The engines that promote to the premier division playoff are Ethereal, Fire, KomodoMCTS and rofChade. Xiphos, rofChade and DefenChess had a very close race for 4th place, Xiphos led most of the RR but rofChade managed to catch up. The two engines finished with the same score and rofChade had a tiebreak advantage of more wins.
As expected Nemorino, Winter, PeSTO and Fizbo finished last and are relegated to league 2.
The GPU hardware has been finally announced. The next event was planned to be a GPU league 1, with 2 GPU engines promoting to a playoff with the 4 AB engines that led the CPU league. So far there are only two GPU contenders, ChessFighterNN and ScorpioNN. If this does not change the GPU league 1 may be cancelled and the playoff will be next.
Notable games
Game 370, Arasan - DefenChess: Arasan sacrificed a knight and exposed the black king. DefenChess gave its queen for a rook and the game reached a Q vs RN ending. Progress was slow, Arasan managed to convert after 30 more moves.
Game 380, Nemorino - Andscacs: Nemorino sacrificed a a rook and knight for a bishop and opened the king side, the black pieces were too far away on the queen side to help the black king. Andscacs gave material and exchanged pieces to reach a RBN vs RR position, the extra piece gave Nemorino the win after 15 more moves.
Game 383, RubiChess - Arasan: RubiChess went a pawn up with a pair of connected passers. Arasan managed to capture one of the passers and exchanged its queen for pieces, reducing to a Q vs RB ending. RubiChess slowly pushed its passer until adjudication.
Game 392, Ethereal - Laser: Laser was up a rook for a knight , but its king was in danger and its queen was too far. Ethereal regained the material and the game reached a RBN vs RR ending, with one pawn left for each engine. Ethereal played slowly and patiently, it took almost 50 moves to capture the black pawn, the game was adjudicated a few moves later.
Game 394, Laser - Xiphos: Laser went two pawns up and let Xiphos push a passer to the 2nd rank. Laser used its queen to block the passer, Xiphos quickly took over the game and Laser was forced to lose a rook to capture the passer, game over.
After 50 rounds: Xiphos +9, rofChade +7, DefenChess Andscacs +4, Laser RubiChess +3.
Xiphos and rofChade with two wins each, it is likely that the 4th promotion spot will go to one of them. Laser lost twice and is no longer unbeaten, DefenChess lost as well, these engines are moving in the wrong direction. Andscacs and RubiChess also have a remote chance. Drawn games against the bottom 4: Laser - Winter, Xiphos - Nemorino, PeSTO - Laser, Winter - Xiphos, DefenChess - PeSTO.
Game 426, Xiphos - Fizbo: The game reached a RN vs BN position, Fizbo a pawn up with a pair of connected passers. Xiphos was not able to convert despite having an eval around 1.5.
After 54 rounds: Xiphos +9, rofChade +8, DefenChess +7, Andscacs RubiChess +5, Laser +4.
Xiphos still has the best chance to be promoted 4th, but the other engines still in the race are closing in. rofChade is only 0.5 points behind and DefenChess with 3 wins in 4 rounds is only 1 point away from Xiphos. There are 6 rounds left, Xiphos still has to face rofChade and DefenChess in direct encounters.
Drawn games against bottom 4: RubiChess - PeSTO, PeSTO - Xiphos, Xiphos - Fizbo
Game 436, DefenChess - KomodoMCTS: The game reached a R vs RB ending, DefenChess 2 pawns up. After exchanging rooks negative evals jumped and KomodoMCTS was sure it was winning. However, DefenChess placed its pawns on wrong colored squares and its king blocked the black king. The bishop only defended its own pawns and there was no progress, the game ended in a 3-fold repetition draw. Did KomodoMCTS miss a win here?
Game 437, Fire - Laser: Fire slowly outplayed Laser in a QBN vs QNN position. Evals started to increase after Laser's queen attacked the white king without support. After a series of checks Fire kept finding safe squares for its king. Laser gave a knight for pawns, eventually Fire started to capture pawns until the game was adjudicated.
Game 445, Laser - DefenChess: The game reached a RB vs RB position with pawns blocking all files except one. The engines shuffled in a drawn position for 15 moves, and then Laser crashed.
Game 454, Fire - Xiphos: All pieces were on the board until move 34, then the engines reduced to a QRN vs QRB position. Xiphos had two backward pawns to defend and its bishop was passive. Fire slowly increased the pressure, Xiphos gave a pawn and tried to counterattack but was not successful. Fire continued to capture pawns and reduced to a winning queen ending 4 pawns up.
After 57 rounds: Xiphos rofChade +9, DefenChess +8, RubiChess +6, Andscacs +5, Laser +2.
rofChade and DefenChess continue to close in on Xiphos, probably one of these will be in 4th place. Xiphos lost for the first time in the league and rofChade has caught up with it. DefenChess was gifted a win by Laser's crash in a drawn position. RubiChess and Andscacs have a theoretical chance, Laser with a crash and a loss is out of the race.
Drawn games against bottom 4: Fizbo - Andscacs.
Game 460, Xiphos - DefenChess: Xiphos placed a bishop on the 6th rank, causing a lot of problems for DefenChess. Xiphos went a pawn up and opened a file on the king side, DefenChess got rid of the strong white bishop but its king was under attack. Xiphos increased the pressure, the game was adjudicated with both engines seeing mate not too far ahead.
After round 58: Xiphos rofChade +10, DefenChess +7, RubiChess +6, Andscacs +5.
Xiphos beat DefenChess, DefenChess is 1.5 points behind and it needs a miracle to promote. RubiChess is practically out and Andscacs is definitely out. rofChade beat PeSTO, it is tied in 4th place and has a tiebreak advantage over Xiphos (more wins). Two rounds to go.
After round 59: Xiphos rofChade +10, DefenChess +7. No change, only draws for the engines in the race. DefenChess is out, the two leaders are tied. Xiphos needs a better score in the last game since rofChade has a tiebreak advantage.
Round 60: rofChade drew its game against Fire, Xiphos needed a win against Vajolet but only managed a draw.
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