TCEC S18 Sufi Underway; CCC14 on Medical Leave

Two weeks ago, in this blog's fortnightly report on two top engine-vs-engine competitions, TCEC S18 DivP Underway; CCC14 Started, the title summarized the status. Here's a summary of that post that goes deeper:-

TCEC: Premier Division (DivP) has finished the second of three double round robins. The first two engines will qualify into the S18 Superfinal (SuFi). • CCC: CCC14 started with the following 'Format Information' -- This is a double-elimination event. A 16 engine 1 x DRR starts the event. DRR finishers 1-8 are seeded into the winners bracket of the event. Finishers 9-16 are seeded into the losers bracket... -- Close to 75% of the preliminary games have been played.

In the meantime, both competitions have moved into the next phase. Following is the current status.

TCEC: Premier Division (DivP) finished with Stockfish a point ahead of LCZero, which was a half-point ahead of third placed AllieStein. The following chart shows the final crosstable.

In the 100-game final match (aka 'Superfinal' or 'Sufi') Stockfish leads LCZero (aka Leela) by +6-3=13. I documented the previous Sufi in Leela Beat Stockfish in TCEC S17 & CCC13 Finals (April 2020). A three point lead for Stockfish in S18 with less than a quarter of the games played does not bode well for Leela to repeat as TCEC champion. It's time for a visit to the forums to find out what's going on.

CCC: The CCC14 16-engine preliminary double round robin ('Round 1') finished with the usual suspects occupying the top places -- Lc0 (2.5 points ahead of the next place), Leelenstein (ditto), Stoofvlees (3rd/4th), Stockfish (ditto) -- followed by a complicated bracket structure designed to implement the double-elimination event. The brackets were stopped to run 'CCC14: Round 2 (Bullet Test; 1|1)' using the same engines that competed in Round 1. An '!' command informs,

!next • Greco is battling Covid-19, so CCC14 is on hold. Bullet Test is expected to continue to its conclusion in the meantime.

The entire team at Chess for All Ages (that's me, myself, and I) wishes Greco a speedy recovery. The coronavirus Covid-19 is not to be taken lightly.

[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]