Stockfish continues to dominate the CPU part of the division. It added 3 more wins in white, KomodoMCTS is the only engine it hasn't beaten. Fire is still in 2nd place, the only other engine with a positive score, though it lost once to Stockfish. Houdini continues to be weak, both it and KomodoMCTS have a good chance of relegating this season.
The GPU engines will start playing in the division in the next phase. I'm looking forward to these games, the CPU-GPU matchup of this season. I will continue to report every 30 games, each time a full RR is completed. This is as close to a balanced table as we're going to get this season.
Interesting games
Game 31, Stockfish - Ethereal: The first pair of pawns was exchanged on move 27. Ethereal used minor pieces to close gaps in its pawn line, evals were over 1 but the position looked stable. The engines shuffled for 30 moves, then Stockfish exchanged a few pieces and opened a file on the queen side, its eval jumping over 2. After some more shuffling Stockfish went two pawns up and reduced to a RB vs RN ending. The game continued for 20 more moves, Stockfish pushed pawns forward until adjudication.
Game 39, Fire - KomodoMCTS: KomodoMCTS sacrificed a bishop for pawns, the white king remained in the center facing two black central pawns. Fire gave the piece back to remove the pawns, the engines exchanged most pieces and Fire reduced to a rook ending with one pawn advantage. KomodoMCTS thought it was safe, with evals at 0 even when Fire was seeing mate in the future. However it was Fire that was right and the game was over quickly.
Game 40, Ethereal - KomodoMCTS: Pawn lines were mostly stable from move 22, Ethereal gave a pawn but it had an eval advantage. The engines shuffled for a long time, with a few pawn moves and exchanges that reset the 50-move counter. On move 80 Ethereal's eval jumped as it gave a second pawn and opened the king side. Ethereal sacrificed a knight, its attack on the black king was strong and KomodoMCTS gave its queen for a rook to stop it. The game reached a Q vs RB ending, the queen was much stronger and Ethereal soon captured enough material to win.
Game 41, Stockfish - Fire: See featured game below.
Game 53, Stockfish - Houdini: After 35 moves evals were close to 0, Houdini was a pawn up and Stockfish had strong major pieces in the center. Stockfish's eval jumped over 1 when the black knight got into trouble. After a series of threats and pins Houdini gave a rook for a bishop and reduced to a RR vs RN position, black two pawns up. The white rooks were very active, Houdini had a passer it pushed to the 2nd rank. Stockfish was very patient, it blocked the passer with its king and captured two pawns. Houdini avoided exchanging rooks, in the end it had to give up the passer and the game was finally adjudicated on move 87.
Game 58, Ethereal - Houdini: All pieces were on the board, the engines exchanged a pair of pawns and opened the h file. Houdini took over the file and evals increased to about 1 (negative). Ethereal gave a pawn on the queen side, all pieces were still on the board as the engines shuffled for a while. Evals turned positive gradually, a series of exchanges opened the position and only QRB vs QRB remained. Houdini was a pawn up but Ethereal had a dangerous queen side passer. After exchanging queens Ethereal started to capture black pawns. Houdini tried to push passers but could not protect them, the game was adjudicated with white 3 pawns up.
Featured game: Stockfish - Fire
Premier division, game 41
Link to game on TCEC
Fire moved its queen forward early in the game, Stockfish avoided exchanging queens, its eval was around 1. The white king looked exposed but it was safe from attack. The black king was more vulnerable.
Stockfish pushed the black queen to the queen side and then attacked the black king. Fire refused to take a sacrificed knight to keep the king side pawns, Stockfish gave a rook to take out a defending knight. Fire's eval was still close to 0, it didn't see what was coming.
Fire gave the material back and the game reached a QR vs QR position, the black king was still under threat. Both engines raced to promote a pawn, Stockfish went up a pawn and exchanged rooks.
In the end both sides promoted a pawn and lost one queen, in the queen ending the white pawns were better placed and Fire could not avoid another white promotion, the game was adjudicated quickly.
Stockfish vs Fire was crazy. When I tuned in, it was right during the Stockfish boom but Fire and Blueleela were still low. I honestly didn't know what was going to happen because Stockfish had drawn form +5 before but it was good to see that it was right. Blueleela was oblivious for so long it was crazy.
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