Division 3 is in the 3rd RR out of 4. Ethereal is leading without loss and at least 3 points away from all the other engines. There are 3 engines in the race for second place. Pedone has 11 points, DeusX has 11 and one game less, and Arasan has 10.5 points. Leela with 9 points needs to win games to have a chance, so far it has only 2 wins in 19 games.
Currently the Nemorino - DeusX game is running, closing the 19th round.
move 15: It seems that DeusX went wrong very early in this opening. It did not follow the usual line in the Petrov opening, and Nemorino's eval was over 1.5 from move 6. DeusX lost a knight for a pawn on move 9, and Nemorino's eval was over 2 on move 14.
move 20: Evals are not moving, DeusX is trying to hold. Nemorino has a queen side passer and has a potential pawn attack on the king side since the engines castled in opposite directions.
move 25: The white knight is in a weak square, not trapped but doesn't have a good square to go to. DeusX is attacking the queen side, evals are increasing again.
move 30: After several pawn exchanges it seemed DeusX would give a rook for a bishop but it changed its mind. Nemorino's king ran to the king side, it is a knight and pawn up but its king side rook is stuck in the corner.
move 32: BOOM, evals over 5. DeusX seems to have missed some tactic, and it immediately realized it is losing. It seems the black king is under immediate threat and black is about to lose material.
move 37: Game over, adjudicated by the win rule. DeusX hasn't lost material yet but its king is under attack and only the queen is there to help. Both engines agreed black's position is hopeless.
With this loss DeusX remains 3rd 0.5 point behind Pedone and equal to Arasan. The race is going to be close to the end of the division.
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Season 13 live blogging, Monday Aug 13th
Division 3 is getting close to the half way point. So far Ethereal is leading with a remarkable result of 8.5/10. Bobcat and Hannibal seem to be heading for relegation, and the remaining 5 engines - including the two NN engines Leela and DeusX - are in the struggle for the second promotion spot. Nemorino has had two early crashes and has been restricted to 16 threads, so far avoiding the 3rd strike and still playing well enough to have a chance of promotion. Pedone and Arasan are the remaining two engines in the race.
We will look at the Arasan-Ethereal game of round 11, Ethereal won the reverse game in round 4.
move 4: diverging from the reverse game right out of book, with a rare move e5. Arasan started optimistic with an eval around 0.5.
move 7: Ethereal eval dropped to 0 quickly. Arasan chose a rare opening line, Ethereal's eval turned slightly negative. Both the white knights are pinned.
move 10: The queen side is open, black has not developed the king side yet, delaying its castling plans. Ethereal gets a pawn, eval back to 0.
move 13: Ethereal with a very long think, but eval still 0. There is no castling in its PV, it created a pawn line across the board and it expects a lot of shuffling.
move 21: Evals are not moving, Ethereal is a pawn ahead, its king has not castled though it now can, Arasan has a bishop pair, both queens have been pushed back. Both engines seem to be playing defensively, unless there is some breakthrough I think the game will continue with a long shuffle and a draw.
move 24: Arasan is planning to trade bishops, another long think from Ethereal, again eval stays at 0.
move 33: All bishops are gone. Arasan got its pawn back and now its eval is also at 0. Perhaps the game will end at move 40 with the draw rule?
move 40: Ethereal's eval started to jump, reaching negative 0.6. Is the white back rank vulnerable? After queens are exchanged only RN vs RN left. Both evals are negative but not high, still drawish?
move 50: The queen side pawns are gone and evals are not going anywhere. Still looks like a draw, waiting for the engines to lower the eval so the game will be adjudicated.
move 60: The engines finally dropped their eval to 0. Is the end near? The 50-move counter is at 34.
move 69: Finally adjudicated by the draw rule. Arasan holds the reverse game, neither engine had a significant advantage in the game. Ethereal still unbeaten in the division, Arasan still strong in the promotion race.
