Season 17 CPU league 1, live blog Saturday Feb 1st 2020

We follow game 34 of the CPU league 1, Xiphos - Laser. These engines are strong candidates to advance, after 4 rounds Xiphos' score is +3 and Laser's score is +2, both are unbeaten.

move 13: The game started in a closed Ruy Lopez line that is not very popular. The engines left the Lichess book 3 moves after the 8-move Cato opening. Xiphos needs to develop the queen side while Laser needs to protect its king side, its king needs more support. Evals are low with a small advantage for white.

move 17: Xiphos took the time to shift its knight to the king side, Laser attacked the central white pawns. The black pawn on d5 looks weak, it is isolated and protected by a knight that seems wasted where it stands. Laser used about 10 minutes more than Xiphos so far.

move 23: The white queen moved forward and evals are climbing a little. The engines exchanged a pair of rooks and the dark square bishops, the white central pawns are gone, the black d5 pawn is still a weakness.

move 30: Laser pushed a pawn to g6 and this exposed the black king, Xiphos didn't think this was a good move and its eval jumped over 1. Xiphos pushed the h pawn, Laser avoided the exchange and its eval jumped over 1 as well. The black king will be in trouble if Xiphos can find a way to open the king side and/or add pieces to the attack.

move 36: More exchanges and only QB vs QB are left. Evals are coming down, the black weaknesses look less important with less material on the board.

move 42: It seems unlikely that Laser will mess this endgame up, it is still hanging on to its d5 pawn.

move 49: Evals came down and the queen side pawns are gone. Xiphos can chase the black king around the board and nothing more. Laser hasn't lowered its eval enough for the draw rule yet.

move 57: Xiphos finally took on d5, sacrificing a bishop, and started giving checks. Laser's eval dropped to 0 and it gave the bishop back. Waiting for the draw rule to stop the game.

move 63: game over, draw rule adjudication.