TCEC S22, the Fish Again; CCC17 Bullet Top-3

Relative strength doesn't change quickly among the top engines competing in the two foremost engine vs. engine competitions. In the previous fortnightly post, TCEC Stockfish; CCC Stockfish (April 2022), the no.1 dog was Stockfish, no.2 dog was Dragon. Here's a summary of that post:-

TCEC: In the S22 Superfinal, Stockfish is beating KomodoDragon +12-3=17. Extrapolating this gives a final score of +38-9=53 [64.5-35.5]. • CCC: In the 'CCC17 Rapid Final' match, Stockfish beat Dragon +91-28=181. The site is currently running the 'CCC17 Bullet Qualification'.

Two weeks later, the dogs are holding their positions. The no.3 dog is LCZero, hard at the heels of no.2.

TCEC: In the S22 [Season 22] Superfinal, Stockfish beat KomodoDragon +28-9=63 [59.5-40.5], confirming its status as the world's top engine. To put this in historical context, we can go back to TCEC Stockfish Wins S21; CCC Romance Continues (August 2021), where I noted,

Stockfish beat LCZero in the S21 Sufi by a score of +19-7=74 (56.0-44.0) [...], Stockfish's fourth straight [Sufi] victory.

Now we can talk about the Fish's fifth straight Sufi victory. The TCEC is currently running the S22 Subfinal ('Subfi') between KomodoDragon and LCZero, the two engines that earned second and third places in S22. After a little more than 10% of the 100 games have been played, LCZero is leading by one point.

CCC: In last week's off-week post, The CCC16 Season (April 2022), I mapped the sequence of tournaments for that first season under new management: Rapid, Bullet, Blitz. In a post last year TCEC Swiss 2, CCC16 Rapid : Both Underway (November 2021), I mapped the sequence of four stages for the first tournament: Qualification, Main, Semifinals, Finals. The stages have evolved since that 'CCC16 Rapid' post. The format for the 'CCC17 Bullet' tournament is:-

• Qualification (eight engines, three promoting),
• Main event (twelve engines, six promoting),
• Semifinals (six engines, two promoting), and
• Challenger (810 rounds, 1620 games)
• Finals (810 rounds, 1620 games).

As useful as that overview of the stages is, it doesn't tell the complete story. Since each stage is scheduled to last a week, the number of rounds/games for a stage depends on the time control, bullet being the fastest (meaning more rounds).

'Semifinals (two promoting)' is also misleading. The engine finishing no.1 promotes into the 'Finals', while the engines finishing no.2&3 battle it out in the 'Challenger' for the other spot in the 'Finals'. At least that's what I determined in TCEC S22 DivP, CCC17 Rapid : Both Underway (March 2022), and I have no reason to believe that the current 'CCC17 Bullet' tournament is any different.

Back to the status of the 'CCC17 Bullet' tournament, still underway, three engines promoted from the 'Qualification' stage to the 'Main' stage: Rubi, Seer, Igel. In fact, Igel and Stoofvlees finished with the same score and I wasn't able to determine what tiebreak system was used. The tournament rules ('Info' tab) only mention tied matches. Igel beat Stoofvlees in their individual mini-match, which might well have been the basis of the tiebreak.

The three promoting engines from the 'Qualification' stage finished at the bottom of the next 'Main' stage. In the 'Semifinals', the leaders are Stockfish, Dragon, and Lc0, well ahead of the other three engines.

[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]