We will look at the Arasan-Ethereal game of round 11, Ethereal won the reverse game in round 4.
move 4: diverging from the reverse game right out of book, with a rare move e5. Arasan started optimistic with an eval around 0.5.
move 7: Ethereal eval dropped to 0 quickly. Arasan chose a rare opening line, Ethereal's eval turned slightly negative. Both the white knights are pinned.
move 10: The queen side is open, black has not developed the king side yet, delaying its castling plans. Ethereal gets a pawn, eval back to 0.
move 13: Ethereal with a very long think, but eval still 0. There is no castling in its PV, it created a pawn line across the board and it expects a lot of shuffling.
move 21: Evals are not moving, Ethereal is a pawn ahead, its king has not castled though it now can, Arasan has a bishop pair, both queens have been pushed back. Both engines seem to be playing defensively, unless there is some breakthrough I think the game will continue with a long shuffle and a draw.
move 24: Arasan is planning to trade bishops, another long think from Ethereal, again eval stays at 0.
move 33: All bishops are gone. Arasan got its pawn back and now its eval is also at 0. Perhaps the game will end at move 40 with the draw rule?
move 40: Ethereal's eval started to jump, reaching negative 0.6. Is the white back rank vulnerable? After queens are exchanged only RN vs RN left. Both evals are negative but not high, still drawish?
move 50: The queen side pawns are gone and evals are not going anywhere. Still looks like a draw, waiting for the engines to lower the eval so the game will be adjudicated.
move 60: The engines finally dropped their eval to 0. Is the end near? The 50-move counter is at 34.
move 69: Finally adjudicated by the draw rule. Arasan holds the reverse game, neither engine had a significant advantage in the game. Ethereal still unbeaten in the division, Arasan still strong in the promotion race.
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Season 13 division 4 statistics
Draw rate, wins
Final draw rate was 51.8%.
Game termination
The three most common game termination causes were:
44.6% - TCEC win rule
21.4% - TCEC draw rule
16.1% - 3-Fold repetition
There were no crashes in the division.
Moves per game
Median= 68.5
Average= 76.7
The games were unusually long compared to previous seasons. Without testing this I have a feeling that the NN engine games were longer on average, as a result of their different attitude towards evaluation. When winning their opponent sometimes was not aware it was losing for a while, and when drawing the NN engines sometimes took more time to realize the game was a draw.
There were 23 games longer than 100 moves, the longest was 272 moves (Rodent - DeusX, round 27, draw).
Time per game (hours)
Median= 1:17
Average= 1:17
Openings
There were 2-move book openings in this stage chosen by Cato. The first letter of the ECO codes was distributed as follows:
If we use the opening 'family name' (using format FAMILY_NAME: VARIANT....) the top 3 are:
Sicillian - 18 times
QGD - 17 times
English - 10 times
The engines had a lot of freedom to choose the opening variant. Only 19.6% of the game pairs repeated the same ECO code twice, and only 14.3% repeated the same opening variant. In 12.5% of the game pairs the ECO first letter was not repeated twice.
Reverse pairs, wins
Reverse pairs, same moves
Pairs of reverse games diverged very quickly, 55.3% diverged immediately out of book, 87.5% of the pairs diverged at most after 1 move.
Final draw rate was 51.8%.
Game termination
The three most common game termination causes were:
44.6% - TCEC win rule
21.4% - TCEC draw rule
16.1% - 3-Fold repetition
There were no crashes in the division.
Moves per game
Median= 68.5
Average= 76.7
The games were unusually long compared to previous seasons. Without testing this I have a feeling that the NN engine games were longer on average, as a result of their different attitude towards evaluation. When winning their opponent sometimes was not aware it was losing for a while, and when drawing the NN engines sometimes took more time to realize the game was a draw.
There were 23 games longer than 100 moves, the longest was 272 moves (Rodent - DeusX, round 27, draw).
Time per game (hours)
Median= 1:17
Average= 1:17
Openings
There were 2-move book openings in this stage chosen by Cato. The first letter of the ECO codes was distributed as follows:
If we use the opening 'family name' (using format FAMILY_NAME: VARIANT....) the top 3 are:
Sicillian - 18 times
QGD - 17 times
English - 10 times
The engines had a lot of freedom to choose the opening variant. Only 19.6% of the game pairs repeated the same ECO code twice, and only 14.3% repeated the same opening variant. In 12.5% of the game pairs the ECO first letter was not repeated twice.
