World Chess Software Championship 2023 in Valencia, Spain

[pijl]

Yesterday the first games of the WCSC 2023 in Valencia started. Participants are Arasan, Fritz, Jonny and Stoofvlees. We will play 12 rounds with the 30+15 time control. Rounds 2-4 will be played today, rounds 5-10 tomorrow and the remaining rounds on Tuesday.
There is a live broadcast of the games here .

In round 1 both games were a draw. The game Jonny-Stoofvlees was not very eventful. Arasan-Fritz saw Arasan making a double rook sacrifice to force a draw. As this game is not available on the broadcast above I post it here below. The evaluation included is Arasan's


[pgn][Event "WCSC"]
[Site "Valencia"]
[Date "2023.07.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Arasan"]
[Black "Fritz"]
[ECO "E05"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1. d4 {book 0s} Nf6 {7s (f5)} 2. g3 {book 0s} e6 {8s (g6)}
3. Bg2 {book 0s} d5 {6s} 4. c4 {book 0s} Be7 {17s (Bb4+)}
5. Nf3 {book 0s} O-O {18s} 6. O-O {book 0s} dxc4 {49s}
7. Qc2 {book 0s} a6 {14s} 8. a4 {book 0s} Bd7 {8s} 9. Qxc4
{book 0s} Bc6 {55s} 10. Bf4 {book 0s} Bd6 {18s} 11. Nc3
{book 0s} Bxf4 {18s} 12. gxf4 {book 0s} a5 {18s} 13. e3
{book 0s} Na6 {13s} 14. Ne5 {book 0s} Bxg2 {20s} 15. Kxg2
{book 0s} Nb4 {17s} 16. Rac1 {0.00/34 1:12m} c6 {11s}
17. Qe2 {0.00/32 1:17m} Qe7 {54s (Nbd5)} 18. Rg1 {0.00/32
1:18m} Rfd8 {11s (Rac8)} 19. h3 {0.00/35 56s} Rac8 {1:25m}
20. Qf3 {+0.19/34 3s} Nbd5 {1:47m} 21. Ne2 {+0.19/36 1s}
Nd7 {3:14m (c5)} 22. Ng3 {+0.34/32 1:19m} f5 {1:19m (g6)}
23. Kh2 {+0.41/32 1:01m} Nxe5 {1:00m (Rc7)} 24. dxe5
{+0.02/36 1:27m} Rd7 {12s (Kh8)} 25. Ne2 {+0.28/36 56s} Nb6
{28s (Kh8)} 26. b3 {+0.11/32 58s} Rd2 {10s} 27. Nd4
{0.00/36 1:13m} Rd8 {1:06m} 28. Rg2 {0.00/37 4s} g6 {36s}
29. Qg3 {0.00/41 34s} Qa3 {11s} 30. Nxe6 {0.00/43 46s} Qxc1
{13s} 31. Qg5 {0.00/43 55s} R8d7 {1:19m} 32. Qh6 {0.00/43
26s} Kf7 {1:13m (Rf7)} 33. Nc7 {0.00/43 37s} Kg8 {55s}
34. Rxg6+ {0.00/47 8s} hxg6 {11s} 35. Qxg6+ {0.00/62 43s}
Rg7 {10s} 36. Qe8+ {0.00/62 0s} Kh7 {8s} 37. Qh5+ {0.00/62
0s} Kg8 {8s} 38. Qe8+ {0.00/62 0s} Kh7 {7s} 39. Qh5+
{0.00/62 0s} Kg8 {12s} 40. Qe8+ {0.00/62 0s} 1/2-1/2
[/pgn]

[mclane]

Thank you. Have much fun in Spain.

[pijl]

The second day of the ICGA events has now passed and another three rounds of the WCSC have been played.
In round 2 Arasan continued with sacrificing a rook to force the draw. Although the position looks very interesting to human spectators, the engine never had anything else than a 0.00 score after this.
In round 3 Fritz showed it learned from Arasan and also sacrificed a rook to force the draw. Meanwhile Arasan sacrifice now a minor piece for three pawns, but again with a perpetual as the result.
In round 4 we got the first decisive game of the tournament. Fritz surprised Stoofvlees with a g4 advance and gradually got a better position until Stoofvlees had to resign.
Tomorrow we will have 6 more games, starting already at 10 am local time. The games will now also be broadcasted on lichess

[pijl]

Today 6 more rounds were played. It is not that the programs did not try (some of the game positions are a nightmare for human players) but almost all games ended in a draw again. Only Fritz manage to beat Stoofvlees again who clearly doesn't feel to happy on this machine.
With two more rounds to go tomorrow Fritz is in pole position to prolong its WCSC title.

Tomorrow also the WCCC will start. There are some big machines lined up in this competition. Jonny will bring a big University Cluster and Stoofvlees will run with four fast GPUs.

This year the blitz event is interleaved with the WCCC, and after two rounds of WCCC we will have two rounds of the blitz tournament. More tomorrow.
Richard.

[Graham Banks]

Thanks for the updates, Richard.