There were only 6 decisive games in RR5 and there were no changes in the standings. Stockfish extended its lead to 4 points, Komodo is only 1 point behind Houdini in second place. The 3 engines at the bottom of the table all lost one game in RR5 and kept their relative positions. Ethereal is now a point ahead of Andscacs with one win. Fire had a weak RR with 3 losses, including one to Ethereal. It lost touch with the top 3 and is only 0.5 points ahead of Ethereal.
A few interesting games
Ethereal - Fire: Ethereal had an eval advantage in a closed position, its eval was close to 1 after exchanging queens. Then Ethereal sacrificed a bishop to open the king side, and its eval jumped over 1.5. After a series of exchanges only R vs RB remained, Ethereal 3 pawns up. In a long endgame Ethereal advanced pawns on the king side, and Fire had to give up its bishop to stop them. This left Ethereal two pawns up in a won rook ending.
Stockfish - Komodo: Stockfish had an eval over 1 and was up a pawn. Komodo reduced to a RN vs RB position and held the draw.
Stockfish - Fire: See featured game below. First loss for Fire against Stockfish in the division.
Stockfish - Ethereal: Stockfish's eval peaked under 1, Ethereal held the draw. See my live blog of the game.
Komodo - Andscacs: The black queen moved forward and Komodo attacked it all over the board. Andscacs' queen side rook was trapped in the corner and evals increased quickly. When Andscacs exchanged queens Komodo was a pawn up and its rooks were very active. Andscacs gave a bishop to free its rook, the game was soon adjudicated.
Houdini - Fire: Houdini's eval started to increase after a long shuffle. Houdini had a strong bishop pair looking directly at the black king in the corner, and open files for its major pieces. Fire tried to hold, its king had very little pawn support and eventually its defense collapsed. At the end of a series of exchanges Houdini was a piece up in a won BB vs B ending. First loss for Fire against Houdini in the division.
Stockfish - Ginkgo: Evals were close to 0 until move 30. Ginkgo underestimated the danger to its king, Stockfish's eval jumped over 2 when it opened the king side (with g4 as usual). Ginkgo was down a piece within a few moves, the game ended in a RN vs R ending.
Komodo - Chiron: Chiron kept its king in the center and pushed pawns on the king side. Komodo's eval constantly increased as it pressed the weak points in Chiron's pawn line. Komodo captured a pawn and created a queen side passer. The white knight was very strong in a closed position and Chiron traded a rook for it. The game ended in a RRB vs RBB position with Komodo's passer advancing.
Featured game: Stockfish - Fire
Premier division, round 31
Link to game on TCEC
Stockfish had an eval advantage that stayed below 1 for the first 30 moves. Stockfish had a pawn majority on the queen side and a bishop pair. The white king was a little exposed but it seemed safe enough since Fire concentrated its pieces on the queen side.
Evals jumped over 2 after the queen side opened up, Stockfish created a connected pair of passers on the queen side that looked dangerous. Fire had a passer in the center, it still thought it was relatively safe with an eval just over 1.
The engines exchanged pieces until only RB vs RN remained. The white passers on the queen side became stronger while the black passer on the e file shifted to the f file in the exchange and was no longer a passer.
Fire was forced to give its knight to take out one of the passers and the resulting RB vs R endgame was a win for Stockfish.
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