Season 13 superfinal, games 75-78

After 78 games Stockfish leads 10-4 with 64 draws.
There were 4 decisive minimatches in a row, Stockfish is still 6 points ahead. Komodo's last win was unusual, it played with the black pieces in an opening that had a small bias in favor of white.

White was a pawn up from the start in games 75-76, black was slightly more developed.
Stockfish had a small eval advantage at the start of game 75, Komodo's eval became negative after Stockfish moved its king without castling. Stockfish's king side was not developed, its eval became negative over 1 after Komodo created an advanced passer in the center.

Komodo got the pawn back. Stockfish had several opportunities to exchange queens but it decided not to. Evals steadily increased, Komodo's passer did not advance but it was well protected and Stockfish couldn't get rid of it. Stockfish finally cleared a path for its king side rook to get out of the corner.

Komodo was in control, before long it captured a pawn on the queen side and created a second passer. The white pieces could hardly move, Komodo gave a rook for a knight and Stockfish couldn't stop both white passers. The game was adjudicated before Stockfish was forced to give a rook for a passer.


In game 76 Komodo had a small eval advantage, evals stayed positive and low. Komodo castled short while Stockfish pushed pawns on the king side. Komodo gave the pawn back as the engines opened the queen side and evals became 0. After exchanging queens only RRB vs RRB remained and the game was adjudicated by the draw rule. Komodo wins another minimatch, this time in black in an opening that seemed to be favoring white.

Stockfish started game 77 with an eval around 1. On move 15 the white queen captured a pawn on the queen side, this allowed Komodo to attack the queen but Stockfish did not think the pawn was poisoned. Stockfish then captured a second pawn, Komodo had open files for its rooks and a bishop pair but did that compensate for two pawns?

Komodo got one pawn back, for a while both engines had advanced passers that looked dangerous. In a series of exchanges the engines captured their opponent's passer and reduced to a rook ending, Stockfish still a pawn up.

Stockfish captured the black passer on the d file while making sure that its a pawn was safe. The white king walked all the way to the queen side, Komodo pushed its king side pawns in desperation.

There was no doubt Stockfish was winning, the game was adjudicated after Komodo lost another pawn.

Komodo attacked the black king at the start of game 78, nothing came out of the attack and evals came down to 0. In a series of exchanges Stockfish gave a rook for a knight and two pawns, while exposing the white king. The game reduced to a RRB vs RBN position, Stockfish advanced passers on the king side but had to defend its king under threat by the black rooks. The engines exchanged down to a N vs R ending and a tablebase draw. Stockfish wins this minimatch and the lead goes back to 6 points.