Live Chess World League Gets Set For Playoffs
We have reached the end of First Stage. Top four teams in each division have qualified for the Championship Pool. Here is a recap of the 7th week of Live Chess World League.
- Div.1: Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Serbia
- Div.2: Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Uzbekistan
- Div.3: Crunch time for the favourites
- Div.4: Cuba increases the lead
- U1600 Event: Mexico, India, England on top
- Friendlies League
- Some Interesting Games
- Stats Corner
- Coming Next...
Div.1: Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Serbia
Fortune favours the brave! Once again Kazakhstan made it extremely close against Ukraine. After outnumbering the reigning champions in Bullet and Blitz, Kazakhs were leading at some point!
Live broadcast of this contest.
After the adjustments are made, bullet match (105 boards) became a stalemate! That's a new record.
Iran finished the 1st stage with a 3-0 win against Peru. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to secure their spot on championship pool as Serbia won their remaining games in similar fashion.
Division One | Standings After Stage 1
| Rk. | Team | UKR | RUS | KAZ | SRB | IRI | FRA | PER | PHI | Points | H2H | SB | Avg% | |
| 1 | Ukraine | 3 | 2½ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20.5 | - | 184.25 | 69% | ||
| 2 | Russia | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 18 | - | 136.5 | 64% | ||
| 3 | Kazakhstan | ½ | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12.5 | - | 76.25 | 55% | ||
| 4 | Serbia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 61 | 56% | ||
| 5 | Iran | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 65.5 | 52% | ||
| 6 | France | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | - | 31 | 34% | ||
| 7 | Peru | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 32% | ||
| 8 | Philippines | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 38% |
Teams had so many close matches in this season, which was quite rare for Div.1. Even if the adjustments were delayed by a couple of hours, three match results could be overturned!
Div.2: Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Uzbekistan
Czech Republic defeated Uzbekistan in both matches quite comfortably. Later they registered 100+ players for the blitz match against Mexico!
Division Two | Standings After Stage 1
| Rk. | Team | CZE | BIH | MEX | UZB | SVK | ROU | USA | ARG | Points | H2H | SB | Avg% | |
| 1 | Czech Republic | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 14 | - | 84 | 70% | ||
| 2 | Bosnia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | - | 60 | 69% | ||
| 3 | Mexico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1½ | 2 | 8.5 | - | 34.75 | 56% | ||
| 4 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 28 | 56% | ||
| 5 | Slovakia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 22 | 50% | ||
| 3 | Romania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | 7 | 25% | ||
| 7 | USA | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.5 | - | 12.25 | 39% | ||
| 8 | Argentina | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | - | 2.5 | 36% |
Teams got similar pairings in the very next round. Don't be surprised if they postpone those matches for the free weeks. There are two free weeks in the 2nd stage.
Div.3: Crunch time for the favourites
Adjustment made some significant changes in the standings and teams are now divided into two new groups. A lot of teams still have a chance to make it to 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.
Group 3A: Turkey, Canada, Australia, England, Brazil, Italy, Galicia
Group 3B: Spain, Uruguay, Chile, India, Puerto Rico, Denmark
Results against teams moving to a different group have been discarded and results against teams moved to the same group have been retained. Stage 2 matches will be scored at 1-½-0.
Admins can learn some important lesson from this division. Never recruit international players who have no connection with the country. And also keep an eye on the multiplayers thread regularly.
Div.4: Cuba increases the lead
Div.4 is following a single round robin, with no playoffs and teams will play 11 rounds. Cuba won their match of 9th round against Hungary and extended their lead. Costa Rica is still looking favourite as they won 5 out of 5 and defeated Cuba! That has been a remarkable season for them.
Division Four | Current Standings
| Rk. | Team | CUB | CRC | COL | HUN | SLO | PAK | DOM | VEN | ESA | CPV | GEO | ALG | |
| 1 | Cuba | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 | ½ | ||
| 2 | Costa Rica | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | ||
| 3 | Colombia | 0 | - | ½ | - | - | 1 | 0 | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | Hungary | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | Slovenia | 1 | - | - | 0 | - | - | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Pakistan | 0 | - | - | 1 | - | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | - | - | ||
| 7 | Dominican Rep. | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 0 | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | ||
| 8 | Venezuela | - | 0 | 1 | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | 1 | - | ||
| 9 | El Salvador | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | 0 | - | 1 | ||
| 10 | Cape Verde | 0 | - | 0 | - | - | ½ | 0 | - | 1 | - | - | ||
| 11 | Georgia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | - | - | 0 | - | - | - | ||
| 12 | Algeria | ½ | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | 0 | - | - |
Teams are progressing very slowly in this division. 9 matches are yet to be played (previous rounds) and teams have already suffered 9 forfeits!
The purpose of this competition is to provide lower rated players who may not make it high enough in a team's roster to play most of their team's matches, the chance to play in a competitive environment against players of a similar ability.
Already we've got 400+ players who couldn't participate in the main event. India and Galicia are making the best use of this side event.
Myanmar is still on top! Bolivia and Zimbabwe have already qualified for the main event by registering an average of 5+ players per match. Also China is about to qualify with 100% win record!
Friendlies League | Current Standings
| Rank | Team | Played | Win | Draw | Loss | 5+ | Points | Avg. | |
| 1 | Myanmar | 20 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 37 | 4.2 | |
| 2 | Zimbabwe | 20 | 12 | 1 | 7 | 9 | 34 | 5.4 | |
| 3 | China | 11 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 28 | 4.9 | |
| 4 | Bolivia | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 22 | 7.0 | |
| 5 | Ireland | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 13 | 4.4 | |
| 6 | Singapore | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 4.6 |
Hopefully all of them will qualify for the main event.
We have seen some brilliant moves in this week.
Ukrainian FM sacrificed two pieces to find the perpetual checks!
Which pawn to push? To blunder is human! Even GM can blunder in this position.
If those games were won by Grand Master, even the blitz match could be declared as a draw!!
Probably that's a 1900 rated puzzle. Can you solve it?
Another brilliant move saved the game for Czech FM against Uzbek GM!
Let's compare between seasons -
| After 1st Stage | Season 4 | Season 5 | Season 6 |
| Division 1 | 1609 players | 3539 - 120% 🔺 | 2436 - 31.2% 🔻 |
| Division 2 | 809 players | 1107 - 36.8% 🔺 | 1271 - 14.8% 🔺 |
LCWL reached its peak on Season 5!
Mainly Div.1 is responsible for that overall decrease. There might be several reasons -
- Rapid 10+2 is too boring for titled players.
- Most of the countries are not in lockdown (that's a good thing though).
- 3 teams of Div.3 got disqualified/withdrew very early, otherwise there would be 24 more matches!!
- Div.4 teams aren't playing their matches according to the schedule!
Great job by @ivoshm as the number of registered players is also recorded on the doc! That'll help the directors to analyze the formats (with stats like, average number of players per team).
Discussion is going on about the time control and match format. How to make LCWL more interesting? Bring Chess960 back in the main event? Raise the minimum for Div.1? Remove play-offs? You guys can share your thoughts in the comments
- Division 1: Serbia vs Ukraine
- Division 1: Kazakhstan vs Russia
- Division 2: Czech Republic vs Uzbekistan
- Division 2: Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Mexico
November 15, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. Sarajevo / 11:00 a.m. Mexico City - Division 3A: England vs Turkey
November 15, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. London / 7:00 p.m. Istanbul
Most of the matches are played on Saturday and Sunday. Live commentary will be available on the official YouTube channel for the key games at 11 a.m. Pacific / 7 p.m. Central Europe.
Full League Rules and Results Join a Team!
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