Leela and Stockfish will play in the superfinal. Leela won the premier division for the first time, despite losing twice. Stockfish is the only engine without loss, but it only won 1 game out of 16 against GPU engines. AllieStein's loss to Leela ended its hopes.
Fire, KomodoMCTS, Houdini and ScorpioNN are relegated to league 1. Fire was second after the CPU-only games were over, it only lost twice against a GPU engine and this was enough for it to drop below Ethereal and Komodo. Ethereal had a 0 score against GPU engines, Komodo had a +1 score.
Interesting games
Game 154, AllieStein - Fire: AllieStein placed a thorn pawn on h6 and its eval jumped, it was sure it was winning. The engines exchanged pieces and the game reached a queen ending. AllieStein's eval went over 10, but the best it could do was push a pawn to the 7th rank. Fire kept calm, its eval was 0 as it gave checks with its queen until a 50-move draw.
Game 155, Ethereal - ScorpioNN: Ethereal's eval increased quickly after the opening. It exposed the black king while all the black pieces were on the queen side. While ScorpioNN tried to defend Ethereal captured two pawns, evals were over 4 by move 24. ScorpioNN tried to exchange pieces, it lost another pawn and its king was still in danger. The game ended in mate on move 52.
Scores with 20 games to go: Stockfish Leela +7, AllieStein +3, Komodo Ethereal 0, Fire Stoofvlees -1, KomodoMCTS -3, Houdini ScorpioNN -6.
AllieStein is 2 points away from the superfinal with 7 games still to play. KomodoMCTS is 1 point behind the middle group, it has 3 games left and needs to overtake 2 engines to survive, not likely. Ethereal moved away from the relegation zone, Fire and Stoofvlees are in the hot seat but any decisive game can change the standings.
Game 161, Leela - KomodoMCTS: There were many exchanges after the start, all the queen side pawns were gone except the white a pawn. The engines reduced to a RB vs RN position, Leela captured a pawn while KomodoMCTS blocked the white passer. Eventually Leela exchanged the minor pieces to get a winning rook ending.
Game 162, AllieStein - Ethereal: AllieStein's eval was high from the start. The game reached a RBB vs RR position on move 33, black two pawns up. Ethereal had a rook in the center, it took AllieStein 20 moves to arrange its pieces to trap the rook and force a rook for bishop exchange. AllieStein captured two pawns, the remaining white pawns were enough to secure a win in the RB vs R ending. There were two white wins in this opening.
Game 164, Ethereal - Leela: Ethereal had an eval advantage from the start, its pieces were better developed and had more space. Ethereal concentrated forces on the king side and captured a pawn, then gave a rook for a knight and another pawn, its eval jumping over 3. Leela's king was in danger, it exchanged pieces and traded its queen for a rook and knight. The game reached a QB vs RRB position, the vulnerability of Leela's king allowed Ethereal to gain more material and the game was adjudicated. This opening had two white wins as well.
Game 168, Leela - AllieStein: See featured game below.
Game 169, Leela - ScorpioNN: ScorpioNN blundered, it grabbed a pawn and allowed a white rook to reach the 7th rank safely. After a series of exchanges the game reached a QBB vd RRB position, ScorpioNN continued to capture pawns but its king was under threat. Leela pushed a pawn to h6, the black defense collapsed and ScorpioNN started to lose material. The game ended in mate on the board. Leela won this opening from both sides.
Scores with 10 games to go: Leela +9, Stockfish +7, AllieStein +3, Komodo Ethereal 0, Fire Stoofvlees -1, KomodoMCTS -4, Houdini -6, ScorpioNN -7.
Leela had 3 wins and one loss and is now leading. Stockfish, Leela and AllieStein have 3 games left each, including two head to head games. AllieStein will almost surely not be in the superfinal, especially after losing to Leela. Fire and Stoofvlees are still relegation candidates, Komodo and Ethereal still with a small edge.
Game 174, Stoofvlees - ScorpioNN: The engines exchanged one pair of pawns in the first 56 moves. The center was blocked and the engines mostly shuffled, Stoofvless had a space advantage and evals were over 1. On move 58 Stoofvlees sacrificed a knight and opened the king side. ScorpioNN's exposed king faced two advancing pawns and evals increased quickly. Eventually ScorpioNN lost a rook for one of the pawns, the game ended with mate on the board.
Stockfish drew its games against Leela and AllieStein, AllieStein is out of the race, Stockfish and Leela will play in the superfinal. Stoofvlees wins and has one last game to play, Fire has played all its games and cannot overtake Stoofvlees even if Stoofvlees loses. Only Komodo is still in danger, it has to play AllieStein and Leela.
Game 179, Komodo - Leela: Komodo had a small eval advantage from the start. Leela equalized quickly, it was a pawn down but had an active bishop pair while Komodo had a knight pair. The engines started to shuffle, Leela avoided a 50 move draw and gave back the pawn. This opened the king side and the black king was exposed, Leela was not careful and on move 106 suddenly Komodo's eval jumped. Komodo sacrificed a knight but due to mate threats Leela had to give material back. Its remaining pieces surrounded the black king and couldn't move, Leela gave two pawns on the queen side and Komodo promoted a pawn. Incredibly the game ended in mate.
Komodo is safe and Fire is the 4th delegating engine.
Featured game: Leela - AllieStein
Premier division, game 168
Link to game on TCEC
The black king moved and couldn't castle. AllieStein managed to move it to the corner, Leela had more space and evals were around 1. The center was blocked and all pieces were on the board except a pair of bishops and a pair of pawns.
The engines mostly shuffled for 20 moves, then AllieStein's eval started to jump as if it was in trouble. Leela placed a knight on e6, then sacrificed the other knight for a pawn to further open the king side.
After a series of exchanges the game reached a RR vs BNN imbalance, Leela was two pawns up and the black king was in danger. AllieStein could not move its pieces for fear of losing its queen or mate, it was forced to give a pawn and Leela had two passers on the queen side.
Leela promoted the c pawn to a queen and the game ended before mate.
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