Reverse pairs, wins
Reverse pairs, same moves
Pairs of reverse games diverged very quickly, 55.3% diverged immediately out of book, 87.5% of the pairs diverged at most after 1 move.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Season 13 division 4 final results
Division 4 final crosstable
The two NN engines Leela (=LCZero) and DeusX promote to division 3. Wasp was in the race until the very last round. It managed to hold a draw against Leela, but DeusX's win against Senpai meant Wasp finished third, half a point behind DeusX.
The NN engines attracted a lot of attention, Leela in particular has a lot of supporters. One such supporter is the well-known kingscrusher, who offered live commentary of Leela games in the chat and posted analysis videos of these games on his YouTube channel. The chat was crowded and it was hard to keep up with all the posts while watching the game.
A lot of chat posts referred to the DeusX controversy. DeusX is a neural network engine that used the Leela code but used a different learning method. While Leela started from scratch and learned only playing itself, DeusX used human games to train its network. Apart from giving credit to the Leela development team for its code, there was a question whether DeusX should be considered a separate entity, or is it comparable to a Stockfish clone. TCEC decided to let both play in division 4, and there was a continuous argument about this decision in the chat. Since both engines will continue to play in division 3 I suppose the argument will continue.
There was a new TCEC site administrator during this division, indoda_eziphukile. The GUI reverted to the older version with a few changes (I will have to get used to new colors for the board). There were no problems with the system, and no crashes despite the complexity of running two machines that sometimes have to communicate. The archive did not work for the first few days but was fixed later. Well done indoda! We were then informed that for division 3 the site administrator will be replaced yet again. I hope TCEC is looking for a more stable solution.
Division 3 will start soon, with Hannibal, Ethereal, Arasan, Pedone, Bobcat, Nemorino, Leela and DeusX. The NN fans are confident Leela will promote again, it will play with a new network version which is stronger. However, considering that Wasp played in division 3 and was relegated in season 12 I think it is quite possible that division 3 will be too strong for Leela. Another issue to look out for is crashes. Arasan and Hannibal crashed out of division 2 in season 12, I hope their developers found the problems and fixed them for this season.
The two NN engines Leela (=LCZero) and DeusX promote to division 3. Wasp was in the race until the very last round. It managed to hold a draw against Leela, but DeusX's win against Senpai meant Wasp finished third, half a point behind DeusX.
The NN engines attracted a lot of attention, Leela in particular has a lot of supporters. One such supporter is the well-known kingscrusher, who offered live commentary of Leela games in the chat and posted analysis videos of these games on his YouTube channel. The chat was crowded and it was hard to keep up with all the posts while watching the game.
A lot of chat posts referred to the DeusX controversy. DeusX is a neural network engine that used the Leela code but used a different learning method. While Leela started from scratch and learned only playing itself, DeusX used human games to train its network. Apart from giving credit to the Leela development team for its code, there was a question whether DeusX should be considered a separate entity, or is it comparable to a Stockfish clone. TCEC decided to let both play in division 4, and there was a continuous argument about this decision in the chat. Since both engines will continue to play in division 3 I suppose the argument will continue.
There was a new TCEC site administrator during this division, indoda_eziphukile. The GUI reverted to the older version with a few changes (I will have to get used to new colors for the board). There were no problems with the system, and no crashes despite the complexity of running two machines that sometimes have to communicate. The archive did not work for the first few days but was fixed later. Well done indoda! We were then informed that for division 3 the site administrator will be replaced yet again. I hope TCEC is looking for a more stable solution.
