Final Standings
Stockfish, Leela, KomodoDragon and Berserk advance to the next event. The top 3 engines were at the top of the table very early, all three had very good results against the bottom 5 engines throughout the division. In DRR3 and DRR4 KomodoDragon lost 3 game pairs to Stockfish and Leela, it lost touch with the leaders and finished in third place. Leela beat Stockfish in their first game pair, they were very close at the half. In the second half Stockfish managed to win a game pair against Leela and even their head to head score. Stockfish also beat KomodoDragon 3 times while Leela beat KomodoDragon only once, Stockfish pulled away in the second half and finished first.
Berserk seemed to be firmly in 4th place in the first half, 2.5 points ahead of its rivals. It beat Ethereal and Stoofvlees and managed to draw twice against the top 3. In the second half Stoofvlees dropped to 6th place but Ethereal had better results. Ethereal drew 4 times against the top 3 and had 4 game pair wins in the bottom 5. In the last DRR Ethereal managed to catch up with Berserk and even lead by as much as 1.5 points. However in the last round Berserk beat Ethereal and tied their scores, giving 4th place to Berserk by head to head tiebreak.
Koivisto and SlowChess are relegated to league 1. SlowChess was the weakest engine in the division with only one game pair win, Koivisto advanced from league 1 and is relegated back.
The top 3 engines continue to be a league of their own compared to the bottom 5 engines in the premier division, winning 49/60 game pairs without loss. Unlike previous seasons KomodoDragon performed worse than Stockfish and Leela with only 13/20 wins.
The next event will be a playoff to determine the two engines that will play in the superfinal. Stockfish, Leela, KomodoDragon and Berserk will play 4 more DRRs and the results will be added to the 4 DRRs played in the premier division. Therefore the playoff will start with the following scores: Stockfish +7, Leela +4, KomodoDragon -1, Berserk -10.
Interesting games
game 173, Stockfish - Stoofvlees: Exchanges opened the queen side after the start, Stockfish created a passer there and Stoofvlees had a passer in the center. Stockfish pushed the passer to the 7th rank, Stoofvlees captured it but lost a knight. Stockfish captured the black passer and the game reached a RB vs R position, each engine with two pawns left. Stockfish gave its bishop and captured the black pawns, reducing to a tablebase win.
game 174, Ethereal - SlowChess: The engines castled in opposite directions, Ethereal gave a rook for a bishop and exposed the black king. SlowChess gave the material back, its king was in danger with the white queen and rook on the open h file. The game reached a QRB vs QRN position, Ethereal a pawn up with a passer on the king side. The black king couldn't find a safe square, Ethereal exchanged rooks and captured pawns, then reduced to a winning B vs N ending.
game 175, Leela - Koivisto: Leela's eval was under 0.5 after the start, there were only a few exchanges and evals remained stable. Then on move 31 Leela's eval jumped, it pushed a pawn to g6 while Koivisto gave a knight and captured 4 white pawns. The black queen and a rook moved forward, the exposed white king seemed to be in danger but Leela was confident. Leela exchanged queens and moved a rook to the 7th rank, Koivisto gave a rook for a knight and pushed a passer to the 2nd rank on the queen side. In a RRB vs RB position Leela captured pawns, created a passer on the king side and pushed it to the 7th rank. Koivisto had to let go of its passer to avoid mate, the game ended in a tablebase win.
game 176, KomodoDragon - Berserk: KomodoDragon was a pawn up from the start. Berserk cleared the white pawns in the center and regained the pawn, KomodoDragon opened the queen side and created a passer there. Evals started to increase on move 28, the engines traded pawns and Berserk created a passer in the center. KomodoDragon pushed its passer to the 7th rank, Berserk captured it giving a rook for a knight. KomodoDragon gave a bishop and pushed another passer to the 7th rank, this time the engines reduced to a R vs B ending with two pawns left on the king side for each engine. There were long periods of shuffling, KomodoDragon pushed its pawns very slowly. It took 70 moves for KomodoDragon to capture a pawn, after that the game was adjudicated quickly.
