Start of Live Chess World League (Season 4): Division 1 review
Season 4 has finally started! 
My congratulations to all teams, their admins, board members, tournament director and chess.com staff who helped us!
We had a long pause since Season 3 has finished due to significant changes in format of the League
But now we have even more amazing tournament and I believe it will become a real on-line Chess Olympiad in the nearest future!
Just compare: when LCWL has been launched we had only 18 national teams join in one division, but now - 34 countries and four divisions.
Besides, we have got prize fund from chess.com, streams shown on Chess TV, blogposts about LCWL and many other wonderful things.
I agree with @SamCopeland that Season-5 target of 50 national teams seems quite archievable.
As a player and superadmin of Team Ukraine, I`d like to share my view what`s going on in Division 1.
I am happy that my Team was mentioned among favorites, probably based on our previous performance (we won both Blitz and Bullet championship in Season 2 and Season 3).
Fortunately, we managed to meet our fan`s expectations on the start winning 2 matches.
With all due respect to Team Slovakia, they were mentioned as an underdog versus Team Ukraine as a favorite.
Slovaks brought 36 players for Blitz and 21 warriors for Bullet and Random.
But it was very difficult to survive versus 93 Ukrainians, 36 of them rated over 2000 in Blitz.
“There are no any defensive trick against a sledgehammer” – our Ukrainian proverb says.
Here is a masterpiece from our leader @leonid_starozhilov played in Ukraine-Slovakia match in random-960
Mating combitation with Queen sac (21….Qxh3+!!) performed by Leonid could be definitely included in Puzzle Rush base.
Team Ukraine`s player FM Alexey Yarovinsky @aborigen_came streamed this match (Ukrainian/Russian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKukweBtJpA
Match versus Season 3 Runner-Up Team Iceland in round 2 was a big challenge.
Traditionally, Team Iceland has a very solid upper boards, at least a dozen of titled players support the Team every match.
But this time Icelandic squad was smaller even compared to their starting match versus Srbija Tim (45 players versus Serbia and 35 players versus Ukraine).
Probably, there main cause was peak of vacation season in this country.
Despite of huge quantitive advantage of Team Ukraine, battle of leaders was very close and tenacious.
Team Iceland provided an upper-level stream by FM Ingvar Johannesson @Zibbit
https://m.twitch.tv/videos/456023253
It`s a pity Zibbit`s stream was not shown on Chess TV as it obviously deserved.
In Bullet section Ingvar made two draws with @skliarov_oleksandr
His first game in Blitz with Ukrainian grandmaster @mikhail_golubev was also drawing.
But in the second game it was a real bloodshed.
Playing White versus Zibbit`s French defense, Mikhail got a big trouble. After he accepted quality sac his Queen was almost trapped. Very soon Zibbit`s initiative has transformed in mating attack.
But in decisive moment he blundered White defensive resource Qxh5 – you can watch this tragic moment on 42:00 minute of stream, where Icelandic strongman slipped in half-step to victory
GM Mikhail Golubev made a short comment:
“This variation seems advantageous for White. But position in really double edged, it was very easy to make a mistake what I did very soon. True, my opponent could win this game at least twice….”
16…..Nf6! -+
26…..Re8! -+
It is a pleasure for me to introduce Andrey Ermolaev @pchelkinvk amazing player in bullet
On his Channel you can watch his numerous wins over famous grandmasters.
Once Andrey was very close to beat…..Magnus Carlsen! 
From the left, Team Ukraine players: Andrey Ermolaev @pchelkinvk, Dmitry Gritsenko @gritsenko
Tihon Chernyaev @peshkach
Just take a look at his bullet masterpiece versus strong Icelandic grandmaster
Team Ukraine stream by @UAArtur you can watch here (Ukrainian/Russian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj7Jvq3iOOA&t=9s
Our main competitor Team Russia has started this Season very aggressively, they got two consecutive big-score wins over Argentina and France.
Leaders of Team Russia: GM Vladimir Dobrov @vladdobrov and IM Mikhail Lushenkov @mikhaillushenkov
Their performance impressed some LCWL`s fans so much they have already announced Team Russia as an obvious winner of Season 5.
For instance, @SamCopeland in his blogpost said the following:
Sure, Sam`s forecast has ground. That is not a big secret Team Russia is potentially stronger than all Division 1 teams put together.
