Season 14 division 3, final results

Final crosstable:
 


Hannibal was disqualied due to crashes. The table is not accurate since all Hannibal's games were ignored. However, the promotions and relegations do not change. Leela and KomodoMCTS were far better than the other engines in this division. The bottom of the table was more crowded, in the end Nemorino was relegated back to division4.

The bottom of the table with 3 rounds left was:

rofChade 9.5, 2 games left
Arasan 9, 3 games left
Pedone 9, 2 games left
Vajolet 8.5, 3 games left
Nemorino 8, 2 games left

At this stage Nemorino was most likely to be relegated. Vajolet was still in danger despite having more games to play, it still had to play both table leaders.

Pedone - rofChade: Pedone pushed pawns on the king side, exposing its king while attacking rofChade's king. Pedone exchanged Q for RN, opened the king side and created an advanced passer. rofChade lost its queen for a rook to stop the passer, leaving Pedone a knight and pawn up in a winning RBN vs RB ending.

KomodoMCTS - Arasan: Arasan survived a long game. After 50 moves Arasan gave a rook for a knight and pawn, KomodoMCTS' eval jumped to around 1. Arasan exchanged down to a R vs N endgame, it used a passer on the 2nd rank to hold the draw.

Vajolet - Leela: Vajolet was up a pawn with a queen side passer, it held the position until move 48. Leela pushed pawns on the king side and (negative) evals jumped over 2. The game reached a RB vs RR ending with a black pawn on the 2nd rank, Leela converted the win.

Two rounds to go. Vajolet is still 0.5 points ahead of Nemorino, both engines with two games left to play. The other engines increased their gap to at least 1.5 points, almost surely safe.

Vajolet - Pedone: Vajolet was up a pawn early in the game, Pedone did not find compensation and evals slowly increased. Vajolet created a queen side passer and exchanged down to a RB vs RN position. Pedone lost a knight for the passer and Vajolet won.

Arasan - Nemorino: The position was more or less static from move 27, on move 53 only the major pieces remained on the board and the engines shuffled until draw adjudication.

Last round: Pedone and Arasan are safe, Vajolet and rofChade are 1 point ahead of Nemorino. Nemorino's last game is white against Leela, and it needs a win, highly unlikely.

rofChade - Arasan: The game reached a double rook ending on move 29. Both engines pushed passers, the game ended in a perpetual check. rofChade is safe.

Nemorino - Leela: Leela gave two pawns and attacked the uncastled white king. Nemorino exchanged pieces, the game reached a rook ending. Leela regained the pawns, the black pawns were much better with a connected pair of passers on the king side. Leela won the game easily. After this loss Nemorino is relegated, Vajolet is safe.

Season 14 division 3 live blog, Thursday Dec 6th

Division 3 is being played, 3RRs done and one to go. The qualifiers for division 2 will be KomodoMCTS and Leela, they have a huge lead over the other engines in the division. They are figthing for first place with Leela ahead by 0.5 points, Leela is also leading 1-0 in the head-to-head score. The bottom of the table is less clear. Hannibal is last, disqualified due to crashes though it is still playing. Nemorino is in 7th place, 0.5 points below Vajolet  and 1.5 points below Arasan.

Currently Pedone is playing against KomodoMCTS at the start of round 22. The reverse game was a draw.

move 10: Pedone chose a less popular sideline in the Sicilian opening, still played at the top GM level. Pedone castled long, KomodoMCTS hasn't castled yet. The black queen side does not look safe for castling, KomodoMCTS may castle short and white can attack with its pawns.

move 15: KomodoMCTS castled short and Pedone is pushing its king side pawns. Evals are close to 0, Pedone is not attacking hard, it seems it doesn't have a clear plan.

move 21: Pedone exchanged pawns in the center, opening the position. It is a pawn up and has a bishop pair but evals remain close to 0. The rooks could be exchanged soon, will this be a quick draw?

