Season 19 premier division, after RR6

Standings after RR6

 

Stockfish and Leela continue to lead, there is very little doubt that they will meet in the superfinal. 

The real race is at the bottom of the table. Ethereal lost 3 games and dropped to last. ScorpioNN and Fire scored their first wins in the division, a small step away from relegation for both. Fire beating Ethereal was the first decisive game between two bottom4 engines in the division. Komodo is again in danger and running out of games.

There were two consecutive network crashes in games 128-129, both games were later resumed and both ended in draws.

There were only 7 decisive games in the 3rd DRR. RR6 started with 19 straight draws, one decisive game and 6 more draws before closing with two wins.

Interesting games

Game 121, Leela - ScorpioNN: Leela pushed pawns on the queen side, on move 19 the pawns trapped a black bishop and rook in the corner. Leela's eval increased as it slowly shifted its focus to the king side, ScorpioNN was effectively two pieces down. Leela gave a rook for a knight and then opened the king side. ScorpioNN gave the material back and sacrificed its trapped bishop, but it was too late to save the king. The game ended in mate.

Game 131, Komodo - Stockfish: Evals were 0 with long pawn lines across the board. Komodo's pieces were mostly on the queen side when Stockfish gave a pawn on the king side and its eval jumped. Komodo gave material for pawns, and after a series of exchanges the game reached a RB vs RRB position, white 4 pawns up for the rook. Stockfish had to block a white passer on the 7th rank, then threatened the white king and forced a rook exchange. It was a slow endgame, Stockfish started to capture pawns and the game was adjudicated.

Game 134, Stockfish - Ethereal: The black queen went forward early and captured a pawn, it got away safely yet Stockfish's eval slowly increased. The black king was partially exposed, for a while the engines shuffled as Stockfish tried to decide whether to attack the king or to push a pawn and open the position. Eventually Stockfish started on the queen side, there was a quick series of exchanges and Ethereal gave a rook for a knight. After exchanging queens the game reached a R vs N ending which Stockfish converted easily.

Game 137, Stoofvlees - ScorpioNN: See featured game below.

Scores after RR5: Stockfish +9, Leela +7, AllieStein +2, Stoofvlees -1, ScorpioNN -3, Fire -4, Ethereal Komodo -5. No change at the top. ScorpioNN's win may be a crucial point in the fight against relegation. Komodo is at the bottom again.

Game 160, Fire - Ethereal: There were no exchanges until move 43, evals were close to 0 and the draw rule was almost in effect twice. After exchanging a few pawns and pieces the position opened and evals slowly increased. Ethereal gave a pawn and the engines reduced to a N vs B ending, evals were around 1. It took Fire a while to find the right moves, Ethereal realized it was losing a lot sooner. The game was adjudicated with Fire 3 pawns up.

Game 167, Leela - Ethereal: Evals increased after the start, Leela gave a rook for a bishop and exposed the black king, evals went over 3. After exchanging queens Leela had 2 advanced passers in a RBB av RRN position, its king came forward to support the pawns. The game was soon adjudicated with one passer on the 7th rank.

Game 168, Stockfish - Fire: Stockfish's eval jumped over 1.5 on move 37, Fire was a pawn up and Stockfish had a queen side passer still on the 2nd rank. Fire's eval continued to be low as the engines exchanged pieces, its eval jumped when the game reached a rook ending and Stockfish created a second passer on the king side. The game was adjudicated with Stockfish about to capture the remaining black pawns.

Featured game: Stoofvlees - ScorpioNN
Premier division, game 137
Link to game on TCEC

There were only a few exchanges after the start, Stoofvlees had a small eval advantage under 1. After move 30 Stoofvlees concentrated forces on the queen side while ScorpioNN threatened to open the king side. Stoofvlees ignored the threat and on move 36 ScorpioNN opened a file on the king side and gave a pawn, its (negative) eval jumping. Suddenly the white king was under attack from all sides.

The white king ran to the center but Stoofvlees couldn't hold back the black pieces on the king side. ScorpioNN started to gain material until it was almost a queen up.

Stoofvlees' last hope was a passer on the 7th rank. ScorpioNN blocked the passer and then just gave back the material, exchanged all pieces and reduced to a winning king and pawns ending.