We had another Liga team battle yesterday, June 22, 2025. This time, it was tough as we were promoted to a new league thanks to our spectacular performance in the last round.
It was a 5th-place finish for the Blockchain Team with a total of 247 points, thanks to the ten players who brought their respective points.
- @stuffings 46 points
- @poseout87 40 points
- @chessdev17 36 points
- @tangibleay 32 points
- @jaki01 30 points
- @stayoutoftherz 17 points
- @madchess64 13 points
- @justola1 13 points
- @kintokris 12 points
- @rdcast 8 points
This time around, the change in the event was International Master Stuffing taking the Most Valuable Player (MVP) spot from poseout in this round. Stuffings finished in 8th place with 46 points, while Poseout came in at 11th place on the players' final standings. This round of the Lichess Liga 3C Team Battle is going to be more challenging, as there are stronger players and only one team will get promoted to the next stage out of the 10 teams.
I played only five games as I had to withdraw due to my health. Hopefully, I will be better in the next round, and I hope we do better in the next round.
Let's check out a few exciting games from the event, played by the blockchain chess team. We will start with an interesting game from our MVP Stuffings. Although he lost the game but he still came out strong in the tournament.
stuffings vs PseudoBenko
Rac1?? happens to be the last move played by stuffings, and it is a blunder.
Can you figure out why and the best move for Black?
Apparently, Rac1 is a blunder because it drops a free piece. After all, after the exchange of the light-squared bishops on b5 and c4, white's dark-squared bishop is left hanging. If white responds to Bxc4 with Rxc4, the black queen simply goes ahead to capture the bishop on a5.
And it happens. From here, white's dark-squared bishop is off the board.
You can use the game link to view the game.
Game Link
Also, here is the Game's PGN:
[Event "Lichess Liga 3C Team Battle"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/xi3DfCr8"]
[Date "2025.06.22"]
[White "stuffings"]
[Black "PseudoBenko"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2342"]
[BlackElo "2585"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-2"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+3"]
[BlackTitle "FM"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[ECO "D24"]
[Opening "Queen's Gambit Accepted"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. c4 d5 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e4 b5 6. Be2 b4 7. e5 Nd5 8. Ne4 Ba6
9. O-O Be7 10. Qc2 b3 11. Qd1 bxa2 12. Rxa2 O-O 13. Bd2 c6 14. Ba5 Qd7
15. Qc2 Bb5 16. Bxc4 Na6 17. Raa1 Nab4 18. Qb3 Rfb8 19. Rfc1 Rb7 20. Nc5 Bxc5
21. dxc5 Rab8 22. Rd1 Qe7 23. h4 Qxc5 24. Rac1 Bxc4 25. Bxb4 Rxb4 26. Qa3 Qb6
27. Nd4 h6 28. Rc3 c5 29. Nc2 Nxc3 30. Qxc3 Bd5 31. Ne3 Rxb2 32. h5 Rb1
33. Kh2 Rxd1 34. Nxd1 Qb4 35. Qc2 Qe4 36. Ne3 Qxc2 37. Nxc2 c4 38. f3 c3
39. Kg3 Rb2 40. Nd4 c2 41. Nxc2 Rxc2 42. Kh3 a5 43. f4 a4 44. g4 a3
45. g5 a2 46. f5 a1=Q 47. g6 Qh1+ 48. Kg3 Qg2+ 49. Kh4 Qh2+ 50. Kg4 Rg2#
0-1
NorwigianNinja Vs Tangibleay
Despite maintaining a +2 advantage right from the middle game due to the space advantage and activities from the white pieces, just to make a one-move blunder with Rc1??. Chess is hard because it is not over until it is checkmate or time's up. In both players' defense, they were both playing with the berserk time for 1:30 minutes
Rxd6!!
Tangibleay finds the best move, as black gains a free knight, and if white decides to capture back with their pawn on c5, the white rook on c1 drops next, and black still has time to retreat his queen back to c6 to stop white's passed pawn.
You can use the game link to view the game.
Game Link
Also, here is the Game's PGN:
[Event "Lichess Liga 3C Team Battle"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/dznv3fvV"]
[Date "2025.06.22"]
[White "NorwigianNinja"]
[Black "tangible_ay"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2407"]
[BlackElo "2166"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-9"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+9"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[ECO "D00"]
[Opening "Queen's Pawn Game: Accelerated London System"]
[Termination "Time forfeit"]
1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. e3 e6 4. c3 Bd6 5. Nd2 O-O 6. Ngf3 Bxf4 7. exf4 c5 8. Bd3 Nc6
9. dxc5 d4 10. cxd4 Nxd4 11. O-O Nc6 12. Ne4 Qe7 13. Qe2 Nxe4 14. Qxe4 g6 15. b4 Rd8
16. Rfd1 a6 17. a3 Qc7 18. Ne5 Ne7 19. Bc4 Nd5 20. Rd3 Nf6 21. Qe3 Bd7 22. Rad1 Bc6
23. Rd6 Bd5 24. Rxd8+ Rxd8 25. Qd4 Rc8 26. h3 h5 27. Kh2 Bxc4 28. Nxc4 Nd5 29. Nd6
Rd8 30. g3 b6 31. Rc1 Rxd6 32. cxd6 Qxc1 33. d7 Qc7 34. f5 Qxd7 35. fxg6 fxg6 36. Qd3
Qf7 37. Qxa6 Qxf2+ 38. Kh1 Ne3 39. Qc8+ Kh7 40. Qb7+ Kh6 41. a4 Qf1+ 42. Kh2 Qf2+
43. Kh1 Qxg3 44. a5 Qxh3+ 45. Kg1 Ng4 46. Qf7 Qe3+ 47. Kg2 Qe5 48. a6 Qe4+ 49. Qf3
Ne5 50. Qxe4 Ng4 51. Qe1 Kg5 52. Qd1 e5 53. Qc1+ Kf5 54. Kf1 Ne3+ 55. Ke2 Ng4
56. Qb1+ e4 57. Qc1 Ne5 58. Qb1 Nf3 0-1
That is a wrap on this edition of the Liga team battle. See you in the next round.
I am @samostically, I love to talk and write about chess because I benefited a lot from playing chess and I love writing about chess.
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