how berserking affected stats. For example in my case I berserked 73% of the time and lost on average slightly under 1 point per game. However flipside is I got a lot more games played as I think I averaged close to 20 games per hour while person who played the longest didn't berserk and averaged under 9 games per hour but did gain rating points. As far as my personal stats they were all over the place: 1. I played 154 games and lost 133 points with a 41% win rate 2. I also got my lowest ever rating of 1993 during the Marathon 3. I'm pretty sure I said I'm tilting over a dozen times and while swearing to take a break then clicked to return to tournament and got paired again! 4. I also got my 2nd and 3rd best wins in terms of rating of opponents. 5. Interestingly my best win of the tournament was with my lowest rating of the tournament

@diya09 said in #10:

Nice, but why is it so long?

A lot of stats :-)
You can click in the table of contents (and back) to only view the parts you find interesting

@diya09 said in #10: > Nice, but why is it so long? A lot of stats :-) You can click in the table of contents (and back) to only view the parts you find interesting

@KMcGeoch said in #11:

while person who played the longest didn't berserk and averaged under 9 games per hour but did gain rating points.

Actually, I played about 7.96 games per hour (191/24). I didn't take a break, maybe once for 2 minutes.
And if not to count 3 games without moves, then there were 7.83 games per hour.

@KMcGeoch said in #11: > while person who played the longest didn't berserk and averaged under 9 games per hour but did gain rating points. Actually, I played about 7.96 games per hour (191/24). I didn't take a break, maybe once for 2 minutes. And if not to count 3 games without moves, then there were 7.83 games per hour.

@Bleak_Mind_Emptiness said in #13:

Actually, I played about 7.96 games per hour (191/24). I didn't take a break, maybe once for 2 minutes.
And if not to count 3 games without moves, then there were 7.83 games per hour.

Well that is a long grind although I have no idea if at the end fatigue played a role or if you timed sleep to wake up just before it started. It's also possible that not berserking allowed more relaxed play as 24 hours of essentially bullet time control could also be more tiring.

As far as berserking stats go here's how I think points work out. These are a few scenarios but could be indicative

Assume 8 games per hour, no berserk, all won with streak bonus = 8x4 => 32
Assume 8 games per hour, no berserk, 75% won with half having streak bonus = 3x4 + 3x2 => 18

Assume 20 games per hour, all berserk, 50% win rate with 20% won with streak bonus = 8x3 + 2x5 => 34
Assume 20 games per hour, all berserk, 40% win rate with 1/8 won with streak bonus = 7x3 + 1x5 => 26

Winning score of 867 was insane since using the 8 game per hour and assuming 100% wins it still ends up short at 768 or 764 as first 2 games can't be a streak.

One other question is whether people who berserk more often faced berserkers back. For example if my opponent berserked I almost always did the same apart from when I forgot or they were black and played too quickly to respond. However when opponents didn't berserk next time I faced them I didn't berserk unless they were lower rated. It's probably game theory since if both berserk then there's no handicap and more points on offer but if one berserks and other doesn't then 2.5+0 vs 5+3 is tough especially when people try to flag you in drawn endgames.

@Bleak_Mind_Emptiness said in #13: > Actually, I played about 7.96 games per hour (191/24). I didn't take a break, maybe once for 2 minutes. > And if not to count 3 games without moves, then there were 7.83 games per hour. Well that is a long grind although I have no idea if at the end fatigue played a role or if you timed sleep to wake up just before it started. It's also possible that not berserking allowed more relaxed play as 24 hours of essentially bullet time control could also be more tiring. As far as berserking stats go here's how I think points work out. These are a few scenarios but could be indicative Assume 8 games per hour, no berserk, all won with streak bonus = 8x4 => 32 Assume 8 games per hour, no berserk, 75% won with half having streak bonus = 3x4 + 3x2 => 18 Assume 20 games per hour, all berserk, 50% win rate with 20% won with streak bonus = 8x3 + 2x5 => 34 Assume 20 games per hour, all berserk, 40% win rate with 1/8 won with streak bonus = 7x3 + 1x5 => 26 Winning score of 867 was insane since using the 8 game per hour and assuming 100% wins it still ends up short at 768 or 764 as first 2 games can't be a streak. One other question is whether people who berserk more often faced berserkers back. For example if my opponent berserked I almost always did the same apart from when I forgot or they were black and played too quickly to respond. However when opponents didn't berserk next time I faced them I didn't berserk unless they were lower rated. It's probably game theory since if both berserk then there's no handicap and more points on offer but if one berserks and other doesn't then 2.5+0 vs 5+3 is tough especially when people try to flag you in drawn endgames.

i didnt even realize my game was 160 moves long i was just berzerking the whole marathon with the little time i had left to play it. surprised you didnt mention i had a 96% Berserk RATE! getting to top 100 i failed as having 6 hours wasnt much but if i had another hour or so i definitely would have made it within the top 100! when will be the next marathon? happy new year again! @realcyberbird 96% berserk and 67% win rate! need to get back to 2500 all the berserk killed my rating bahaha

i didnt even realize my game was 160 moves long i was just berzerking the whole marathon with the little time i had left to play it. surprised you didnt mention i had a 96% Berserk RATE! getting to top 100 i failed as having 6 hours wasnt much but if i had another hour or so i definitely would have made it within the top 100! when will be the next marathon? happy new year again! @realcyberbird 96% berserk and 67% win rate! need to get back to 2500 all the berserk killed my rating bahaha
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Damn, this blog is so good. Respect to you for gathering so much information :)

Damn, this blog is so good. Respect to you for gathering so much information :)