game 178, Koivisto - KomodoDragon: The center was locked and there were no exchanges after the start. The black king remained in the center and KomodoDragon could not develop its bishop and rook on the king side. On move 26 the engines opened the a file and exchanged a pair of rooks. Evals started to increase as Koivisto shifted its focus to the king side and the black king walked to the queen side. KomodoDragon had a passer on the queen side, Koivisto gave a rook for a knight to capture it. Koivisto created a passer on the king side and pushed it to the 7th rank. After exchanging queens KomodoDragon lost a rook to stop the white passer, the BNN vs BN position with white 3 pawns up was an easy win for Koivisto.
game 188, Ethereal - Leela: There were only two pawn exchanges and a trade of a pair of knights after the start, evals were mostly stable and there was a long shuffle after the pawns stablilized. Ethereal's eval started to increase after move 58, the engines exchanged a pair of bishops and opened the queen side. Ethereal doubled rooks on the a file, on move 66 Leela's eval jumped as the white rooks started to target its queen. Ethereal created connected passers in the center and Leela created a doubled passer on the king side. Leela lost a knight to stop the white passers and Ethereal reduced to a winning knight vs pawns ending.
game 189, Stockfish - Leela: Stockfish created a passer in the center with a minor piece exchange. Evals started to increase, Leela captured the passer but it had isolated pawns on the queen side. Another minor piece exchange gave Stockfish a central passer again, Leela also creatd a central passer and the engines reduced to a RRB vs RRB position. Leela stopped the white passer on the 7th rank, Stockfish reduced to a rook ending a pawn up, creating connected passers on the queen side. Stockfish captured the black passer and Leela couldn't avoid a queening, game over.
game 191, Berserk - Stoofvlees: Evals were stable after the start and there were only a few exchanges. The engines played out a long PV agreement that ended with a black knight almost trapped on a5. Berserk thought Stoofvlees should move the knight away, Stoofvlees offered to exchange bishops instead. Berserk's eval jumped as it captured the knight, Stoofvlees immediately saw the problem. The engines reduced to a rook ending, Berserk went a pawn up and created two passers. Stoofvlees managed to stop one passer but lost its rook for the other, game over.
game 192, Koivisto - SlowChess: The engines opened the c file, there were no other exchanges after the start. Evals increased slowly, Koivisto doubled rooks on the c file. After a few minor piece exchanges Koivisto moved a rook to the 7th rank. SlowChess exchanged a pair of rooks, but then Koivisto moved both rook and queen forward. The engines reduced to a RB vs RN position, Koivisto went a pawn up and created two passers. Before long the game reached a tablebase win.
game 194, Stoofvlees - Koivisto: Stoofvlees castled long and pushed pawns on the king side, Koivisto opened the queen side and placed major pieces facing the white king. After Koivisto castled short Stoofvlees moved its major pieces to the king side while its two knights defended its king. In a series of exchanges Stoofvlees gave its queen and reduced to a RRN vs QR position two pawns up. Stoofvlees had 3 connected passers on the queen side, very slowly it pushed them forward with its king supporting. One passer reached the 7th rank, Koivisto gave a rook for a knight to stop it. This led to a winning 7-man position that Stoofvlees converted.
game 195, Ethereal - Berserk: Ethereal castled long while Berserk kept its king in the center. Queens were off early, Berserk managed to develop its DS bishop and traded it for a knight. Ethereal's eval started to increase on move 30, while playing a move sequence predicted in Berserk's PV. The engines reduced to a double rook ending, white with a 3 to 1 pawn majority on the queen side and black with a doubled pawn in the center. Berserk's eval slowly increased as well, Ethereal went a pawn up and slowly pushed pawns on the queen side. The engines traded pawns so that all pawns became passers, 2 black on the king side and 3 white on the queen side. Ethereal supported the pawns with its king, it captured a black pawn and then queened a passer to win.
