Team Name Science

Which words in team names go with a good finish, and which with a bad one? 1,769 teams from 49 finished seasons.

⚗️🧪🧬

1,769teams, Seasons 1–49

81words used by at least 8 teams

50%an average finish: champion = 100%, last place = 0%

Each word gets the average final placing of the teams that had it in their name. "Bishop" and "bishops" count as one word; words like "the" or "of" are left out.

✨ The Lucky Words

bishop

30 teams · 2 titles · best: Smack My Bishop (1st, S3)

65%

luft

9 teams · 1 title · best: From Russia with Luft (1st, S26)

65%

never

8 teams · best: Nepo say Never (4th, S31)

64%

sac

19 teams · 2 titles · best: Sac It and See (1st, S13)

63%

dragon

16 teams · 2 titles · best: Sicilian Dragons (1st, S2)

63%

suggestion

10 teams · 1 title · best: I Like my Suggestion (1st, S43)

62%

square

8 teams · best: 64 squares of An(gu)ish (3rd, S43)

62%

gambit

17 teams · best: Quarantine Gambit Accepted (2nd, S21)

62%

piece

9 teams · best: Six Piece Tablebase (3rd, S14)

61%

other

8 teams · best: Elo from the other side (9th, S47)

60%

come

9 teams · best: Réti Or Not Here We Come (4th, S21)

60%

alekhine

8 teams · best: Alekhine's Bazooka (9th, S23)

59%

💀 The Cursed Words

move

24 teams · worst: Hushed Moves (42nd, S43)

31%

check

15 teams · worst: Sanity Check (44th, S49)

31%

declined

8 teams · worst: Queen's Covid Declined (46th, S21)

31%

take

10 teams · worst: If takes, takes, then takes, takes, takes, takes takes, takes, check, takes, takes... (39th, S40)

34%

fork

19 teams · worst: Fork me twice, can't get forked again (38th, S41)

35%

time

11 teams · worst: The Clock Crushers: Dangerous in any Time Control (45th, S35)

35%

good

17 teams · worst: We are so good that we should be in the TCEC (40th, S33)

36%

magnus

10 teams · worst: Watch out Magnus! (42nd, S37)

38%

play

10 teams · worst: We have prepared together so we all play the same-ish (39th, S45)

38%

12 teams · worst: 45 move suggestions, none good (41st, S45)

38%

find

9 teams · worst: I will find you, and I will mate you (42nd, S27)

39%

horse

9 teams · 1 title · worst: Eat that Horse! (42nd, S22)

41%

The perfect team name

BISHOP+15LUFT+15NEVER+14SAC+13DRAGON+13

Predicted finish: 1st of 54 (121%)

The worst team name

MOVE−19CHECK−19DECLINED−19TAKE−16FORK−15

Predicted finish: 54th of 54 (-37%)

Test a team name

Type a team name to see its predicted finish.

Season 50: the prediction

All 54 teams scored by their names alone: 50% plus or minus each word that was used by enough teams (the chips). Right column: their place in the real table now, during Round 4.

Pred.TeamScoreNow

1st 100 Suggestions You Must Knowsuggestion +12know +8 70%6th

2nd oh those 64 squares can encompass such immensitysquare +12 62%33rd

3rd Yeah, well, that's just like, your opening, man.like +9 59%10th

4th Svidler? I hardly know herknow +8 58%41st

5th The horsey don't belong herehere +6 56%13th

6th Peaky Decliners: An Authoritative Commentary by Svidler, King et al. (50th edition)king +5 55%2nd

7th Riding with the Kingking +5 55%7th

8th King's Landingking +5 55%25th

9th Morphy's Matesmate +5 55%22nd

10th 50 first matesmate +5 55%30th

Predicted last: 50-50 my next move is a blunder (27%, 39th now)

move −19blunder −4

The model vs reality

HIGHEST-SCORING REAL NAME

I don't think he knows about second piece sac, Pip

Season 32 · score 81% = predicted 7th of 34 · finished 28th

sac +13piece +11know +8think −2

LOWEST-SCORING CHAMPION

Petrojan Horse

Season 6 · score 41% = predicted 15th of 24 · won the league

horse −9

Built 18 Oct 2026 from the league's results (official tiebreaks, finished seasons only).