Division 3 will start soon, with Hannibal, Ethereal, Arasan, Pedone, Bobcat, Nemorino, Leela and DeusX. The NN fans are confident Leela will promote again, it will play with a new network version which is stronger. However, considering that Wasp played in division 3 and was relegated in season 12 I think it is quite possible that division 3 will be too strong for Leela. Another issue to look out for is crashes. Arasan and Hannibal crashed out of division 2 in season 12, I hope their developers found the problems and fixed them for this season.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Waiting for season 13, short vacation
Update 29.7.18:
Chessdom has posted an update. Season 13 is due to start on Friday 3.8.18, the undisclosed NN engine is called DeusX and the hardware will indeed include a CPU machine for traditional engines and a GPU machine for the NN engines. There are still 3 engines in division 4 whose identity has not been published yet.
I am still on vacation, and will probably miss division 4
Orignal post - 26.7.18:
The TCEC website is currently unavailable as Season 13 is being prepared in the background. There has been no official press release on chessdom or on facebook yet. According to the chat we are expecting new GPU hardware for this season, and at least two neural network based engines using it - Leela and an undisclosed mystery engine.
The site administrator for TCEC has changed again. The previous administrator KnightMoves left quite suddently, I did not witness the event and I don't know what happened exactly. As a result the new GUI that was developed during the past few months is gone as well. The new administrator will have to get acquainted with the system quickly, including the new hardware. I wish him good luck and I hope that TCEC will run smoothly.
I am on vacation for a few weeks and will miss the start of the season, if indeed it starts soon as planned. I hope to start posting again when I get back in the second half of August.
Chessdom has posted an update. Season 13 is due to start on Friday 3.8.18, the undisclosed NN engine is called DeusX and the hardware will indeed include a CPU machine for traditional engines and a GPU machine for the NN engines. There are still 3 engines in division 4 whose identity has not been published yet.
I am still on vacation, and will probably miss division 4
Orignal post - 26.7.18:
The TCEC website is currently unavailable as Season 13 is being prepared in the background. There has been no official press release on chessdom or on facebook yet. According to the chat we are expecting new GPU hardware for this season, and at least two neural network based engines using it - Leela and an undisclosed mystery engine.
The site administrator for TCEC has changed again. The previous administrator KnightMoves left quite suddently, I did not witness the event and I don't know what happened exactly. As a result the new GUI that was developed during the past few months is gone as well. The new administrator will have to get acquainted with the system quickly, including the new hardware. I wish him good luck and I hope that TCEC will run smoothly.
I am on vacation for a few weeks and will miss the start of the season, if indeed it starts soon as planned. I hope to start posting again when I get back in the second half of August.
Sunday, July 8, 2018
Season 12 superfinal, games 97-100 and final results
The season 12 superfinal is over, Stockfish wins 29-9 with 62 draws. The final draw rate is 62%, one of the lowest ever in a TCEC superfinal. Stockfish added two more wins in the last two openings.
Stockfish pushed its king side pawns at the start of game 49.1, its king was quite exposed and Komodo controlled the long diagonals surrounding it. Still it was Stockfish that was ahead on evals, all its pieces headed for the king side.
Stockfish blocked the long diagonal with pieces, improving its king safety. Stockfish continued to push pawns on the king side, Komodo was careful not to open files and it allowed Stockfish's knight to fork two rooks. Evals continued to increase, a king side attack was unavoidable.
Stockfish won a rook for knight and then opened the king side. After a series of exchanges only RB vs BN were left, the black bishop was stuck in the center many moves away from finding a useful square.
The white rook moved to the 7th rank and the white king move forward to support the pawns in the center. The game was adjudicated before Komodo started to lose pawns.
In the reverse game 49.2 Komodo did not push pawns on the king side, its king remained safe. Stockfish pushed pawns on the queen side and kept its pieces behind the pawn line. The engines started to shuffle on move 28, Komodo escaped the 50 move draw at the last minute and exchanged queens. Shuffling resumed, now Stockfish had an eval advantage and it exchanged rooks as the 50 move counter reached 0. Both engines finally lowered their evals to end the game in a repetition draw.
The 50th and last opening started with a very long book sequence 19 moves long. In game 50.1 Stockfish initiated a king side attack immediately, giving two pawns and opening files. On move 28 its eval was already over 3.
