TCEC Stage 1a, the first act of the world’s top computer chess championship TCEC, was given the official start on February 7th at 20:00 CET. The first three games of the group have been played, and in all of them we have stunning results. The 3000+ ELO machines Houdini 4, Critter 1,6a, and Gull 2,8b have been held to draws by the much weaker Texel 1.03 , Gaviota 0,99b , and Cheng4 0.36c.

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Texel, rated 2839 ELO, drew with the 3183 ELO Houdini 4 in a QGD Slav defense. A 106 moves Queen + pawns ending left one of the favorites of TCEC with just half a point after 106 moves.

Gull 2,8b (3080 ELO) was stunned by the newcomer Cheng4 0.36c (2741 ELO) in the longest game of the day that continued over 6 hours.

Critter 1,6a (ELO 3077) could not overcome with black the resistance of Gaviota 0,99b (ELO 2756). The audience is used to seeing Gaviota bringing surprises, like the one vs Equinox in Season 4, and this season with the new and improved Gaviota 0,99b, everyone is expecting even better results by the author Miguel Ballicora.

Games 4,5, and 6 are going to be played today, where Equinox 2.04 – Arminius, Hannibal 1.4b – Delphil 3.2, and Redqueen 1.197 – Onno 1.27 will try to use the surprising results of the favorites and take an early lead of TCEC Stage 1a. Follow the current live game here

TCEC Stage 1 rules

Stage 1 consists of 3 groups (1a, 1b and 1c), where each group is a single round robin meaning that all the participants play each other once. 66 games will be played in total for each group (198 for all groups) where the top five from each group and the best 6th placed will qualify for Stage 2 (16 in total).

More about TCEC rules here and at the official website (menu “help”).

Stage 1a participants

Arminius
Cheng4
Critter
Delphil
Equinox
Gaviota
Gull
Hannibal
Houdini
Onno
Redqueen
Texel

Stage 1b participants

Arasan
Exchess
Fire
Naum
Nebula
Nightmare
Jazz
Shredder
Spike
Stockfish
Toga II
Tornado

Stage 1c participants

Alfil
Chiron
Crafty
Jonny
Junior
Komodo
Octochess
Protector
Rybka
Scorpio
Spark
The Baron

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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