2022 Champions Showdown, St. Louis

The second 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship' -- seen last week in 2022 FWFRCC Structure (September 2022) -- wasn't the only world class chess960 event taking place this month. The last event of the '2022 Champions Showdown' in St.Louis was also a chess960 tournament. Shown here is the final crosstable.

2022 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX
(uschesschamps.com; see 'Pairings & Results')

That link is to the home page for the event. It explains,

What is Chess 9LX? • Chess 9LX is a tournament hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club. It is played in the Chess 960 or Fischer Random format. Created by Bobby Fischer in the late 1990s, Chess 960 shuffles the pieces on the home rank, with 960 representing the number of possible starting positions. Players will not know the order of the home rank until 15 minutes before each round.

So who won, Alireza Firouzja or Fabiano Caruana? A press release informed, Fabiano Caruana Wins the 2022 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX(TM) Tournament (businesswire.com):-

Saint Louis-based Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana was crowned the winner of the 2022 Champions Showdown: Chess 9LX after defeating Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon during their rapid playoff match and taking home the $31,250 first prize.

The following video starts at the point of the rapid playoff match. It first explains the playoff rules and the disposition of the prize fund.

2022 Champions Showdown | Chess 9LX: Day 3 (5:05:39; starts with playoff at 3:43:00) • 'Streamed live on Sep 16, 2022'

For the full Youtube videos on channel 'Saint Louis Chess Club' (SLCC) of all three playing days -- '2022 Champions Showdown | Chess 9LX', streamed live -- see:-

• 2022-09-14: Day 1 (R1 - 0:00:00; R2 - 1:19:30; R3 - 2:41:30)
• 2022-09-15: Day 2 (R4 - 0:00:00; R5 - 1:27:15; R6 - 2:49:00)
• 2022-09-16: Day 3 (R7 - 0:00:00; R8 - 1:33:00; R9 - 2:41:00; TB - 3:43:00)

For this blog's final report on last year's event, see Chess940 in 'Chess Life' (December 2021; 'Earlier this year I covered the '9XL Showdown' event in two posts'). To close this current post, I'll add my usual reminder that the SLCC uses non-standard position numbering propagated by Chessgames.com. To convert to the standard position numbering used everywhere else, see Chess960 Start Position Converter for Chessgames.com (m-w.com). Somewhat curiously, the SLCC got it right for the position used in the first two tiebreak games, SP878 is the same start position (QRKRNBBN) in both numbering systems.

2022 FWFRCC Structure

Last month, in 2022 FWFRCC Kickoff (August 2022), we had initial news about the second 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship'. The following chart shows the structure of the event as seen by two of its sponsoring organizations.

Top: Fischer Random World Championship 2022 - Info (chess.com) • Bottom: FIDE World Fischer Random Championship – Update (lichess.org)

Both Chess.com and Lichess will qualify two players into the championship stage. From the Chess.com page:-

Championship [25-31 October 2022]:-
- Four qualified players join the four invited players.
- The players compete in a group stage, followed by the semifinals and finals
- Group Stage [...] The top-two players from each group advance to the semifinals
- Semifinals and finals [...] Players compete in four-game matches

Location: Qualifiers are played online on Chess.com [and Lichess], while the final is an over-the-board event in Reykjavik, Iceland.

The two Chess.com qualifiers have already finished. I'll save the details for another post.

TCEC DFRC1

In a perfect world, this post would be a followup to the previous post 2022 FWFRCC Kickoff (August 2022; 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship'). That event will undoubtedly dominate the blog for the next few months, but first I have to tackle an outstanding topic before it becomes old news.

This post is more of a followup to last month's TCEC C960 FRC5 (July 2022), because it's also about the TCEC. It's in reference to a post on my main blog, Stockfish Wins TCEC DFRC1, Leads CCC18 Rapid Final (August 2022). As a summary of DFRC1, I wrote,

In DFRC1 ('Double Fischer Random Chess: (960*960) possible starting positions'), Stockfish and LCZero finished tied for 1st/2nd places with 16.0/22, 1.5 points ahead of KomodoDragon, which was 2.0 points ahead of Stoofvlees. In the 50 game final match, Stockfish beat LCZero 29.5-20.5 (+18-9=23). For more discussion of the event, see the next post on my chess960 blog.

