Season 8 group 1a after 8 rounds

With 8 rounds one game away from being finished the stage 1a scoreboard is now

In rounds 6-8 there have been more white wins than black, and the statistics now look more reasonable, 30% draws, 40% white wins and 30% black wins.

Komodo, Gull and Ginkgo will surely qualify, and so will Fire if it stays stable (apparently its hash and thread number settings have been lowered). For the remaining two spots my prediction is Texel and Protector. Arasan's performace has been admirable, including a draw against Gull. this suggests that its rating should be higher, but it is not enough for qualification. Jonny needs to win all its remaining games, and I doubt it can with its performance so far. Gaviota has some chances, but taking into account that it has an extra point due to Fire's crash I think it won't make it.


First points for Exchess! it beat Fruit in the battle for last place, but it also beat Gaviota which was a bit surprising. Gaviota chose an inferior defense 1. e4 Nc6, and paid for it. Game was a bit wild with advanced passed pawns on both sides, Exchess was able to convert the win in the end.

Fire played a very long game against Komodo. On move 3 Fire thought for 20 minutes, again raising questions about stability and bugs. It did not crash though. The game had several stretches of shuffling but Komodo found a way to win. Could Fire have held if it had a little more time or if it was a bit more accurate?

Jonny started its game against Protector with 8 pawn moves, resulting in the following position:

Weird opening... The pawn wall quickly disintegrated and Protector was able to punish Jonny for this adventure.

Notable game
Jonny - Fire, round 8
Game on TCEC archive

This was the position after Jonny's 13th move:

Black's king could not castle and the g6 square was inviting a fork. Indeed, after a few moves white completed a forking combination taking the h8 rook for two knights.

Jonny's evaluation jumped over 2, Fire was much more conservative at 0.56, but which was more accurate? White managed to invade the 7th row, after queens and minor pieces were exchanged:

Fire and Jonny's evaluation did not change a lot. Despite the apparent danger to black's king, Fire managed to hold the position and force a rook exchange. In the ensuing endgame the pawns were gradually removed on both sides until the black bishop walked into a trap:

Fire simply traded the bishop for a pawn, and the game reached a drawn R vs N ending. So Fire was right all along.