THINK Chess Blog #13

THINK Chess

If you are not already a member of THINK, please join at this link: https://lichess.org/team/think. We are a friendly, active community that hosts various events and competitions, as you will see, including the Lichess Liga. Thank-you in advance!

Goodbye Rankrotten...

It is with greatest regret that we have to announce that @Rankrotten, who had a more crucial role in setting up and growing THINK than anyone else, has had to step down from his duties as leader. We thank you so very much for your service and wish you nothing but the best in the future, my friend.

New leaders

We are excited to welcome to the leadership of THINK:
@QueenRosieMary as our Membership and Marketing leader, @J3742 as our Liga Captain leader, @Kempere as our Arena Tournaments leader, and @Murphy_the_Irish_red as our Club Coach leader!

Liga

In our most recent Liga 7B, (https://lichess.org/tournament/pJzRSKWu) THINK finished a respectable 6th on 150 points. @J3742 took nearly a third of those with a whopping 48 points and tied for third overall in the Liga. I have decided to spotlight @J3742's victory against an FM:

https://lichess.org/o2LF2Wkc

The game was mostly equal up until a few moves before the FM timed out, when J had mate in 3. Great win!

Yours truly also scored 11 points, a pretty high total for me, especially when I'm trying not to bleed points...
Anyway, we are in the Liga 7 again on Thursday. Come out and support the troops! A link has not been provided as of the time of writing, but stay tuned! Let's make it TASTE LIKE PROMOTION!!! (Bonus points for that one)

As for our Liga history this month, on Feb 16, in the Liga 7B, we finished in 4th, barely missing out on promotion, on 165 points, where @Illuin was our top scorer with 39 points. On Feb 12, in the Liga 7A, we finished in 5th on 132 points, where @J3742 was our top scorer with 31 points. In the Liga 6A on Feb 9, we sadly finished in 8th on 150 points, where @Cheeseboy1 scored 42 points. On Feb 5th in the Liga 7A, we finished in 1st place (go THINK!!!) on a huge 212 points, with @Cheeseboy1 once again top scorer on a massive 53 points and finished 2nd overall. Your writer also scored 20 points, a possible career-high... And for our first Liga tourney of the month, we sadly finished in 9th. @Illuin was our top scorer on 28 points. Let's round off the month with some massive victories!

THINK Birthday!

THINK recently celebrated its 2nd birthday as THINK and 4th birthday as a whole (counting LRCL) on Feb 10 with a Birthday Arena. @Murphy_the_Irish_red finished 1st, @TeenageDimwit finished 2nd, and I finished in 3rd. No big deal, just a fun, chill Rapid arena with lots of chatting. We hope that we can celebrate many more birthdays in the future!

Members' achievements

This is a bit of a new one for me to include, so DM @chessmessi14 if you like it or if you want any of YOUR achievements put in the next blog. I'll be writing some members' achievements here! Post https://lichess.org/forum/team-think/achievements?page=8 here if you want to let the team know how you're doing! (Disclaimer: All of these are at the time of writing and may have changed to be lower or higher since.)

• @LoLLLLLLLLLLL has reached 1900 Atomic!
• @QueenRosieMary defeated someone 1000 points higher rated than her!
• @ebk1976's 1953 bullet rating!
• @TeenageDimwit's first victory against a titled player in Blitz!
• My own victory against a titled player in Blitz!

Masters

Competition refresher

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This is how the Masters works... You sign up for as many or as few events as you want, but if you play in more events, you have a better chance of ending up in the Grand Masters Final arena. You earn points and the top 8 will play in a grand final arena to determine the ultimate THINK Masters Champion.
Points system works as follows...
Each Event Winner = 20pts
Each Event Runner-up = 15pts
Each Event Semi-finalists = 10pts
Each Event Quarter-finalists = 8pts
Each Event 1st Round loser(s) = 5pts
Each event Qualifying loser(s) = 3pts
There are many events left, so if you haven't played yet, fear not, YOU still have a great chance of making it into the Masters Grand Final! Stay tuned to the THINK forum and team messages to find out more.

THINK Rapid Masters

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At the time of writing, this competition is in its final stage, with the final being between @Dark-Bi5hop and @J3742. Your writer made it to the semi-final, but got convincingly defeated by @Dark-Bi5hop. In the other semi-final, @J3742 defeated @Mansoul. Good luck to both in the final!
I have decided to include a game from @J3742 and @Mansoul's match:

https://lichess.org/Fs0o5jiD

I'll mostly spare you my commentary, but the game begins as an accelerated London. Both players played well, but 19. Qd2 was the main turning point, and @J3742 converted to win the game and the match.

THINK Bullet Masters

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This competition is, at the time of writing, in its initial stage! Check here https://lichess.org/forum/team-think/think-bullet-masters to see results and here https://www.score7.io/tournaments/thinkbulletmasters/overview to see your progress. So far, only 1 match has been played, with @LoLLLLLLLLLLL defeating @TeenageDimwit by 10.5-5.5 points.

THINK Antichess Masters

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This competition has not started yet! Click here https://lichess.org/forum/team-think/think-antichess-masters to sign up before March 1st at midnight (11:59 pm) UK time.

Classical Tournament

This competition, at the time of writing, is in progress! Click here https://lichess.org/forum/team-think/classical-tournament-2023 to see progress.
I will include the game that I lost in here (@Kempere vs @chessmessi14 1-0)

https://lichess.org/fmnoKiqS
I kind of got demolished in this one. Good luck to everyone else!

Correspondence Championship

After a tournament that never quite finished for Correspondence on THINK Twice, we created one on THINK, and it is still going on! Click here and here to see results and progress. @Murphy_the_Irish_red seems unstoppable, as Murphy has won 18 games out of 19 and only had 1 draw.
Here is the game I decided to spotlight, because of the nice checkmate: (@out-of-mind vs @Murphy_the_Irish_red 0-1)
https://lichess.org/SQYx04H4
It begins with a Reti, but White's king is pushed to the center and eventually mated by a fianchetto-esque checkmate.
As soon as this Correspondence Championship finishes, we will have a new one, albeit with a different format (19 players playing each other is just too much...lol)

Outro

As usual, remember to stay tuned in for all team messages to recieve all updates on THINK events! Thank you and see you in the next one!