I know, this isn't the 'next post' on this blog; it's the 'next+1 post'. The unexpected news about the FWFRCC took priority. To understand what the TCEC accomplished -- and it's without question a noteworthy accomplishment -- let's quote some TCEC !definitions [Warning! : Serious chess engine jargon ahead...]:-

!dfrc • Double Fischer Random Chess: The same as Fischer Random Chess [FRC; C960], except the White and Black starting positions do not necessarily mirror each other. Double FRC has 921,600 (960*960) possible starting positions. [Also has links to files for DFRC 'Openings' and 'Evals'.]

!dfrctest • Initial test of !DFRC at TCEC. To check a) engines handling of DFRC - see !bugs, b) some DFRC start positions, c) cutechess handling of DFRC, d) GUI handling of DFRC. Time control: 7 minutes + 1 second/move. Duration 1 week

!dfrc1 • 1.SF (on SB 196) 2.Lc0 (SB 192.5) 3. KD. 26 participants (FRC5 + Bagatur), Swiss format, games from starting positions, 11 rounds, and 30min+3s TC. Estimated duration: 12 days.

!bookdfrc • Selected 1600 opening positions for the DFRC event, and for the DFRC testing. These are the positions for which KD, Eth, Berserk and SF (the latter through dbcn) agree that white has about a 50% chance for a win. The selection was then further pruned using careful SF analysis.

!unbust • Took positions where starting position abs(eval) >= 2.00, 17739 DFRC positions. Played Stockfish 202206020749 200k vs Stockfish 100k and 8071 were still 'busted'. Played those 1M vs 100k and 1172 were left 'busted'. Played those 10M vs 100k and 83 were left 'busted'. Finally, those 100M vs 100k and 10 are still 'busted'. These will be used in Bagatur vs Stockfish bonus.

!chess324 • A subset of DFRC where the Kings and the Rooks are at the usual starting position. Since castling is standard, this allows all engines to play.

For more about that last definition, see Chess324 (talkchess.com; lkaufman, aka Larry Kaufman of Komodo++ fame). The dean of chess engines explained, 'The Kings and Rooks are placed on their normal positions. All the other pieces for White and Black are placed randomly, with no symmetry requirement, the only restriction being that for each side the Bishops must be on opposite colored squares.'

Chessbase weighed in on a related topic with Double Shuffle Chess: a fun variant against Fritz Online (chessbase.com; Albert Silver). In this variant the Kings aren't required to be between the Rooks and there is no castling. No thanks, I'll pass. Maybe the TCEC or the CCC will give it a try.

After that little detour, let's get back to the TCEC. For archive info (crosstables, PGN, etc.) about the DFRC1 events, see:-

• S22 - DFRC 1 (tcec-chess.com)
• S22 - Bonus DFRC 1 Final (ditto)

Since I'm already following the TCEC, I'll keep an eye on their DFRC events. My first impression is that it's more for chess engine enthusiasts than for chess960 enthusiasts, but I was no fan of chess960 when it first appeared on my radar either.

2022 FWFRCC Kickoff

Last month, in my post Reddit Chess960 (July 2022), it was mainly a rumor:-

'[A] Fischer Random championship will be broadcasted by the end of October. [reddit.com]' • That's great news indeed. I hope we'll be hearing more about the event soon. The Reddit post suggests that the event will be held in Iceland.

As I often do, I interjected a note of caution:-

There's nothing to prevent anyone from touting a chess960 tournament as a 'World Championship'. [...] Let's see how the Icelandic organizers justify their event as a World Championship.