Besides wast recources of domestic chess players (#1 in the World by number of GMs, IMs, FMs), now they have a powerful media chess.com – русский which actively promotes both LCWL and Team Russia.
But what I love the most in LCWL format – there is always a place for sensations.
Almost 100 boards mobilized by Team Russia for Blitz – it`s great but not gobsmacking.
I forwarded Sam`s blogpost to my guys and Ukrainian Cossacks (how to say it smoothly?)…..agree with his forecast but not completely. 
Screenshot from Team Ukraine page:
Season 3 Runner Up Team Iceland started successfully winning important match versus one of favorites Srbija Tim.
Despite their bad luck against Team Ukraine, Iceland is obviously among top challengers to enter the Champions Pool.
I expect number of Team Iceland`s players will grow till autumn considerably and make it a tough-nut-to-crack even for begemoths as Russia or Ukraine.
Just pay attention to this fact: Team Russia vs Argentina had only 4 titled players, while Team Iceland (vs both Serbia and Ukraine) – 8 titled players!
One of them – IM David Kjartansson @yuwono, apparently strongest blitzer of Iceland.
Look what a “knightmare” he gave to Ukrainian master
Two-times champion of LCWL in rapid Srbija Tim also was hurt badly by vocation season peak.
But potential of this team is well-known and hasn`t disappeared anyway.
As you remember, in season-3 rapid final Team Ukraine met 96 serbian warriors (among them – 17 (!!) titled players)
https://www.chess.com/club/matches/live/2964/games
It seems that Serbian squad aims just to enter the Champions Pools in regular season and then mobilize their top-players to the full extent!
Nevertheless, we have already seen some Serbian heavyweights in Season 4, like IM Miodrag Perunovich @thebutcher
Miodrag is obviously one of the best players of LCWL, big specialist in blitz & bullet
Personally I highly appreciate his youtube-channel focused on sharp opening variations
In match Iceland – Serbia, @thebutcher won all his games including this battle with GM Bragi Thorfinnsson @B-man
The main competitor to both Iceland and Serbia for entering Champions Pool is obviously Argentina Live Chess.
We have already mentioned its 100 board in blitz match against Team Russia.
But I remember even higher record – 116 boards in rapid semifinal against Team Ukraine.
https://www.chess.com/club/matches/live/2868/games
Besides, Argentina is the strongest team on chess.com in Daily Chess. Once I noticed 442 boards in their match of World League versus Team Spain.
https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-argentina/930708
Potentially, their daily chess players could switch on live chess soon.
Horacio Pereyra @horaciopereyra
Next opponent of Argentina Live Chess in round 3 is…. Team Ukaine!
It is going to be a hard work for both sides.
Team France shouldn`t be very upset about heavy loss to Team Russia. They were a winner in this match too because of setting their own record of 69 boards.
French team had a big advantage over Team Kazakhstan in opening match.
It shows that Team France is capable at least to save its place in Premier League.
It was a pleasure to see Edgar Karagyozyan @edgar_karagyozyan as a leader of Team France
He managed to win a game against leader of Team Russia trapping his Queen
For both Team Slovakia and Team Kazakhstan it seems the main task is avoiding regelation to Division 2.
Team Slovakia has mobilized 36 players in Blitz and more than 20 in Bullet/Random against Team Ukraine.
And its leader FM Marek Karas @marekkaras06 has beaten twice in blitz Ukrainian heavyweight @ leonid_starozhilov
I would mention a very high endgame technigue of Slovakian Master
Start of Team Kazakhstan in Season-4 was really upset for me.
I remember a great battle on 83 boards in Season-1 semifinal where Kazakhstan was a favorite while Team Ukraine was an underdog.
https://www.chess.com/club/matches/live/837/games
But now Team Kazakhstan unfortunately got 3 forfeits in 6 micro-matches.
This team seems to be hurt badly by timezoning problem. For instance, time difference between Argentina and Kazakhstan is 9 (!) hours.
Bakhytzhan Kembayev @kembayev_bakhytzhan
I found a funny miniature won by Kazakh player in Random-960 against Srbija Tim
Every Season of LCWL got us some sensations, obviously Season-4 will not be an exception! 
Thanks a lot for your attention, friends!