move 25: Pedone seems to be preparing to push its g pawn. Meanwhile KomodoMCTS pushed a pawn on the queen side, Pedone's evals turned slightly negative after a long think.

move 30: Pedone continues to be slow on the king side and negative evals are increasing. After exchaging a pair of rooks KomodoMCTS' eval was over 1, the white pieces are on the king side and the white king does not look safe.

move 35: KomodoMCTS is threatening mate on the queen side, its eval jumping. Pedone was too slow and now it seems too late. Most of the white pieces are too far to help the king, now it seems black will win soon.

move 40: Now Pedone pushes the g pawn in desperation. KomodoMCTS ignores this and continues with its queen side attack. It captures a pawn, its eval over 5.

move 48: Pedone loses its queen for a bishop and a knight, game over.

Season 14 division 4 statistics

A summary statistics table of previous stages and seasons. 

Draw rate, wins

 
Final draw rate was 34.1%. The low draw rate reflects the wide range of engine strengths in this division. In particular ScorpioNN lost 43/44 games and KomodoMCTS won 32/44 games (and lost 1).


Game termination

The three most common game termination causes were:
43.9% - TCEC win rule
17.8% - SyzygyTB
12.9% - TCEC draw rule

ScorpioNN crashed 8 times in the division. It was allowed to continue playing since it lost all its games anyway, it had no effect on the table. Also of note are the 23 games that ended with mate on the board, with ScorpioNN the loser in almost all.

Moves per game


Median= 58.5
Average= 65.1

There were 27 games longer than 100 moves, the longest was 183 moves (Rodent - Tucano, round 37, draw).

Time per game (hours)
  
Median= 1:12
Average= 1:12

Openings

There were 2-move book openings in this stage chosen by Cato. The first letter of the ECO codes was distributed as follows:


If we use the opening 'family name' (using format FAMILY_NAME: VARIANT....) the top 3 are:
Sicillian - 26 times
QGD - 14 times
French - 13 times

The engines had a lot of freedom to choose the opening variant. Yet 56.8% of the game pairs repeated the same ECO code twice, and 50.8% repeated the same opening variant. In 10.6% of the game pairs the ECO first letter was not repeated twice.

Reverse pairs, wins


Reverse pairs, same moves 


Pairs of reverse games diverged very quickly, 43.9% diverged immediately out of book, 79.5% of the pairs diverged at most after 1 move. The longest repeated sequence of moves was 10 plys (ScorpioNN - pirarucu, rounds 2 and 13, KGD Keene's defense, pirarucu won both games) 

Season 14 division 4, 3 rounds to go

The human championship is over, Carlsen won in the tiebreak easily.

Meanwhile in TCEC, season 14 division 4 will soon be over. With 3 rounds to go KomodoMCTS and rofChade will finish first and second. The third engine to advance to division 3 will be either Nemorino or Schooner, Nemorino has a lead of 1 point. The other race that is still active is for 8th and 9th place, the last spots to qualify for the cup event. Rodent, chess22k and Tucano all have a chance, Tucano has a 1 point lead over Rodent and chess22k.

Of the remaining 18 games there are 12 that involve at least one of the active races, including two direct head-to-head games Tucano - chess22k and Nemorino - Schooner. I will update this page as the games are played.

Nemorino - Rodent: There was an early Q vs RN imbalace. Nemorino's eval was around 2 for a long while, both engines had an advanced passer they couldn't push forward. Nemorino found a way to capture the black passer, and then opened the king side and reduced to a won tablebase position.

Demolito - Schooner: The game was mostly quiet, reached a RR vs RBN position and ended in a repetition draw.

chess22k - ScorpioNN: As expected chess22k had no trouble winning this game, this time ScorpioNN did not crash.

Wasp - Tucano: Evals were close to 0 until Tucano chose to give a bishop for 3 pawns. Wasp developed a strong attack on the black king, Tucano exchanged pieces until only RB vs R were left and all the white pawns were gone. Wasp forced Tucano to give its rook for a bishop, resulting in a won endgame.