game 196, Leela - KomodoDragon: Leela castled long, the engines opened the queen side and exchanged queens. The engines played out a long PV agreement and exchanged most pieces, the game reached a RRB vs RRB position with white a pawn up. Leela had a pawn majority on the queen side and KomodoDragon had one on the king side. For a while the engines seemed to shuffle, Leela tried to trap the black bishop. On move 56 Leela created a doubled passer on the queen side, then it captured a pawn on the king side. The white passers slowly advanced, Leela gave a rook for a bishop and pushed a passer to the 7th rank. KomodoDragon gave a rook to stop the passer, the RB vs R ending was a win for Leela.
Standings after RR7: Stockfish +19, Leela +14, KomodoDragon +7, Berserk Ethereal -1, Stoofvlees -8, Koivisto -12, SlowChess -18. Games 181-184 were biased in favor of black, and were all drawn, the top3 were white in these games and the reverse games will show if they win the game pairs. Stockfish beat Leela and Leela beat KomodoDragon, again the reverse games should be interesting. Koivisto beat KomodoDragon which was unexpected. Ethereal managed to tie 4th place with Berserk, it beat Leela and Berserk . The race for 4th place and the playoffs is yet to be determined.
game 197, Stockfish - KomodoDragon: Both engines kept their kings in the center, Stockfish pushed a pawn to c6 and KomodoDragon had development problems on the queen side, with two knights and a rook trapped. Stockfish gave two pawns and opened the king side, after exchanging a pair of rooks KomodoDragon gave a knight for the c6 pawn. The game reached a RBN vs RN position and Stockfish slowly captured pawns until it was two pawns up with connected passers on the queen side. KomodoDragon lost material and was mated.
game 198, Leela - Berserk: Leela castled long, Berserk moved a knight forward on the king side and Leela gave a pawn to trap it. Berserk sacrificed the knight for two pawns and castled short. Leela opened the king side while Berserk attacked on the queen side and threatened the white king. Leela skewered rook, queen and king with a bishop, after a series of exchanges the game reached a RRB vs RB position with black 5 pawns up. Leela lost its last pawn but slowly captured black ones until no pawns were left. Leela trapped the black king and mate was unavoidable.
game 199, Ethereal - Koivisto: There were many early exchanges, the game reached a RBB vs RNN position on move 25. Both engines had 6 pawns left, the bishop pair didn't seem to be a huge advantage. The engines exchanged rooks and mostly shuffled for 30 moves. Evals started to increase after Ethereal locked pawns on the queen side on move 71. After some preparation Ethereal sacrificed both bishops to queen a pawn. Koivisto was two pawns up in the Q vs NN ending, the knights had to protect the black king and Ethereal captured pawns until each engine had one left. The 7-man position was a win, the game was adjudicated 25 moves later.
game 200, Stoofvlees - SlowChess: SlowChess captured an early knight and moved both its knights forward on the queen side, ignoring the danger of the open h file for its king. Stoofvlees doubled queen and rook on the h file, SlowChess had to give material and in a series of exchanges the game reached a RBN vs BBN position. Progress was slow, after a pawn exchange all the black pawns were isolated and Stoofvlees captured one. Another pawn exchange created a white passer on the queen side, SlowChess had to lose material to stop it, game over.
game 205, Stockfish - Berserk: Berserk moved its king before the start, interfering with the development of the black king side rook. The center was blocked, Stockfish gave a pawn to open the queen side. The white queen moved forward on the king side, Berserk got its king side rook out through the h file to defend. Evals started to increase when Berserk opened the g file, Stockfish castled long and moved all its major pieces to threaten the black king, then moved its own king to relative safety on the a file. Berserk tried to surround its king with pieces, Stockfish gave a rook to remove two defending knights. Berserk ran out of ideas, it made a weak attempt to threaten the white king but Stockfish protected the surrounding squares. Stockfish used all its pieces in the attack and forced mate.
