One event came to an end today, another one started, one is ongoing and another one begins tomorrow. All the chess action a fan can stand, and then some.
1. TCEC Cup. The 8-game finale between Stockfish and Houdini was close. The first six games were drawn, and then Stockfish won a miniature. Houdini didn't manage anything serious in the rematch (the openings are in pairs, giving each engine a chance to have White in the same line), and when it finished in a draw Stockfish once again proved the strongest "pound-for-pound" program. (I'm excluding Alpha Zero, which used hardware that vastly exceeded anything Stockfish had in their match last December.)
Right now they're playing some nonsense games on the site, making Stockfish play 1.e4 e5 2.Ke2 against other top engines, but at some point tomorrow (Monday) the TCEC 13 Final between Stockfish and Komodo will get underway.
2. Shankland-Svidler. Sam Shankland won a nice game in the opener of his six-game match with Peter Svidler. About a week ago Svidler looked like a significant favorite, but after his mostly disastrous European Club Cup and his loss in this game, it's hard to say who's the favorite. And as it turns out, Shankland has just passed Svidler on the live rating list. (Regardless of what happens in this match, it's still too soon to think that Shankland has surpassed Svidler as a chess player, but he's still an impressive player on the way up. At 27, he's a bit older than the usual rising star, but if we focus on his trajectory instead of his age there's reason to think he could still move quite a ways up the rating list.) On the undercard match between Vladimir Fedoseev and Jorden Van Foreest, game 1 ended in a draw.
3. Isle of Man International. The 2700 crowd had an even tougher day today, though they generally managed to avoid the worst outcome. On board 1 Levon Aronian was losing two moves before the end to the brilliantly named Dennis Wagner, but Wagner's 51.Ka3?? was the wrong way to protect the a-pawn. Moving either rook to g4 would have kept a winning position; instead, he resigned after Black's 52nd move. Viswanathan Anand only managed to draw against Robert Hess with the white pieces - and that was an achievement, as he was worse almost throughout and losing for a while too. Other 2700s were nipped for draws as well, and some high-2600s lost, but as far as I can tell no 2700s lost. However, while most of the 2700s who were nipped for draws in round 1 bounced back with wins today, two didn't: Vladimir Kramnik, who failed to defeat Alina Kashlinskaya (who drew with Anish Giri in round 1!); and Michael Adams, who drew with Irina Bulmaga.
Click here for Stockfish's win over Houdini and Shankland's win over Svidler, with my light commentary.