TCEC S24 L1, CCC20 Blitz Semifinals: Final Week

For the previous fortnightly post on the two most important, ongoing engine vs. engine competitions the keyword was 'Underway': Stockfish Wins TCEC Swiss 4; TCEC S24 L2 & CCC20 Blitz Underway (February 2023). Here's a summary of that post:-

TCEC: Stockfish won 'Swiss 4', a point ahead of KomodoDragon and LCZero. The site then started S24 League 2 (see diagram for S24 stages). • CCC: The 'CCC20 Blitz Newcomers' and 'Qualifier #1' events have finished and 'Qualifier #2' is underway. The next stage, 'CCC20 Blitz Main', will have 12 engines with three coming from 'Qualifier #2'.

The keyword is still 'Underway', although both competitions have advanced considerably. Both are reaching the stages that determine the three best engines to close their respective seasons.

TCEC: S24 League 1 is underway with Koivisto leading by a significant margin. Berserk is in a tie for second place. Both engines featured in the recent post Chessify's Other Engines (February 2023). L1 will run for another week.

Between L2 &nd L1, the TCEC conducted the 'L2 Igel Gauntlet', with Igel playing against 11 other engines. The TCEC S24 Wiki page explained in two parts the reason for the event. The first part said:-

Tournament Director's decision regarding Booot: It came to the attention of the author of Igel that Booot was finally ready, after many setbacks its author had experienced due to the war in his country [Ukraine]. Igel author in a gentleman gesture then offered Booot to take its place in League 2, and this offer was accepted by TD-decision.

And for the second part:-

Tournament Director's decision regarding Igel: The many Booot crashes distort League 2 results. To alleviate this problem, Igel will be placed back after this League's play and play a 2 rounds gauntlet with reverse games against the other 11 League 2 engines. After removing Booot's results this will give the final table and promotions for League 2.

That was a great show of sportsmanship by all concerned with good calls by the TCEC TD.

CCC: Of the 12 engines that competed in 'CCC20 Blitz Main', six qualified into the 'CCC20 Blitz Semifinals', which is underway. With less than 10% of the games completed, Stockfish already leads by a comfortable margin ahead of Dragon and Lc0, which are ahead of the three other engines. The event will finish within a week, when the second and third engines will compete in a 'Challenger Match' to determine who will face the winner of the Semifinals in the Final match.

[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]