12 April 2021

TCEC 'Swiss 1', CCC 'Bots: Top Players...' Both Underway

The title of this post about the world's top two engine vs. engine platforms echoes the title of the previous post from two weeks ago, TCEC 'Swiss 1', CCC 'Streamer Bots Battle' Both Underway (March 2021). The situation at that time can be summarized as:-

TCEC: In the 'FRC 3' final, KomodoDragon beat Stockfish. After FRC3, the site started its first Swiss tournament, 'Swiss 1', with 38 engines. • CCC: Stockfish won the Rapid 2021 final match, beating Lc0. The site is now running 'Chess.com Bots: Streamers Battle' with 16 bots participating.

Neither site has revealed a reason why it is running these types of competition. My guess is that TCEC wants a format where all participating engines remain in the tournament from start to finish, while CCC wants to publicize its bot collection. This assumes that there are indeed reasons.

TCEC: 'Swiss 1' is still running and should finish later this week. LCZero and KomodoDragon are currently tied for 1st/2nd, 0.5 points ahead of Stockfish, which is 1.5 points ahead of the rest of the field.

What's next? The site's '!s21' command says, 'TCEC S21 will include Leagues Season, Cup 9, FRC 4 and Swiss 2. Estimated to start mid/late April'. Using my post TCEC S20 Underway; CCC Less Uncertain (December 2020) as the basis of a calculation, S20 [TCEC season 20] has been running for nearly five months.

CCC: In last week's off-week post, I looked into Chess.com Streamer Bots (April 2021) to find out what they are. The event was won by the 'Eric (2600)' bot, the highest rated of the 16 bots. I'm not sure what determines the bot's 2600 rating which is apparently based on the real world rating of its namesake, GM Eric Hansen. The bots finished roughly in the order predicted by their estimated ratings.

The site is currently running a similar event called 'Chess.com Bots: Top Players, Personalities, Streamers' with 20 bots participating. How much longer will it run? The schedule says that the game currently being played -- 'no.1705: Anna [IM/WGM Anna Rudolf] vs. Danny [IM Danny Rensch]' -- starts 'in 4 days'. The '!next' command says that a 'Komodo personalities match' is waiting in the wings.

[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]

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