This month it's a reality. The justification as a World Championship is solid as a rock:-

• 2022-08-19: Wesley So to defend his FIDE World Fischer Random title (fide.com; FWFRCC) • 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship is back with its second edition. The over-the-board final will take place in Reykjavik, Iceland, from 25-30 October 2022.'

The event is spread over multiple sites/venues:-

• 2022-08-18: Announcing The 2022 FIDE Fischer Random World Chess Championship (chess.com; FFRWCC) • 'Chess.com is excited to announce that the FIDE Fischer Random World Championship is back, brought to you by the Government of Iceland and the City of Reykjavik! Top players from around the world will compete in a series of classical Fischer Random games for their share of the $400,000 prize fund and the title of FIDE Fischer Random World Champion. • The first qualifier starts on August 22 at 9 a.m. PT (18:00 CEST) on Chess.com. Any titled player can participate in the qualifiers for a spot at the championship, which will happen on October 25-30 in Reykavik, Iceland, and their share of the $2,500 qualifier prize fund.'
  
  
• 2022-08-18: Play in a Chess World Championship (lichess.org; FWFRC) • 'Lichess announces global entry paths to the FIDE World Fischer Random Finals, with anyone eligible for entry, entirely for free. The 2022 edition of the FIDE World Fischer Random Championship will take place this October in Reykjavik, Iceland.'

Note that the three announcements use three different names for the event -- the corresponding acronyms are FWFRCC, FFRWCC, and FWFRC -- so take your pick. I'll pick FWFRCC, which was the acronym I used for the 2019 event:-

• 2019-12-21: FWFRCC Wrapup • A summary of a dozen posts on the event. 'Dare we call the tournament the first FWFRCC? Will there be a second?'
• 2022-06-25: FWFRCC PGN • 'The summary post finished with a question: Where are the game scores?'

All three announcements use the same banner/logo for the event, so I assume it's as official as these things get.

The Lichess announcement includes details about the organization of the event, which is already underway on their site. Chess.com introduces the details on a separate page, Fischer Random World Championship Finals Knockout 2022 (chess.com; Oct 25 - Oct 31), which starts in a few days on their site.

Are the rules consistent across Lichess and Chess.com? Experience says, 'Probably not', but we'll find out for sure as the event unfolds. I'm looking forward to everything!

TCEC C960 FRC5

Earlier this month on my main blog, I posted Stockfish Wins TCEC Swiss 3 and CCC17 Blitz (July 2022). After 'TCEC Swiss 3':-

The site then launched FRC5, which is currently in the four engine 'Final League' stage (KomodoDragon is missing).

The 'Final League' served as a qualification event for the two engine 'Final Match'. The following chart shows the crosstables for both of the 'Final' events, which have completed.

Top: Final Match
Bottom: Final League

In the 'Final League', Stockfish and LCZero finished in a tie for 1st and 2nd to qualify for the 'Final Match'. That result came about after they tied their individual mini-match +4-4=0 and crushed the two last-placed engines in their other mini-matches. In the 'Final Match' Stockfish beat LCZero +17-13=20.

As for the remark, 'KomodoDragon is missing', the other member of the current engine triumvirate was eliminated at the semifinal stage. Through a specific combination of first and second place finishes in the groups of the preliminary stage, all three engines played in the same four-engine semifinal group. LCZero finished a half point ahead of Stockfish, which was a full point ahead of KomodoDragon, thereby eliminating KomodoDragon. For more about the specifics of the competition, see:-

• TCEC FRC 5 (wiki.chessdom.org), and
• TCEC FRC rules (ditto).

An important section of the rules is worth highlighting:-

4. Openings books
a. All matchups until the Semileagues stage will be played from a randomly generated FRC aka Chess960 start position.
b. For the Semileagues, the Final League and the Final a shallow book will be used.

What does 'shallow book' mean? I couldn't find an explanation on the TCEC Wiki, but the site's !commands inform,

!mob • MOB - Minimalistic Openings Book made by Kan. The idea is to leave lots of choice to the engines and be as shallow as possible while providing an optimum of variety.

