The engines have only 5 games left to play and the qualification picture is getting clearer. It is going to be very difficult for Texel, Fire and Chiron to reach 6th place. Though it is theoretically possible they haven't scored any win against engines ranked above them, and I see no reason for them to start now. The real race is in ranks 5-8, with Ginkgo and Protector having a small advantage over Hannibal and Nirvana.
In the 'not so important' race for first place Komodo has a full point advantage over Stockfish. Komodo won 3 straight games, all three were very close to draws but Komodo managed to outplay its opponents in the endgames. Stockfish could only manage a draw against Gull, costing it a half point in the race.
The draw rate is down to 54%. The games in the second round robin are a lot less drawish which is a bit strange, but there it is.
Houdini lost to Protector in a quick massacre, and it lost to Komodo in a game that was completely drawn until Houdini threw it away. It has a perfect score against the last 4 engines but only 3.5/10 against engines in top 8. Houdini will qualify but it may have a very hard time in stage 3.
Notable game
The Baron - Nirvana, round 17
Game on TCEC archive
This game wasn't important and its outcome was as expected, but it reached an unusual imbalance which was nice to see. At move 16 with a balanced position Nirvana had a knight under threat.
A few moves later white was a rook up in return for two pawns, but the white pawns were scattered and the king was exposed.
The combination was complete with Nirvana down a rook but up 4 pawns. The black eval suggested that the pawns were sufficient compensation for the rook but not enough for a win.
However, as white was The Baron it was natural that it misplayed the ending, first losing the remaining pawns and then the knight. The black pawns were unstoppable in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment