Season 12 live blogging, Monday Apr 30th

We are in the final rounds of division 3, 2.5 double rounds to go. The relegation is more or less determined, Senpai and Wasp are on their way to division 4 next season. The leader ChessBrain is almost certainly promoting to division 2. The second engine to promote will be one of Pedone, Xiphos, Ethereal and Bobcat. Xiphos is leading but it still has to face ChessBrain, while the other engines have easier opponents.

The next two games are between Pedone and Xiphos, any decisive result can have a big impact on the race for promotion. We start with Pedone in white.

move 8 - The engines playing a QGD, following theory until move 6 and then playing a more rare sideline. Xiphos' eval drops to 0.

move 12 - evals continue to be low, not sure what the engines are planning. So far there are not many exchanges, kings are safe, no clear weaknesses.

move 15 - Pedone's eval is slowly increasing, it is making indirect threats on the black king. Xiphos is not impressed.

move 18 - Xiphos has a bishop pair but its LSB is still undeveloped. Pedone pushing pawns on the king side, Xiphos countering on the queen side. The game is getting interesting.

move 22 - Pedone's evals still rising, over 0.6. Pedone's PV is suggesting exchanges in teh near future. Xiphos continues tro be defensive, its queen side rook is its most advanced piece on the 5th file.

move 28 - after a few pawn exchanges the position is opening, Xiphos created a queen side passer, Pedone exposed the black king. Pedone's eval dropped, most probable outcome is now is a draw.

move 35 - Xiphos queened a pawn temporarily, a part of a series of exchanges resulting in a N vs R imbalance. Pedone with an extra pawn is behind on material but its eval is rising again. It has a king side passer now.

move 42 - the black bishop has not moved yet, and the white knight is in a great square to limit the bishop's movement. Not clear how Pedone can make progress here. Black fortress?

move 48 - liquidation! Only QB vs QR are left, Pedone gained a second pawn and evals are again close to 0.

move 56 - draw rule, game over.

I suppose a draw is good for Xiphos, and it is playing white in the next game. I'm signing off now, catch the next game later.