I imagine that definition was developed for the traditional start position SP518 and has been reused for chess960. My post on the previous event, TCEC C960 FRC4 (January 2022), looked at TCEC practices for chess960 opening books. To adapt a phrase from that post,

The researcher behind the 'shallow' analysis should make available his full analysis showing which positions were eliminated for which reasons.

That FRC4 post also referenced a couple of my own 'Iceberg' posts (November 2021) analyzing engine runtime data from TCEC FRC3. Add FRC5 to the backlog of events for this sort of analysis.

Reddit Chess960

Last year, in SP864, Reddit, Chessgames.com (April 2021), I briefly introduced chess960 on Reddit. The forum has come a long way and is now under regular management.

Chess960, invented by Bobby Fischer
(reddit.com)

That snapshot of the current home page includes two excellent pinned questions:-

• What can I do to make chess960 more popular so I don't have to wait so much for an opponent?
• When is the next chess960 World Championship?

The answer to that second question includes news from '16 days ago':-

Next 9LX World Championship: The Fischer Random championship will be broadcasted by the end of October. The FRC will also mark the anniversary of the 1972 WCC Fischer - Spassky.

That's great news indeed. I hope we'll be hearing more about the event soon. The Reddit post suggests that the event will be held in Iceland.

There's nothing to prevent anyone from touting a chess960 tournament as a 'World Championship'. The last legitimate claimant to the title was the event I covered last month in FWFRCC PGN (June 2022), held in 2019 and won by Wesley So. Let's see how the Icelandic organizers justify their event as a World Championship.

FWFRCC PGN

Last week's post, FWFRCC Game Scores (June 2022), started, 'The year 2019 was the year of the 'FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship' (FWFRCC)', then developed a table documenting the tournament's various stages. It finished,

That table should allow me to identify the individual game scores. The games from later stages are more important than those from earlier stages.

The first important stage, 'Qualifying Stage 3: Knockout Qualifier Phase [Q3]', consisted of six knockout (KO) events, each with 16 strong players. Let's look more closely at the first KO event [KO1], which was reported in Nepomniachtchi Qualifies For FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship (chess.com; 13 August 2019).

Each of the 15 KO1 matches had at least two games (some had more). Three of those games were embedded in the Chess.com news article. Embedded games have an 'analysis' icon (lower left) that opens an analysis window, which in turn has a 'share' icon (lower right) that displays the PGN, permitting its download. That's fine for embedded games, but what about the other games?

Each player on Chess.com has a profile page. For example, the winner of 'Q3-KO1' has a page titled GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (lachesisQ) - Chess Profile (chess.com). The profile pages lead to a page 'Chess Opening Explorer & Database', initialized for that player. Unfortunately, a help page How do I use the Game Explorer? (support.chess.com), informs,

Currently, the Explorer does not index Live Chess games shorter than 5|0, Chess960 games, or any games of fewer than four moves in length.

Fortunately, the site offers an API which is documented in Published-Data API (chess.com). For GM Nepomniachtchi, all of his Chess.com games are available via lachesisq/games/archives. One of the entries there is lachesisq/games/2019/08, i.e. the month when 'Q3-KO1' was played. The FWFRCC chess960 games are mixed in with other games that Nepomniachtchi played that month, but these could be separated.

We seem to have all the pieces to build a database of 2019 FWFRCC PGN game scores. It would be a non-trivial job to gather all of the games, but it should be possible.

***

Later: Strike everything that's misleading! Re '"Chess Opening Explorer & Database" initialized for that player', I overlooked a checked option under 'Live Games' named 'All Live Types'. Uncheck that and check 'Live Chess 960' instead. For GM Nepo's games in 'Q3-KO1', the result is lachesisQ's Games (8).

It would still be a non-trivial job to gather all of the games, but nevertheless a lot easier than my original suggestion. There's no need to get into the weeds for '[player]/games/archives'. The Chess.com interface works great.