TCEC S18 DivP Underway; CCC14 Started

This blog's previous report -- TCEC S18 L3/L2/L1 Finished; CCC14? (May 2020) -- on the two most watched engine vs. engine competitions was fairly routine:-

TCEC: The TCEC has progressed rapidly through three stages of season 18. • CCC: The CCC has been running a gigantic match between two top engines, cycling through the entirety of Encyclopedia of Chess Openings (ECO).

What has happened during the intervening fortnight?

TCEC: Premier Division (DivP) started two weeks ago and has finished the second of three double round robins, meaning it has another week to run. The first two engines will qualify into the S18 Superfinal (SuFi). Two points currently separate 1st and 4th places : Stockfish is a point ahead of LCZero, which leads Stoofvlees by a half point, ahead of AllieStein by another half point. The other four engines have negative scores.

CCC: CCC14 started with the following 'Format Information' (DRR = Double Round Robin):-

All games are 15' + 5". This is a double-elimination event. A 16 engine 1 x DRR starts the event. All 1 x DRR games are bookless. All other games in the event use a one-ply book.

DRR finishers 1-8 are seeded into the winners bracket of the event. Finishers 9-16 are seeded into the losers bracket. Being seeded into the losers bracket counts as an "elimination". Each bracket match is 12 games unless tiebreaks are required -- i.e. games are played until an engine achieves a +1.5 score. Losing a bracket match counts as an "elimination".

Close to 75% of the preliminary games have been played, with Lc0 and Leelenstein in 1st and 2nd places. Stockfish lost its individual match to both engines and is currently languishing in 7th place.

[For further information from the various stakeholders in the engine-to-engine events, see the tab 'TCEC/CCC Links' at the top of this page. • NB: Leela = LC0 = LCzero]