TCEC/CCC Interludes

In my previous fortnightly post on the two most important engine vs. engine tournaments, TCEC S23, CCC19 Rapid : Stockfish Wins Both (November 2022), I was premature in calling Stockfish the CCC winner. Here's a summary of that post:-

TCEC: Stockfish beat LCZero +27-10=63 to win its sixth straight 'Superfinal'. The site is currently conducting a 100-game 'Subfinal', where LCzero has already clinched victory over KomodoDragon. • CCC: In the 'CCC19 Rapid Semifinal', Stockfish, Lc0, and Dragon finished 1-2-3, with the other three engines as distant also-rans. LC0 beat Dragon by three points in the 200-game 'Challenger' match and is currently trailing Stockfish in the 200-game 'Final' match.

Despite being premature, I wasn't wrong. Following is the current status of both sites.

TCEC: LCZero beat KomodoDragon +24-13=63 in the 'Subfinal' for S23 bragging rights as runnerup. The site then organized another VVLTC event. This is the third time that VVLTC has followed soon after a Sufi. See TCEC Stockfish Wins S21; CCC Romance Continues (August 2021) and TCEC Cup 10 Underway; Stockfish Wins CCC17 Bullet (May 2022) for the S21 and S22 equivalents. The S23 VVLTC was followed by an SVVLTC event. The TCEC !commands explain,

!vvltc • Very very long time control tournament with 6h+1min. Stockfish, KomodoDragon and LCZero. 2x DRR (12 games, 6 openings).

!svvltc • Starting position very very long time control tournament with 6h+1min. Stockfish - LCZero and reverse (2 games).

The SVVLTC was followed by the 'TCEC Noomen Extra 2' event. The !commands again:-

!noomenextra2 (or !noomen) • TCEC Noomen Extra 2 bonus is a gauntlet of the current top 3 engines (Stockfish, Leela and KomodoDragon) vs the next 11 - Igel, Seer, ScorpioNN, Ethereal, Revenge, RubiChess, Koivisto, Berserk, SlowChess, Stoofvlees, rofChade - from TCEC Season 23 at TC 30+3 with a special book by Jeroen Noomen. Book: !booknoomen

!booknoomen • Four short openings selected by Jeroen Noomen. a) 1.e4 g6 b) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 c) 1.e4 c5 d) 1.e4 c6

The objective of that last event is not clear to me.

CCC: Stockfish beat Lc0 114.5-85.5 in the 'CCC19 Rapid Final'. The site then ran a series of exhibition events. The most important was the 'CCC19 Rapid Alt Final' (note the 'Alt'), where Stockfish beat Dragon 119.5-80.5. In the previous post I asked,

What's next for the site? My guess is 'CCC19 Bullet'.

The site's !commands inform:-

!next • TBD; Testing for CCC20 Bullet? New engine additions? Your recommendations? Super GM openings?

If this is right, there will be no 'CCC19 Bullet' -- not that it matters. When was the last time Stockfish did not win a CCC Bullet, Blitz, or Rapid tournament?

[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]