Lichess4545 Season 50 starts: Cracking Time with GM Daniel King

Poster art (cover picture) by former player for celebration of the league.

It was two weeks ago when Season 50 formed its teams and it was immediately clear it was gonna be a huge one. With 54 teams of 8 boards each, this is the biggest season since March of 2022. After team formation, players scrambled to name their teams, about half of teams also made a poster for their group and then, we were ready to play.

With Round 1, it was time to break a record. GM Daniel King was a special league guest as a commentator on Saturday, where he, along with @jg777 covered the ongoing games.

And since everyone knew that from 14 to 17 UTC was the time for the legendary commentator appearance, of course a lot of people did their best to schedule their games into this window. That meant that at roughly 15:02 UTC, the league broke its record of the most concurrent games at one point in time with 24.

That meant that GM Daniel King and jg777 had a lot to choose from and they went over quite a few games in what turned out to be about a 3½-hour-long stream. All against a backdrop of a fantastic set-up created by jg777, who received high praise from everybody who had anything to say on it.

If I were to highlight a game, it would have to be @Feet_Barbie (with White) against @LloydRet, with Black. Can you find a move for White in this position, that would make Daniel King go oooooooooooh?

https://www.twitch.tv/chesswithjordan/clip/NiceCreativeDootVoHiYo-CWdH2SNDd5aYZv-Q

Yes, Black overlooked a big one here and Feet_Barbie (aka the Morphy of Lichess4545) went on to win the game! So as our special commentator said on the stream: "Feet_Barbie or Fat_Barbie, congratulations, whoever you are".

A game with probably the most interesting backstory of the round got some attention too. @Razorneck celebrated their 200th league game in style over @drchessdad, another veteran who is closing in on the 200 games mark.

After Bf4, Black was indeed in big trouble (GM King used a bit more colourful language) and it was a quick day at the office for the double-centurion.

Overall, it was indeed a "cracking time" as GM King promised at the outset of the stream and the league is off to a strong start.

Now the eyes turn towards next week, where we will have NM Marc Nassar coming to fill the commentator spot. Daniel King will be back for Round 5. Full slate of special events for Season 50 below:

Oh and the registrations are still open! We are still looking for alternates so if you are interested, do not hesitate to check the league website.

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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