Season 8 group 1a after 5 rounds

With 5 rounds over the group 1a scoreboard looks like this:

The ratings are starting to show, all the engines with elo>3000 are in the top half. Protector's situation improved considerably, including a draw against Komodo in a very long Q vs RN game. Jonny is only 1/5 but its losses are against top engines in this group and it may have a better record against easier opponents. Arasan is playing above its rating, though it is hard to see it qualify. Arasan lost to Komodo but it played well for 40 moves before Komodo could find a way to win.

The game that made the most noise was the Fire-Gaviota game in round 3. After a long battle Fire was clearly winning, even the win counter was close to adjudication, and then with 23 minutes on the clock Fire timed out and failed to make a move. This gave Gaviota an unexpected point, which explains its current place. Gaviota's ability to qualify is still in question. Fire didn't crash again yet, but it makes the viewers anxious every time it has a long think, including 16 minutes on move 1 in round 4. There's probably a bug somewhere, let's hope that Fire qualifies and gets a bugfix. It is a strong engine and it would be a shame to lose it on crashes.

In rounds 3-5 there have only been 3 (!) draws. The current draw rate is 30%, white wins 33% and black wins 37%. There have been a variety of openings according to ECO codes, for e4 games variations of the French are popular, and for d4 games variations of QGD. Only one Sicilian and one Ruy Lopez so far.

Notable game:
Round 3, Cheng - Komodo
Game on TCEC archive

On move 14 Komodo placed a strong knight on f4 making many threats on the king side.

Komodo expected Cheng to take the knight with its bishop, opening the g column for a rook. However, Cheng had other ideas, and it continued development on the queen side. Cheng continued to disregard Komodo's advice, ignoring the danger on its king side. On move 20 Komodo's evaluation started to jump. The knight was still at f4 but now the advice Komodo was giving did not invlove taking it since there were more urgent things to do.

Cheng's king side crumbled after several more moves and Komodo's pressure was converted to a win by move 34. The knight on f4 was still there (well, it moved and came back). Komodo: "I told you to take it, didn't I..."