Live Chess World League: Good Start For The Favourites
"Olympics of chess" is back with plenty of actions! Thousands of players will play for 44 countries in the 6th season of Live Chess World League.
Chess.com's premier Live Chess league that is open to World League teams. The competition is split into 4 divisions based on previous season results. Each round consists of Bullet (1|1), Blitz (5|2) and Rapid (10|2) team matches. Season 6 will run from Aug 24 till Dec 20.
Major Changes
For the first time, the league has implemented "Standard match times" considering the time zones of all countries. That will surely reduce the complexities during negotiation and admins can reach agreement within shorter period of time.
"Friendlies League" has been introduced which will run alongside the main event. That will help the inactive teams to prepare for the main event of the upcoming season.
Div.3 and Div.4 are merged into one large tier of 16 teams. Teams are split into Eastern and Western groups for Stage 1, with the top teams from each group playing against each other in Stage 2.
Prizes
Season six of the Live Chess World League will feature thousands of dollars in premium membership prizes for the best-performing teams and individuals.
Here are the prizes:
Division 1 Prizes
| Prizes | 1st-place scorer | 2nd-place scorer | 3rd-place scorer | 4th-10th-place scorer |
| 1st team | 2-year  |
1-year |
9-month |
6-month |
| 2nd team | 1-year |
9-month |
6-month |
3-month |
| 3rd team | 9-month |
6-month |
3-month |
1-month |
| 4-5th team | 6-month |
3-month |
1-month |
|
| 6-8th team | 6-month |
Division 2 Prizes
| Prizes | 1st-place scorer | 2nd-place scorer | 3rd-5th-place scorer |
| 1st team | 1-year  |
6-month |
3-month |
| 2nd team | 6-month |
3-month |
2-month |
| 3rd team | 3-month |
2-month |
1-month |
Division 3 Prizes
| Prizes | 1st-place scorer | 2nd-place scorer | 3rd-5th-place scorer |
| 1st team | 1-year  |
6-month |
3-month |
| 2nd team | 6-month |
4-month |
3-month |
| 3rd team | 3-month |
2-month |
2-month |
| 9th team | 3-month |
1-month |
1-month |
The winning team in division 4 will win three-month gold memberships for their top five players.
Week 1 Round-up
Division 1
Only Ukraine vs France match was played. No surprise, as the defending champions won by a huge margin. We expected few more players from the French side.
French defense from a French player that didn't end very well.
One special characteristic of Div.1 is that, we can find all types of openings with almost all types of checkmates and blunders in a single round! For example, this rapid game started with Polish Opening and Black could actually get back in the game!
Once again, Kazakhstan vs Iran match will be of paramount importance for both teams. Hopefully all the unplayed matches of Rd.1 will be played on the first free week (Sep 7 to Sep 13).
Division 2
This division can be called the "Group of Death". Uzbekistan, Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina secured comfortable victories in their first round. All of them are capable of winning this division. Specially the Uzbeks, who are currently enjoying a winning streak of 45 matches! I'm particularly interested to see how long they can extend their unbeaten run in this league.
Mexico gave a good fight in blitz, but the rapid match was dominated by Bosnia. Can you find the winning moves here?
Division 3
Recent changes are actually offering a shortcut to Team Galicia and they should fully utilize this opportunity by winning this division. They got a great start in this season by winning over Chile. Canada vs Uruguay was the only encounter of this week which ended as a stalemate (1-1).
Player with Black pieces missed checkmate in this position and eventually that was a draw!
Division 4
Columbia returned to LCWL after season 3 and Algeria made it really very close. This could be the first draw of this season if an Algerian player didn't forget to press "withdraw" button before leaving!
Cuba vs Cape Verde was another close contest with a scoreline of 5.5-4.5. Two masters played on the first board of that mini-match!
U1600 Event
There will be a U1600 competition ran alongside the main season. The format will be a single round robin of 5|2 blitz. If you are an admin of an interested national team, you can sign up in the club forum to participate!
The deadline for signups is the September 12. We are expecting 3 divisions in this event.
Coming Next...
The first week has provided plenty of entertainment. With more teams joining this league, we can expect 12k+ active players throughout this season. Thanks for reading and good luck!
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