Season 16 league 1, first half

Standings after 15 rounds:

Stoofvlees +6, Ethereal Ginkgo +3, Chiron Andscacs ScorpioNN +2, Laser +1, Fizbo Xiphos 0, Jonny rofChade Booot -1, ChessBrain Arasan -2, Fire Pedone -6.

I'm back from my vacation, and already 2/3 of league 1 is over. My TCEC backlog is about 160 games and I won't be able to look at them closely. This post will be written gradually over a few days, I'll try to finish it quickly. TCEC waits for no one, and I hate backlogs...

A few remarks:
- Stoofvlees is dominating this league as well, though it sometimes blunders and loses.
- The race at the top of the table is wide open. In this league the top 4 will play a playoff to determine the two qualifiers.
- At the bottom Pedone and Fire seem to be likely relegation candidates. The other two spots are still contested. Fire's new version is an AB-NN hybrid, and it appears to be worse than the AB version.
- Ginkgo, Booot and Laser have each crashed once so far.


Notable games

Game 17, FireNN - Arasan: 3-fold repeat after 15 moves, (including a 6-move book)

Game 18, Xiphos - Ethereal: an even smaller miniature in the next game, 3-fold repeat after only 13 moves.

Game 21, Fizbo - Stoofvlees: In the middle of a series of exchanges Stoofvlees failed to consider Fizbo's queen sacrifice. It realized its mistake too late and Fizbo reached mate on the board.

Game 31, Ethereal - Laser: Ethereal sacrificed material and got a strong attack on the black king. Laser gave the material back but the bishop ending was a win for Ethereal.

Game 35, Andscacs - Ethereal: The game reached a N vs B endgame. Andscacs trapped the bishop with its pawns, then used its knight to capture black pawns. Two connected passers were enough for a win.

Game 43, Stoofvlees - Ginkgo: Ginkgo had a trapped bishop dominated by a white knight. The game reached a RN vs RB position, Ginkgo used a passer to trade its bishop for a rook, however, the forward white king captured black pawns and secured a tablebase win for Stoofvlees.

Game 48, Xiphos - Laser: The game reached a queen ending with Xiphos a pawn up. Laser blundered under time pressure and Xiphos had enough time to find the winning moves.

Game 88, Stoofvlees - ScorpioNN: Stoofvlees gave a rook for a bishop early, yet evals were over 1. The game reached a BN vs RN position, Stoofvlees had passers on the queen side and ScorpioNN couldn't prevent promotion. This was the first ScorpioNN loss in season 16.

Game 90, Pedone - Stoofvlees: Stoofvlees gave a pawn early, then in a QRB vs QRB position it gave a second pawn but failed to see its king was in danger. Pedone won material and reduced to a winning king and pawns endgame.

Game 93, Xiphos - ChessBrain: ChessBrain's bishops were strong in a RR vs RBB endgame. After stopping a white passer and exchanging a pair of rooks ChessBrain's bishops captured enough white pawns for a win.

Game 94, Laser - Ginkgo: The game reached a queen ending, Laser had an eval advantage, the black pawns were scattered and the black king was exposed. However, Laser crashed and Ginkgo got the point.

Game 95, Andscacs - Chiron: Andscacs gave a rook for a knight and pawns.In the N vs R endgame Chiron played better, after a few pawn exchanges the rook was strong enough for a win.

Game 103, Stoofvlees - Ethereal: Stoofvlees sacrificed a bishop and exposed the black king. Ethereal's king walked to the center for safety, Stoofvlees placed a strong knight on the 6th rank. Ethereal exchanged pieces until only R vs RN remained, the white rook on the 7th rank and two advanced passers gave Stoofvlees the win.

Game 106, Ethereal - ScorpioNN: ScorpioNN blundered under time pressure in a double bishop ending, Ethereal exchanged a pair of bishops and the remaining black pieces were passive. Ethereal captured a pawn and ScorpioNN could not prevent a white passer from queening.

Game 112, Jonny - Chiron: After long shuffles evals started jumping in a QB vs QB position. Jonny went two pawns up and pushed its pawns slowly. Chiron gave many checks but couldn't force a perpetual check draw to stop the pawns.

Game 118: Stoofvlees - Xiphos: Stoofvlees created a queen side passer, Xiphos gave a rook for a bishop to stop it. Stoofvlees gave the material back to get a winning bishop ending a pawn up.