Two rounds to go. Nemorino is 1.5 points ahead of Schooner, Schooner will need a miracle to reach 3rd place. Rodent is a point behind chess22k and Tucano, it still has a small chance to reach 9th place.

Tucano - chess22k: Tucano was better after the opening, chess22k held the position for about 25 moves. Tucano went a pawn up and then exchanged pieces until only BN vs BN remained, with a white passer on the 7th rank. chess22k gave a knight for the passer, losing the game.

Schooner - KomodoMCTS: Black was a pawn up from the start. The game reached a B vs N ending with many pawns. KomodoMCTS was a pawn up but it was a doubled pawn. The engines shuffled for a while, then exchaged a few pawns. KomodoMCTS' eval was over 4 but it couldn't find a way to convert. KomodoMCTS gave a pawn to avoid the 50-move draw, then its eval started to climb again. It was over 6 and still KomodoMCTS couldn't fin a way to win, the game ended in a repetition draw. It is quite possible KomodoMCTS had a winning position in this game but couldn't find it.

rofChade - Nemorino: Nemorino defended in closed position. A series of exchanges opened the position and ended with only RBN vs QN remaining. rofChade outplayed Nemorino, it attacked the black king and then captured the knight. The endgame was slow, rofChade slowly pushed a pawn that in the end guaranteed the win.

Rodent - pirarucu: All pawns remained on the board and the engines shuffled until reaching a draw.

One round left. Schooner's miraculous draw and Nemorino's loss mean that Schooner still has a chance, it needs to beat Nemorino in their last game. Tucano is a point ahead of chess22k and 1.5 points ahead of Rodent. Tucano is sure of a top-9 place, Rodent and chess22k are still fighting.

Winter - Rodent: Rodent had no problem beating Winter quickly.
.
Nemorino - Schooner: Schooner needed a win, but it was a pawn down after many early exchanges. Nemorino went on to capture a second pawn and reach a winning endgame. Nemorino qualifies for division 3.

Demolito - Tucano: Irrelevant.

chess22k - Wasp: Evals were low in a closed position. Then the king side opened up and  chess22k did not survive Wasp's attack. chess22k finishes 10th, and Rodent is the last engine to qualify for the cup event.

Final Crosstable

 

Season 14 live blogging, Monday Nov 26th

Division 4 is in the 3rd RR of 4, and the engine ranks in the table are more or less determined. The first 3 will qualify for division 3, and they will be KomodoMCTS, rofChade and Nemorino. The first 9 will participate in the cup event of season 14, Winter and ScorpioNN will probably be last but Tucano still has a chance to reach 9th spot, with Rodent and chess22k above it in the table. If ScorpioNN crashes again it will be disqualified and removed from the table, but it lost all its games (except a draw against Winter) so this will have no effect on the table.

Now playing are Schooner and Wasp, round 29. Meanwhile in the Carlsen_Caruana championship match the 12th game is about to start, so I will keep an eye on that in about 20 minutes.

move 10: The engines followed theory of this opening, the position looks drawish. White has an isolated queen pawn, black will probably castle soon. Schooner had a long think on move 10, but no effect on the eval.

move 15: The rooks are moving to the center, Schooner put a rook on the c file which has no pawns but is full of pieces. Wasp's LS bishop is still blocking the queen side rook, evals climbing a little.

move 20: Schooner's pieces look better placed. Wasp tried a king side attack, the engin.es exchanged bishops and the white knights control the entry squares for the black queen so the attack cannot proceed. Finally Wasp moved its LS bishop, connecting the rooks. The bishop still looks awkward.

move 25: Evals are coming down, though the position seems to have potential with many pieces and an open center. Schooner thought long again, trying to find a plan. Wasp's eval drops to 0 and then negative, as it attacks the queen side.

move 35: After several exchanges Wasp is a pawn up and evals are negative but still low. Wasp has a queen side passer while its king is a little exposed. I still think Schooner can hold.

move 45: Schooner captured the black passer and material is equal, all the pawns are on the king side. The evals are not going anywhere, a few more exchanges and it will be a clear draw. Only QRN vs QRB remain.

move 50: The engines exchanged a pair of rooks, evals are in the draw rule range. This will be a draw unless there is an unusual blunder. I'm shifting my attention to the human match, so I'll leave this game now.

Season 14 live blogging, Monday Nov 19th

Season 14 has started, and I am not following it too closely so far. There are 12 engines in division 4, most of them are new to TCEC. The division is a 4RR event, so 264 games. The games are short so I cannot view them all. The division has been restarted several times due to problems with the GPU-CPU server connection and with the 2-move openings. On top of everything the Carlsen-Caruana world championship is being played at the same time. To sum up, the division is long, not too interesting for me, and I have other interests right now. Division 3 will be more interesting, with new Leela starting its climb to the premier division.

We join the rofChade - chess22k game. This is round 7 of 44 in the division, according to their performance so far in the division I would say rofChade is the favorite.

move 10: The engines are following a popular line in the Gruenfeld defense. On move 9 rofChade took a lot of time to think, over 5 minutes, but played the popular move in the end - no surprise yet. According to Lichess there are several options for black on move 9, chess24 chose the third popular one. Evals are close to 0.

move 15: chess22k chose a less popular line on move 11, still in book. rofChade's eval increased to 0.46. There are only a few games left in the database on move 12, none on move 14. rofChade has a strong pawn line in the center, both engines look solid. chess22k has a pawn majority on the queen side. On move 14 it tried to attack the white center, rofChade did not exchange.

move 20: chess22k wants to exchange the DS bishops, rofChade has other plans. Evals are climbing over 0.7. chess22k moved a knight forward and back, can't be a good idea to give tempi like that. Now rofChade is thinking about exchanging bishops and chess22k avoids this. chess22k is not doing anything, does rofChade have an effective plan?

move 25: rofChade shifts to the queen side and pushes the a pawn. Its eval drops a little while chess22k's eval increases over 0.9, then drops back. The knights are exchanged, the bishops and rooks need more space to be effective. The engines open the a file, the center is still closed.

move 37: Evals are trending down, chess22k sees exchanges coming, perhaps the DS bishops will be gone after all. In a long PV agreement the engines start to exchange pieces, only QRB vs QRB remain. chess22k tried to exchange the remaining rooks but rofChade said no. Evals stay constant under 1.

move 45: rofChade has a central passer, I don't see how it can push forward. The engines are shuffling, this may take a while.

move 60: The shuffling continues, this will go to a 50 move draw unless the evals come down to 0. I hope rofChade does not blunder to avoid a draw.

move 70: The draw counter reset after rofChade pushed its passer the the 7th rank. rofChade's eval jumped to about 1, chess22k chose to let the passer queen and exchanged down to a Q vs RB ending. Was this a blunder?

move 80: Both engines are not using tablebases, however it seems that rofChade is winning according to the Stockfish commentary. The white pawns on the king side are starting to march, chess22k cannot stop them and its king is going to be in trouble soon.

move 90: Game over. chess22k was the one to blunder, it should have continued to shuffle.

Season 13 superfinal, games 93-100

Stockfish is the season 13 winner. It won the superfinal 16-6 with 78 draws.
Stockfish added 3 more wins in the last 8 games.

The engines castled in opposite directions in game 93, then pushed pawns facing their opponent's king. The black pawns on the queen side made contact with the white pawns, and this locked the queen side. Komodo opened a file on the king side and created a central passer. Stockfish captured two black pawns on the queen side and went a pawn up, while creating a queen side passer.


Evals changed very little for a long while. The pawns did not move, Stockfish blocked the black passer and it did not push its queen side pawns that protected its king. Komodo saw an opportunity to gain a pawn and equalize material, evals jumped as Stockfish used the the time to push pawns forward and create an advanced passer in the center.