Stockfish threatened mate on the g file, it captured the black LS bishop which defended the g8 square. Komodo chose to ignore the offered rook and instead exchanged as many pieces as it could. On move 38 only RBN vs RB remained.
The immediate mate threat was removed but now Stockfish was a piece up, the pawns started to fall and Komodo had no counter. The game was soon adjudicated.
The reverse game 50.2 was much more quiet. The king side remained closed and the evals were close to 0. The engines exchanged pieces and on move 32 only QRB vs QRB remained. The game reached a bishop ending and a quick draw.
Stockfish pushed its king side pawns at the start of game 49.1, its king was quite exposed and Komodo controlled the long diagonals surrounding it. Still it was Stockfish that was ahead on evals, all its pieces headed for the king side.
Stockfish blocked the long diagonal with pieces, improving its king safety. Stockfish continued to push pawns on the king side, Komodo was careful not to open files and it allowed Stockfish's knight to fork two rooks. Evals continued to increase, a king side attack was unavoidable.
Stockfish won a rook for knight and then opened the king side. After a series of exchanges only RB vs BN were left, the black bishop was stuck in the center many moves away from finding a useful square.
The white rook moved to the 7th rank and the white king move forward to support the pawns in the center. The game was adjudicated before Komodo started to lose pawns.
In the reverse game 49.2 Komodo did not push pawns on the king side, its king remained safe. Stockfish pushed pawns on the queen side and kept its pieces behind the pawn line. The engines started to shuffle on move 28, Komodo escaped the 50 move draw at the last minute and exchanged queens. Shuffling resumed, now Stockfish had an eval advantage and it exchanged rooks as the 50 move counter reached 0. Both engines finally lowered their evals to end the game in a repetition draw.
The 50th and last opening started with a very long book sequence 19 moves long. In game 50.1 Stockfish initiated a king side attack immediately, giving two pawns and opening files. On move 28 its eval was already over 3.
Stockfish threatened mate on the g file, it captured the black LS bishop which defended the g8 square. Komodo chose to ignore the offered rook and instead exchanged as many pieces as it could. On move 38 only RBN vs RB remained.
The immediate mate threat was removed but now Stockfish was a piece up, the pawns started to fall and Komodo had no counter. The game was soon adjudicated.
The reverse game 50.2 was much more quiet. The king side remained closed and the evals were close to 0. The engines exchanged pieces and on move 32 only QRB vs QRB remained. The game reached a bishop ending and a quick draw.
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Season 12 superfinal, games 93-96
After 96 games Stockfish leads 27-9 with 60 draws. The draw rate continues to be low, now at 62.5%. Stockfish extends its lead again, Komodo wins in a biased opening for the fifth time.
Stockfish started game 47.1 a pawn up with an advanced central passer on the 6th rank. The white king was exposed a little despite castling. Komodo managed to regain the pawn and to exchange a few pieces on the queen side.
Stockfish pushed pawns on the king side and the evals started to increase. The engines continued to exchange pieces and the game reached a QRB vs QRN position. Komodo had a queen side passer, and the white king seemed to be open to attacks, yet Stockfish's eval was over 3.
Stockfish opened the g file and got a pawn to h7. Komodo was careful not to open the h file as well and tried to hide its king behind the white pawn. The combination of an advanced passer supported by the queen and an attack on the black king with the queen and rook was too much for Komodo. The game was soon adjudicated.
The reverse game 47.2 started similarly. Komodo did not push pawns on the king side. Instead the engines continued to exchange pieces and by move 34 only BN vs BN remained. Komodo's central passer and Stockfish's queen side passer canceled each other out, the game was adjudicated after a long shuffle.
In game 48.1 the engines castled in opposite directions. Stockfish gave a pawn, opened its king side and prepared an attack. Meanwhile, Komodo cleared its queen side pawns and prepared an attack there. There was a very long PV agreement on move 18.
The engines played the line they predicted, which was very wild including a black rook sacrifice and a white queen sacrifice. By move 33 the game reached an unusual RBB vs Q position, Stockfish's eval was over 4.
