TCEC Side Events; CCC 'Rapid 2021' Nearing Semifinal

The previous fortnightly report on the two world class engine vs. engine competitions, Stockfish Wins TCEC S20; CCC 'Rapid 2021' Underway, was the first report in months to see both sites in full swing. The situation at that time can be summarized as:-

TCEC: Stockfish beat LCZero in the S20 Superfinal match +14-8=78. Now that S20 is finished, we can expect a few side events over the next weeks. • CCC: Overview of the 'CCC Rapid 2021' events that have run since the previous report: 'Qualifiers', 'NNUE League', 'Main League'. Next event: 'NN vs Classic'.

The TCEC is currently in intermission, while the CCC is narrowing the field from ten engines to six engines in its effort to choose two engines for a final match.

TCEC: The site is running a series of bonus events mingled with test events. The most important of the bonus events was 'Legacy Top Bonus', won by Stockfish 'Classical', well ahead of seven CPU engines. The test events included four 'Swiss Test' tournaments, each having 42 versions of Stockfish, with events and engines configured using varying conditions. The plans for upcoming events call for '!Cup8, !FRC3, !Swiss1', in that order. The 'Swiss1' event will be the first of its kind.

CCC: What's happening in the 'Rapid 2021'? In the 'Main League' the five first engines, dominated by Stockfish 'Classic', qualified into the subsequent event, 'NN vs Classic'. As explained in that previous report, 'Underway', they were joined by five other engines. Although six of the engines will qualify into the semifinal event, the 'Elite Round', only the last two places remain uncertain.

[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]