23 May 2022

TCEC Cup 10 Underway; Stockfish Wins CCC17 Bullet

Two weeks ago, in the previous post on the two foremost, ongoing engine vs. engine competitions, I ranked the three leading engines and asked a question: TCEC/CCC: Stockfish no.1; Dragon, LCZero - Who's Better? (May 2022). To summarize that post:-

TCEC: LCZero beat KomodoDragon +24-15=61 in the S22 Subfi to claim bragging rights as the no.2 engine in the world. The site is currently running a 'VVLTC Bonus'. • CCC: In the 'CCC17 Bullet Challenger', Dragon is only a few games from clinching victory over Lc0. Barring a catastrophe for Dragon, the 'CCC17 Bullet Finals' will see Stockfish vs. Dragon.

At the time, it was a toss-up between Dragon and LCZero. Bragging rights are only valid until the next match. Has anything changed in the meantime?

TCEC: The 'VVLTC Bonus' consisted of four-game mini-matches featuring the top three engines: Stockfish, LCZero, and KomodoDragon. Stockfish and LCZero drew their match, while both finished 'plus-one' against KomodoDragon.

Sometime later the site launched the 'Cup 10' event, using a 32-engine knockout format. The four engines that reached the semifinal stage included the three that competed in the 'VVLTC Bonus' plus an engine named 'Revenge'. An !command informs that Revenge 'is the renamed upgrade to Pedone'.

CCC: In the 'CCC17 Bullet Challenger' Dragon beat Lc0, 844.5-775.5 (1620 games). Then in the 'CCC17 Bullet Finals' Stockfish beat Dragon, 993.0-627.0 (also 1620 games). Unfortunately, I didn't have time to work out the W-L-D scores for either match.

The site is currently preparing the 'CCC17 Blitz Qualification' event, the first stage in the next multi-stage competition. Last month I prepared a summary of the The CCC16 Season (April 2022). The CCC17 season is following the same overall structure -- first a rapid event, then a bullet event, then a blitz event.

Back to the question 'Dragon, LCZero - Who's Better?' In the TCEC 'VVLTC Bonus' the answer was LCZero is better. In the 'CCC17 Bullet Challenger', Dragon was better. In the TCEC 'Cup 10', Stockfish will probably beat one of them in the semifinal match, then beat the other in the final match, proving only that the drawing for the brackets plays a role for the ranking after no.1.

[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; Dragon = KomodoDragon]

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