Stockfish's king found a square where it could not be attacked by the black queen. The evals constantly increased as the engines moved their pieces, though it was hard to see what Stockfish had in mind. Komodo appeared to be in zugzwang, it made pawn moves and then its king moved away from the pawns. Stockfish managed to get its rook to the back rank and from there to attack the pawn on a6.
The two a pawns were quickly captured, Stockfish now has a queen side passer and Komodo couldn't stop it without losing the queen.
In game 48.2 the engines castled in opposite directions again. Komodo did not push pawns on the king side which remained intact. Stockfish gave a pawn and opened the queen side, then it lined its major pieces on the c file facing the white king. Komodo stopped the attack easily, evals increased to around 1. Komodo opened the king side, the engines exchanged queens and Komodo gave a rook for a bishop to keep the c file blocked. The game reached a RBN vs RRB position, Komodo two pawns up.
Both engines pushed passers in the center. In a series of exchanges Stockfish lost a rook for a knight and both passers were captured, leaving a RB vs RB position with Komodo two pawns up. Stockfish managed to get a pawn back, Komodo had a king side passer that started to advance.
Stockfish tried to counter with its queen side passer, the white bishop controlled its final square. It took a while but eventually Stockfish could not block the white passer on the king side. Komodo pushed the pawn to h7, when it captured the black passer the game was adjudicated. Another Komodo win in a biased opening, like the previous Komodo win.
Stockfish started game 47.1 a pawn up with an advanced central passer on the 6th rank. The white king was exposed a little despite castling. Komodo managed to regain the pawn and to exchange a few pieces on the queen side.
Stockfish pushed pawns on the king side and the evals started to increase. The engines continued to exchange pieces and the game reached a QRB vs QRN position. Komodo had a queen side passer, and the white king seemed to be open to attacks, yet Stockfish's eval was over 3.
Stockfish opened the g file and got a pawn to h7. Komodo was careful not to open the h file as well and tried to hide its king behind the white pawn. The combination of an advanced passer supported by the queen and an attack on the black king with the queen and rook was too much for Komodo. The game was soon adjudicated.
The reverse game 47.2 started similarly. Komodo did not push pawns on the king side. Instead the engines continued to exchange pieces and by move 34 only BN vs BN remained. Komodo's central passer and Stockfish's queen side passer canceled each other out, the game was adjudicated after a long shuffle.
In game 48.1 the engines castled in opposite directions. Stockfish gave a pawn, opened its king side and prepared an attack. Meanwhile, Komodo cleared its queen side pawns and prepared an attack there. There was a very long PV agreement on move 18.
The engines played the line they predicted, which was very wild including a black rook sacrifice and a white queen sacrifice. By move 33 the game reached an unusual RBB vs Q position, Stockfish's eval was over 4.
Stockfish's king found a square where it could not be attacked by the black queen. The evals constantly increased as the engines moved their pieces, though it was hard to see what Stockfish had in mind. Komodo appeared to be in zugzwang, it made pawn moves and then its king moved away from the pawns. Stockfish managed to get its rook to the back rank and from there to attack the pawn on a6.
The two a pawns were quickly captured, Stockfish now has a queen side passer and Komodo couldn't stop it without losing the queen.
In game 48.2 the engines castled in opposite directions again. Komodo did not push pawns on the king side which remained intact. Stockfish gave a pawn and opened the queen side, then it lined its major pieces on the c file facing the white king. Komodo stopped the attack easily, evals increased to around 1. Komodo opened the king side, the engines exchanged queens and Komodo gave a rook for a bishop to keep the c file blocked. The game reached a RBN vs RRB position, Komodo two pawns up.
Both engines pushed passers in the center. In a series of exchanges Stockfish lost a rook for a knight and both passers were captured, leaving a RB vs RB position with Komodo two pawns up. Stockfish managed to get a pawn back, Komodo had a king side passer that started to advance.
Stockfish tried to counter with its queen side passer, the white bishop controlled its final square. It took a while but eventually Stockfish could not block the white passer on the king side. Komodo pushed the pawn to h7, when it captured the black passer the game was adjudicated. Another Komodo win in a biased opening, like the previous Komodo win.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)