game 206, KomodoDragon - Koivisto: The center was blocked and both engines kept their kings in the center. There were only a few exchanges after the start, KomodoDragon created a passer after a minor piece exchange. Evals started to increase when the white king walked to the king side. KomodoDragon had to choose where it wanted to attack, it opened the king side and shifted the attack to the queen side. It moved queen and rook forward, captured a pawn and added two more passers on the queen side. The game reached a RRB vs RRB position and KomodoDragon captured another pawn. Koivisto lost a rook for a passer, game over. There were two white wins in this game pair.
game 207, Leela - SlowChess: There were no exchanges after the start but evals increased after a few moves. Leela had a space advantage, SlowChess gave a knight to open the center. SlowChess pushed a pawn forward, Leela gave the knight back and created a passer on f6. The game reached a RBN vs RBB position with white a pawn up, Leela captured two more pawns and created more passers. SlowChess lost more material and was mated after a queening.
game 210, Stoofvlees - Leela: The game started with a bias for black, though (negative) evals were not high. Both engines kept their kings in the center, Leela moved pieces to the king side in front of its pawns, and walked its king there behind the pawns. Leela's eval jumped on move 26, Stoofvlees gave two pawns on the king side and ran with its king to the queen side. Stoofvlees gave a bishop and regained the pawns, creating passers on the queen side. One passer reached the 7th rank, Stoofvlees also doubled rooks on the h file, only on move 38 it realized it was a piece down and the compensation was not enough. Leela allowed Stoofvlees to queen two passers, they were too far to save the white king from mate.
Standings with 3 rounds to go: Stockfish +21, Leela +17, KomodoDragon +7, Ethereal 0, Berserk -3, Stoofvlees -8, Koivisto -14, SlowChess -20. Ethereal has a 1.5 points lead over Berserk, after Berserk lost twice as black against the top3 and Ethereal beat Koivisto as white and survived Stockfish as white against the bias. Ethereal has yet to face Leela as black, and in the last round Berserk as white will play Ethereal.
game 213, Stockfish - Koivisto: There were no exchanges after the start, Stockfish prepared an attack on the king side and evals slowly increased. In a series of exchanges Stockifsh sacrificed a knight and opened the king side. Stockfish captured a rook, the black king was trapped and under threat. For some reason Koivisto chose to give a bishop, it seemed to give up. Stockfish gained more material and mate was quick.
game 214, Berserk - SlowChess: Evals slowly increased from the start, after a pawn exchange on the queen side SlowChess was a pawn up with two passers and Berserk had one passer. SlowChess gave a passer and opened the c file, after a while Berserk captured the other black passer and opened the a file. Berserk opened the king side and exposed the black king, then pushed its passer on the queen side to the 6th rank to support a rook on the 7th rank. The game reached a RBN vs RBN position, the white king moved forward and faced the trapped black king, mate followed.
game 215, KomodoDragon - Stoofvlees: There were no exchanges after the start and evals increased slowly. On move 25 the exchanges started and the engines opened the king side with white a pawn up. Another series of exchanges reduced to a rook ending, most pawns were on the board and KomodoDragon had a pawn majority on the king side. The engines traded pawns until there was only one last black pawn left, KomodoDragon was two pawns up and it reduced to a tablebase win.
game 216, Leela - Ethereal: There were no exchanges after the start, the black queen moved forward on the queen side. Leela's eval jumped after Ethereal refused to take a free pawn with the queen. Instead the black queen retreated and Ethereal went a pawn up. Leela pushed pawns on the king side and placed a knight on f6, trapping the black king in the corner. Ethereal tried to counter with a rook moving forward on the queen side, but Leela trapped the rook. Ethereal sacrificed the rook for a pawn creating connected passers, but the material advantage was too big. Leela gained more material and eventually mated. There were two white wins in this game pair.
