Allied forces did not invade the beaches of Normandy the month after their miraculous evacuation from Dunkirk; and the Rejoicing Teams were not to conquer the Lasker and Karpov sections the month after T46, their Dunkirk.   Instead, TheRejoicingKnights, and TheRejoicingChessCrusaders finished  4th of 8 and 4th of 7 respectively.  
     Top scoring player laurels go to LordTyraad of TheRejoicingChessCrusaders with 5 points out of 6 games, 83.3%; a distant second is BethanyGrace of TheRejoicingKnights with 4 points out of 7 games, 57%. 
     Below is a selection of wins and draws (I don't think anyone would appreciate the losses being posted).  For some reason, Watchbot does not give the last move for many of these games, so find the checkmate in one yourself.

Just looking at these games makes me smile; excellent play!  If only all our games could be like these...

T48 will be opening soon, I suspect, so please start thinking of team names for our teams in the next tournament.  If anyone would like to keep the same names for the teams that would be fine with me also.  Post your suggestions at the forum, as comments, or in a message to me.  
Keep playing, have fun, and look forward to our invasion of Normandy...undoubtedly coming soon (for the Allies it was 4 years after Dunkirk, I hope it's sooner for us.)
God bless you all.  Good chess to everyone.  Go team!

By Bethany Grace
Forgive my proclivity to complete a post half way, post it and leave, and complete it later.
     Two rounds have been completed.  TheRejoicingChessCrusaders lead the Lasker section with 1.5 match points.  TheRejoicingKnights have 1 match point.  

Below, a victory by LordTyraad, his first game as a RejoicingChessCrusader.
    

Two casualties were painfully incurred in CharityJoy and timisrejoicing's matches, leaving silencehunter the task of upsetting his opponent and drawing the match.  He did so, http://www.teamleague.org/player.php?tourney=19&pgn=10970 .  (Sorry watchbot does not have this game, so I'll give the link to the TL game database).

TheRejoicingKnights did not fair well in the match against AllGoodPeople_D, basically, we were slaughtered.
A sad example is found in my game: http://www.teamleague.org/player.php?tourney=19&pgn=10958

Before round 2, I evaluated our opponents and asked myself, can the player I include in the line-up on this board win? Can the team gain a minimum of 2.5 points? I was pretty confident the TheRejoicingChessCrusaders would ace round 2, but I knew TheRejoicingKnights would be hard pressed.

The Crusaders did ace round 2, with 3 points (1 by opponent's forfeit) and only 1 casualty.  For your pleasure, the victories: (timisrejoicing) http://www.teamleague.org/player.php?tourney=19&pgn=11092 ; (Krimi) http://www.teamleague.org/player.php?tourney=19&pgn=11090 .

As I said, I was pretty confident that TheRejoicingKnights would have an uphill battle, so I was pretty excited--literally jumping up and down--to hear of CharityJoy's 200 point upset of her opponent: http://www.teamleague.org/player.php?tourney=19&pgn=11081.  The same morning, we faced our first (and only) casualty of the round.  Allegroknight fought a very tough battle against an opponent rated nearly 200 points higher than he, and only lost narrowly in the endgame.  I, with about an hundred point rating lead, faced my opponent next.  After a satisfying opening for me, my opponent gained a wonderful midgame attack, so I was very relieved by the results:

This brought us to the final game of the round, RoyRogersC vs. alancox

A nice finish by Roy.

Keep up the good work, team.  It won't be easy, but we can do it.  Always be on the qui vive, because our opponents will undoubtedly try to catch us off gaurd with their machinations.
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May God bless us all with His abiding joy and peace in spite of every circumstance and in everything we do.

I hope our answer is a resounding “Yes,” which will be heard for the next 7 weeks--the next 56 games--and on through the playoffs. But for now, we must concentrate on our first round and a good first game, one good move at a time.

Our battle plan is epitomized by Sir Winston Churchill:

“You ask: What is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory.”

“The only answer to defeat is victory.”

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in nothing great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.”

“We are evidently in for a hard fight.”

“Come then: let us to the task, to the battle, to the toil--each to our part, each to our station.”

And a quote from the Bible:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” --Colossians 3:23

________________________

As opposed to previous tournaments, where each player played every week, we will each (most, anyway,--including me) get 1 off week. If you have a preference of which week will be your “resting” week from TL, I’d appreciate if you’d let me know. Otherwise I will randomly choose the weeks.

Week                  Date                 Off week for

1               July 26- August 2                Krimi
2                       Aug 2 - 9                            ?
3                        Aug 9-16                           ?
4                       Aug 16-23                          ?
5                       Aug 23-30                          ?
6                     Aug 30-Sept 6                     ?
7                        Sept 6-13                           ?

Our final line-ups are:

TheRejoicingKnights (excellent name suggested by allegroknight)
1. BethanyGrace 1671
2. marknie 1662
3. RoyRogersC 1502
4. allegroknight 1461
5. timisrejoicing 1406
6. CharityJoy 1345
Team Average: 1574

TheRejoicingChessCrusaders
1. Krimi 1662                                       (Welcome to the team!  Krimi will join us for round 2 on August 2nd)
2. silencehunter 1488
3. timisrejoicing 1406
4. CharityJoy 1345
5. LordTyraad 1267
6. littlesparrows 1011  (littlesparrows, my own dear mother, is our emergency reservist)
Team Average: 1475.25

God bless you all & let's have a great season!


　

　

Here is the rough draft of our line-up.  
     Welcome to our new players, LordTyraad and marknie.   CNoble is not able to join us in T47, but has mentioned the possiblity of returning for T48.  Allegroknight, CharityJoy, RoyRogersC, silencehunter, timisrejoicing, and I are all playing in T47. 
     LordTyraad suggested that we choose more creative names than "A" and "B" this time.  RejoicingChessCrusaders was one of his suggestions, which I and all the teammates I have talked with so far like.  Can anyone think of a name for the other team?  I truly lack creativity when it comes to names. 
     Also, does the line up look good to everyone?  I will have to submit the teams tomorrow. 

Rejoicing (something)
1. BethanyGrace 1671
2. marknie 1662
3. RoyRogersC 1502
4. allegroknight 1461
5. timisrejoicing 1406
6. CharityJoy 1345
Team Average: 1574


RejoicingChessCrusaders
1. silencehunter 1448
2. timisrejoicing 1406
3. CharityJoy 1345
4. LordTyraad 1267
5. littlesparrows 1011
Team Average: 1376

God bless you all & Happy chess!