Evals climbed rapidly, Stockfish gave a rook for a bishop and removed two black passers. The engines reduced to a RBN vs RRN position, with strong queen side pawns for Stockfish.


Komodo gave its knight to remove one of the white passers, it couldn't stop the remaining two passers without losing material and the game.
Stockfish's lead is 8 points after this game, with 7 games left it secures the win in the superfinal.

There were many early exchanges in game 94, with only RRB vs RRB remaining on move 22. Komodo was a pawn up and evals were close to 0. Stockfish won the pawn back and the engines exchanged a pair of rooks. The game was adjudicated by draw rule when the engines stopped capturing pawns. Another minimatch win for Stockfish.

Games 95-96 started with a King's Gambit variant where white sacrificed a knight for a pawn and opened the black king side. In game 95 Komodo moved its king side rook so that it couldn't castle short. Stockfish immediately went on the attack and its eval jumped over 2.5. It lined up a rook and queen on the open f file and threatened a mating attack.


Komodo exchanged pieces to stop the attack on its king. It gave the piece back and the game reached a RRN vs RRN position on move 23. Evals continued to climb fast, Stockfish went two pawns up with passers in the center and on the king side.


Komodo captured the passer in the center. The engines exchanged a pair of rooks, reaching a RN vs RN ending which was hopeless for black.


Stockfish pushed the h pawn forward and the game was adjudicated quickly.

In game 96 stockfish castled short even though that left its king exposed in the corner. Komodo did not attack directly, allowing Stockfish to develop the queen side and add protection for its king. Evals came down, Stockfish gave a rook for a bishop resulting in a R vs BN imbalance. Komodo had a central passer which got as far as the 7th row. After exchanging queens the game was adjudicated in a drawn RR vs RBN position. Komodo lost this minimatch despite the substantial book advantage. Stockfish made it look so easy in the previous game, but it managed to hold as black. The lead increases to 9 points.

There were only a few exchanges in the opening of game 97. There was a small hole on the king side which made the white king vulnerable. The engines opened two files on the queen side, Stockfish had more pieces there and its eval was more than 1.5. The first piece exchange was on move 43, Komodo sacrificed a knight for a pawn on the king side and threatened the white king. The engines started to shuffle and Stockfish's eval came down. After a few exchanges both kings were exposed. Stockfish captured pawns and created passers in the center, Komodo threatened mate and Stockfish ended the game by perpetual check. 

Komodo pushed pawns on the queen side in game 98, Stockfish pushed pawns on the king side and the center was blocked by long diagonal pawn lines. Komodo focused on the queen side, it created an advanced passer. At the same time it gave a bishop for a pawn on the king side and evals became negative. The engines exchanged most pieces, did the advanced white passer compensate for the piece?


Evals did not change for a while, the engines exchanged a pair of rooks and only RB vs RBN remained. Komodo's passer stayed on the 6th rank, Stockfish also created a passer on the queen side.


Stockfish's idea was to move its king to the queen side, where it could be more useful. It was a long journey and it took a while, the evals climbed gradually. Komodo could grab the free h pawn but that would open its king to attack. Komodo preferred to hide its king behind the black pawn.


Stockfish had enough strength on the queen side to get rid of the white passer and start pushing its own. The extra piece became a deciding factor, Komodo couldn't stop the black passer without losing material. This is the 4th minimatch in a row that Stockfish wins, it leads by 10 points.

The engines castled in opposite directions in game 99. The engines made early attempts to attack their opponents' king, but after exchanging several pieces including the queens these attacks were over. Stockfish was a pawn up, evals came down to 0 and the engines shuffled until adjudication. In game 100 Komodo sacrificed a knight for pawns and opened the black king side, exposing the black king. Evals were at 0, Komodo pushed pawns on the king side and the black king walked to the queen side. The engines reduced to a Q vs QB ending, a white passer reached the 7th rank and Stockfish ended the game in perpetual check.