Leela equalized with two straight game pair wins. Stockfish's early lead is gone, and we have a real match this superfinal.
Games 11-12 were a French opening variant, one of Leela's preferred openings. In game 11 Stockfish played unusual moves from the start, and Leela's eval was close to 2. The center and queen side were blocked, Leela shifted its pieces to the king side where it had a large space advantage. Stockfish saw the danger and its king started to walk to the queen side.
There was no contact between the opponents, Leela patiently arranged its pieces while evals increased. Stockfish tried to free its pieces by pushing the king side pawns, as a result the king side opened. All Stockfish could do was protect its pieces, it was almost paralyzed and too many black pieces were too far to help.
Leela continued to improve slowly. It created a passer on the g file and exchanged a pair of knights to get rid of a useful defender. Evals climbed fast though material was equal. Leela offered a rook for a bishop, Stockfish knew better since accepting would give Leela a second connected passer on the 6th rank.
Finally the tension was released with a series of exchanges starting on move 46, as a result Leela was a pawn up with two passers on the king side. A few moves later Leela won a second pawn and the game reached a QRB vs QRB position. Leela continued to move slowly, it wasn't looking for the fastest way to win. The game continued until move 76, it was adjudicated with Leela 4 pawns up. First win for Leela.
The engines played differently in the reverse game. The center and queen side were open and Leela castled short. Stockfish had an eval around 1 for 25 moves, but then it came down. Both engines had advanced passers, Leela captured a rook for a knight and Stockfish could end the game with a perpetual check. Instead the game continued, the engines exchanged pieces until only N vs R remained. Leela kept a small negative eval, both engines queened and the game was adjudicated only 40 moves later. Leela wins its first game pair of the match.
In game 13 Leela pushed pawns forward on both sides of the board without castling. The black pieces were pushed back, Leela had a significant space advantage and a small eval advantage despite its king in the center with only one pawn defender. It even managed to push a pawn to h6, kingcrusher's famous thorn (fawn?!) pawn.
Stockfish broke through the queen side, giving a rook for a bishop and two pawns. Leela's eval jumped over 2 while Stockfish still felt safe.
The engines exchanged pieces gradually and Stockfish's eval started to climb. The game reached a RN vs BN position on move 40, Stockfish was up 3 pawns but its king and pieces were far away and the queen side pawns looked weak.
Stockfish traded two pawns, which left Leela with only one. However it was a queen side passer and Stockfish could only stop it by losing its knight. The black pawns did not compensate for a rook, a win for Leela.
In the reverse game Stockfish castled its king and didn't push pawns forward. Evals came down to 0, and Leela's eval turned negative on move 27 with almost all pieces still on the board. The engines exchanged pieces gradually, by move 54 only QRN vs QRN remained and the quuen side pawns were all gone. The game was adjudicated a draw on move 87.
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