TCEC S15/S16 Bonus; CCC8/-9 Demos

A week ago both world class engine-vs-engine competitions were between their marquee events. I recorded the status in, TCEC S15/S16; CCC8/CCC9. Here's a summary:-

TCEC: The last six games of the S15 superfinal finished with six draws, giving Leela a final score of +14-7=79. The superfinal conclusion was mostly overlooked or ignored by the major chess news sites. Q: What is the TCEC doing now? A: '!bonus: Featuring winners of TCEC Seasons 1 thru 15 = 14 engines (S1 and S2 had same winner). Next: Rapid bonus with engines from Div P and Div 1.' • CCC: The CCC has been running a series of exhibition events. CCC9 is in a testing stage. Perhaps by next week's post, CCC9 will already be underway.

When will TCEC S16 start? CCC9? I wish I knew. In any case, here's the current situation.

TCEC: The 'S15 - Champions Bonus' is still running with about 75% of the games having been played. Leela, the winner of S15 is trailing the four versions of Stockfish that won S11 through S14. The TCEC has released a few details about S16:-

!s16: The Season 16 divisions are 4, 3, 2, 1, and Premier. The Superfinal will probably be played before the Cup. • !div4: New entries: 1. Mystery NN, 2. A 2nd new unique neural net based engine. 3. One new classical (AB) engine.

Last week I mentioned, 'the technological evolution from traditional engines to AI/NN engines, a trend which will probably accelerate into a revolution'. How far will the two new AI/NN engines advance in S16?

CCC: The CCC is still running a series of exhibition events. In the last week, we've seen...

• CCC: Testing Updates II
• Lc0 vs Allie
• CCC Demo: King’s Gambit

...in that order. The current event, dubbed 'Rapid Romp', has three engines and is also about 75% completed. Leela is trailing both Brainfish and Leelenstein, with a minus score against both adversaries.

It's curious that the status for both TCEC and CCC shows Leela, the S15 winner, behind the other engines. A thread on the Leela forum, Leela performance so far in the Champions Bonus, explores some of the reasons for this apparent underperformance.

[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]