Berserk's win and Ethereal's loss were the expected results of their games. Berserk reduced the gap to 0.5 points behind Ethereal with two rounds to go.
game 217, Leela - Stockfish: The engines castled in opposite directions, Stockfish opened the c file and moved its queen forward on the queen side. Leela's eval jumped on move 19, it doubled rooks on the c file. After locking the king side Leela placed a bishop on c6, the engines shuffled for a while with evals increasing. On move 38 Stockfish gave a pawn and opened the queen side, giving Leela a passer. The white king was exposed but Stockfish couldn't attack, Leela moved a rook forward and captured a second pawn. The game reached a RRB vs RRN position, Leela had two advanced passers and Stockfish gave up. Stockfish gave a rook, Leela queened and mated. There were two white wins in this game pair.
game 219, Stoofvlees - Berserk: The center was blocked, Berserk castled short and Stoofvlees walked with its king - in front of the queen and a rook - to the queen side. Evals remained stable for a long time, on move 31 Berserk gave a rook for a bishop, then captured a pawn and created a passer on the king side. On move 39 Stoofvlees gave another pawn, now Berserk had 3 passers on the king side while Stoofvlees pushed a pawn in the center. Evals started to increase after the central white pawn became a passer on the 6th rank. Stoofvlees reduced to a QR vs QB position, it captured two pawns and created passers on the queen side. Berserk gave a bishop and exposed the white king, then delayed with checks as much as possible. Eventually the checks ran out, Stoofvlees forced a queen exchange to win. There were two white wins in this game pair.
Ethereal drew as white against KomodoDragon. Berserk's loss against Stoofvlees was unexpected, it is now 1 point behind Ethereal in 4th place. Even if it had drew its game the result would have been the same, Berserk needs a win against Ethereal in the last round, Ethereal only needs a draw. With a win Berserk will get a head to head tiebreak advantage.
game 221, Stockfish - SlowChess: Evals increased from the start, SlowChess gave a pawn to open the queen side and Stockfish still castled long. Stockfish gave two pawns and opened the center, then regained a pawn to equalize material. After opening the h file Stockfish captured a pawn on the queen side and created 3 connected passers. Most pieces were on the board, Stockfish pushed the passers very slowly with the king behind them. In a series of exchanges the engines reduced to a 7-man B vs N endgame, the game was adjudicated a few moves later.
game 223, Berserk - Ethereal: see featured game below.
Berserk ties the score with Ethereal after this win, securing 4th place with a tiebreak.
game 224, KomodoDragon - Leela: KomodoDragon castled long and Leela kept its king in the center. The engines played out a long PV agreement in which most pieces were exchanged and resulted in a R vs BN imbalance with white 3 pawns up on move 29. KomodoDragon pushed a central passer to the 6th rank, after a while there was a series of exchanges that reduce to a RB vs RB position. KomodoDragon had a 3 to 1 pawn majority on the queen side and Leela had a passer on the king side. Evals remained stable and low as the engines appeared to shuffle, KomodoDragon's eval started to increase on move 62. In a long PV agreement KomodoDragon managed to drive the white king away from the queen side, Leela's evals started to increase as well. On move 89 KomodoDragon exchanged rooks, this left an opposite color bishops ending. The black king had to run to the queen side, giving KomodoDragon time to push a passer to the 7th rank and to capture a pawn. Leela captured the passer but the 7-man ending was a win for white. There were two white wins in this game pair.
Featured game: Berserk - Ethereal
game 223
Berserk castled long and pushed pawns on the king side while Ethereal opened the queen side. The engines exchanged queens, Ethereal castled short and Berserk opened the g file. Evals started to increase on move 33, in a series of exchanges the engines reduced to a double rook ending.
Ethereal pushed its last pawn to the 2nd rank but there it was blocked. Berserk pushed its passers forward, eventually Ethereal lost a rook to stop one, game over. There were two white wins in this game pair. Ethereal needed a draw but in the end Berserk finished in 4th place.
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