Season 17 league 1 (CPU) after RR3

Scores after RR3
Ethereal +15, Fire +12, KomodoMCTS +11, Xiphos +7, DefenChess rofChade Laser +5, Andscacs +3, RubiChess Arasan +1, Pedone -1, Vajolet -3, Winter -11, Nemorino -12, PeSTO -16, Fizbo -22.

Ethereal, Fire and KomodoMCTS are leading, they are likely to promote as they are 3 or more points away from 5th place. Xiphos has only 1 point more than the 3 chasing engines, it may lose its spot in the last RR. DefenChess improved its chances with a good +3 result in RR3, rofChade and Andscacs came down in rank with a disappointing -1 score. It is interesting to note that DefenChess lost twice in 3 games to Vajolet, without these losses it would have been currently in 4th place.

The 4 engines at the bottom of the table continue to accumulate losses and drift apart from the rest of the field, now 4 or more points away from the nearest engine.

The draw rate continues to be just under 70%. The top 7 engines had 4 decisive games within the group, out of 63 games.

Notable games
Game 247, rofChade - DefenChess: DefenChess was up an exchange in a QBB vs QRB position. rofChade tried to open the position, then sacrificed a bishop to expose the black king. DefenChess found safety for its king and the extra rook secured a win.
Game 263, Arasan - RubiChess: The game reached an opposite color bishops ending with Arasan two pawns up. RubiChess blocked the white king side pawns, and all the black pawns were out of the white bishop's reach. The engines mostly shuffled for almost 60 moves, despite very high evals, before Arasan found a way to win.
Game 282, Vajolet - DefenChess: Vajolet gave two pawns and pushed a passer to the 7th rank. DefenChess captured the passer while giving the material back, the game reduced to a RN vs RN ending. Vajolet pushed another passer and DefenChess gave the knight to stop it, the extra piece gave Vajolet the win.
Game 284, Nemorino - Arasan: Arasan's king hid behind a white pawn in a QRN vs QRR position with white two pawns up. After exchanging queens Nemorino's rook moved forward and captured two pawns, Arasan couldn't stop all the advancing passers without losing material. The game reached a rook ending and the two extra pawns gave Nemorino the win.
Game 285, Winter - rofChade: Winter gave two pawns, an attack on the king side forced the black king to move away. Winter then shifted to the queen side, rofChade gave material to try to stop the attack but its king was too exposed in a QN s RB position, the game was adjudicated quickly.
Game 294, Fire - Nemorino: Fire gave a rook for a knight and pawns, then attacked the exposed black king. Nemorino survived the attack and the game was heading for a draw. Then with seconds left Nemorino threw the game away, it allowed Fire to promote two pawns to queens and immediately lost. Some sort of bug, perhaps related to promotion, or time related.
Game 301, KomodoMCTS - Arasan: KomodoMCTS was a pawn up in a RNN vs RBB position. After a long shuffle it gave the pawn back and created an advanced passer, then reduced to a winning king and pawns ending.
Game 302, Laser - rofChade: Almost all pieces were on the board past move 40, then the engines reduced to an unusual BNN vs RR with white two pawns up. Laser slowly pushed a passer forward to the 7th rank and rofChade was forced to give material to stop it.
Game 318, Ethereal - Arasan: Arasan had a bishop pair, but without a knight with many pawns this was a disadvantage. Ethereal used an open file on the queen side to get behind the black pawns and reduced to a QN vs QB position. The game was adjudicated after Ethereal went two pawns up.
Game 339, Fire - Andscacs: The engines castled in opposite directions, Fire pushed pawns on the king side facing the black king. Andscacs protected its king and allowed Fire to capture a pawn, the engines reduced to a RN vs RN position. Fire captured a second pawn and that was enough to win.
Game 340, DefenChess - Xiphos: Xiphos gave a rook for a bishop and pawn to create a queen side passer. DefenChess tried to counter on the king side without success, the game reached a RRB vs RBN posoition with evals around negative 2. However, Xiphos failed to convert, it pushed a passer to the 2nd rank but got no further, DefenChess reduced to a drawn opposite color bishops ending.