Fire, KomodoMCTS, ScorpioNN and Ethereal will play in the premier division, together with Stockfish, Leela, AllieStein, Komodo, Houdini and Stoofvlees.
rofChade was in the race for 4th place until the very last game of the league. It was better than Ethereal in their head to head matches, it lost the race due to its many losses to higher ranked engines.
Notable games
Game 32, Fire - rofChade: The black king was uncastled in the center, Fire gave a knight for two pawns to open the center and attack. rofChade couldn't find safety for its king and it gave a rook for a bishop to stop the attack. This led to a RR vs RBN position, Fire was 4 pawns up and that was enough to win.
Game 33, ScorpioNN - KomodoMCTS: ScorpioNN had an eval advantage from the opening, its eval climbed over 3 very quickly and then stayed there. The center was blocked and the black pieces were on the queen side, leaving the black king vulnerable. The engines mostly shuffled for a while, ScorpioNN moved its focus to the queen side. KomodoMCTS felt safe and evals slowly decreased, the engines opened a file on the queen side and exchanged a pair of rooks. Then scorpioNN broke through the center with a knight for pawns sacrifice and evals jumped back. The pressure on the black king increased until KomodoMCTS exchanged pieces and gave a bishop. ScorpioNN was up 3 pawns in a knight ending, a straightforward win.
Game 39, KomodoMCTS - rofChade: There were only a few exchanges after the opening, KomodoMCTS had a small eval advantage, evals stayed under 1 until move 35. The engines opened files on the queen side and evals jumped over 2, they continued to increase while the engines exchanged pieces. Eventually KomodoMCTS went up a bishop and the game was adjudicated.
Game 40, ChessFighterNN - rofChade: ChessFighterNN's eval increased quickly after the opening and went over 5. rofChade's eval was over 2 which was more believable. The visible advantage was two white passers and only one black passer. Despite the clear eval advantage ChessFighter did not play the right moves and rofChade was able to remove one passer and to reduce to a drawn bishop ending.
Scores after RR3: Fire +6, KomodoMCTS +4, ScorpioNN +2, Ethereal -1, rofChade -3, ChessFighterNN -8.
The most interesting race is for 3rd and 4th place. ScorpioNN is in 3rd after it adds two wins in RR3 and creates a small gap to the two engines below. rofChade loses twice in RR3 and is moving away from the premier division. Ethereal with 5 draws is in 4th place, 1 point above rofChade. There are 5 rounds left.
Game 48, KomodoMCTS - ScorpioNN: KomodoMCTS had a small eval advantage after the opening, Evals jumped after KomodoMCTS sacrificed a knight and exposed the black king. ScorpioNN was not prepared for the deadly attack, it gave a rook to try to save its king. KomodoMCTS started to capture black pieces and ScorpioNN resigned. There were two white wins in this opening, a possible opening bias.
Scores after round 18: Fire +6, KomodoMCTS +5, ScorpioNN +1, Ethereal -1, rofChade -3, ChessFighterNN -8.
ScorpioNN lost a game but with only two rounds to go it is almost certainly going to be in the top 4. The last game in the playoff is between Ethereal and rofChade, rofChade has a tiebreak advantage so it can still overtake Ethereal with a win.
In round 19 rofChade beat ChessFighterNN, Ethereal drew against KomodoMCTS and ScorpioNN drew against Fire. The 4th place will be determined in the last game, rofChade needs a win, any other result is good for Ethereal. There will not be a tiebreak in any case.
Game 59, Fire - KomodoMCTS: The game reached an opposite color bishop ending and appeared to be an easy draw. However, KomodoMCTS blundered and let the white king approach a pawn in a way that prevented the black bishop from defending. Fire had two advanced passers, and the game was over when one promoted to a queen.
In the last game rofChade needed a win but it was Ethereal that had an eval advantage, and the game ended in a draw.
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