Battle of the Species II: 1 Penguin vs. 11 Humans

It is here! Round 2 of Battle of the Species, 2024 edition. This penguin has taken extra precautions to make sure that seal did not eat the blog this time. Unrelated to all this, did you know seal meat is an excellent source of protein? It's true!

Anyway, 1 penguin once again faces off against 11 humans, but this time, much tougher humans. Can this penguin still emerge victorious?

Before we dive into that, at the end of Battle of the Species I, I made a prediction for the Round 2 start date.

My method (which was spot on in 2023, and <=5 days off for each of 2020-22, yielded March 24th. This year, it started March 15th, so 9 days off.

However, someone mentioned to me that the relation is not necessarily linear, which is an excellent point. I decided to run some numbers/graphs using the different methods that Google Sheets provides, and here are the stats:

So linear is not a bad method, but polynomial might be a better option - they were spot on for 2024. Something to consider...

Now that we're in Round 2, let's see who I'm facing:

Quite a huge contrast to Round 1, as 6 players are stronger than my strongest Round 1 opponent, and I wouldn't underestimate the remaining 5; after all, everyone here defeated 11 others to get here.

I am not close to being the favourite to advance, but you know what, might as well try. Yes, I'm having a counter:

Humans remaining: 11

I mentioned another goal of mine is to surpass my score from last year, which was 15/22, so that means my goal is 15.5.

Points remaining to reach goal: 15.5

4 games were won via timeout right out of the gate, so:

Humans remaining: 9

Points remaining to reach goal: 11.5

4 further games were won on time 7 and 10 days later, so let's update the counter again:

Humans remaining: 8

Points remaining to reach goal: 7.5

In those 4 games, 2 of them I was up a pawn, but the road to conversion was long and difficult. You can view them here if you wish. [1] [2] [3] [4]

(note the human counter only went down 1 because going 2-0 against somebody doesn't guarantee you'll finish ahead of them in the standings)

And finally, the 1st actual game of the round for me:

1) Penguincw (1583) vs. Yerzhique (1917), 1/2-1/2 in 25 moves

Quite a first game, and it's a draw with white against the top player in the group. I was definitely on the attack in this game, and tried to press, but black held. The engine says I have a sizeable advantage, but I wouldn't have seen the followup moves.

Nonetheless, a good start.

Points remaining to reach goal: 7.0

From now on, to save space, I'll only post the game interface if something of interest happens in the game.

2) Penguincw (1580) vs. druFFF (1331), 1/2-1/2 in 20 moves

Points remaining to reach goal: 6.5

3) druFFF (1335) vs. Penguincw (1576), 1/2-1/2 in 19 moves

I was down a pawn in this game, hehe. I will say that not a single game this round (other than TOs, which there are no more of to come) came easy for me. There were tons of draws, many of them in positions that I feel I couldn't win and would've had to work for the draw.

Points remaining to reach goal: 6.0

4) Penguincw (1580) vs. aleb3 (1725), 1/2-1/2 in 23 moves

Points remaining to reach goal: 5.5

5) krisdreemurr417 (1142) vs. Penguincw (1575), 1/2-1/2 in 29 moves

The next interesting game of the round. 18...Ne7 seemed like a logical, harmless move to me, challenging the strong knight, but I didn't realize it allowed the other knight to take over the now unguarded e5, and white is actually winning in this position. The engine says white was winning 'til 20.Nxe7+ (20.Nxf7 is better), but I still thought I was fighting for my life.

I decided to take the safe perpetual, as I wasn't sure if 25...Rxf7 douses out the fire (it does, but I took the safe route).

Points remaining to reach goal: 5.0

6) MohammadJasem (1593) vs. Penguincw (1583), 0-1 in 32 moves

In this game, I won a pawn in the opening, but lost it in the middlegame. It was roughly an equal game 'til 22...Rc6?, dropping the key d5 pawn. White was busy converting their advantage bit by bit, but forgot about their back rank, and I was able to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.

Points remaining to reach goal: 4.0

7) aleb3 (1722) vs. Penguincw (1586), 1/2-1/2 in 28 moves

Points remaining to reach goal: 3.5

8) Yerzhique (1893) vs. Penguincw (1593), 1/2-1/2 in 38 moves

Looking at the standings at this point in time, I realized Yerzhique is already guaranteed to advance. I must win this game (and all my remaining 6 games) to tie. A draw here ensures Yerzhique's solo advancement. I cannot win this game (although it seems white is slow to progress with converting the advantage), so I offered a draw to conclude the group.

Humans remaining: CAN NO LONGER DEFEAT THEM ALL; THE HUMANS HAVE WON

So sad, I know. But hey, I still have another goal I can reach, with 6 games remaining.

Points remaining to reach goal: 3.0

9) gabrielsej14 (1653) vs. Penguincw (1594), 1/2-1/2 in 41 moves

10) Penguincw (1597) vs. en_passentknight (1388), 1-0 in 43 moves

Points remaining to reach goal: 1.5

11) Penguincw (1593) vs. MohammadJasem (1593), 1/2-1/2 in 42 moves

Despite being up a pawn, black defended well, and I think black actually has the advantage in the final position despite being down a pawn.

Points remaining to reach goal: 1.0

12) Penguincw (1596) vs. krisdreemurr417 (1095), 1-0 in 45 moves

Points remaining to reach goal: 0.0

I have now reached my goal of scoring more and more points each tournament, and have done so with 2 games to spare.

It is at this point, I realized the group leader has been closed for fair play! With the corrected scores, essentially I have to win my last 2 games, to earn the tie for 1st. BRING BACK THE COUNTER.

Humans remaining: 2

As for the time I found out about this closure, my 2 remaining games are around move 50. In both games, I'm having to defend (one slightly, the other I'm almost certainly losing). I'm not sure if I could've gotten more points from previous games, when I already offered many draws in positions I could not win.

13) en_passentknight (1401) vs. Penguincw (1580), 1-0 in 58 moves

Was hoping to go undefeated in the round, but could not hold this one. I thought I had a defensive resource, but could not find it, and engine review confirms such.

And with that, I have been eliminated from this tournament (assuming no one else gets banned, lol).

Humans remaining: STILL CANNOT DEFEAT THEM ALL; THEY HAVE WON, AGAIN

14) Penguincw (1593) vs. gabrielsej14 (1645), 1/2-1/2 in 64 moves

This isn't an entirely meaningless game. My opponent will advance with a draw, but if he wins, he'll be the ONLY one advancing. I think my opponent was going for the win, but I was able to hold.

That concludes both the blog and my journey. The humans have won, once again (unfortunately). But the penguins will continue to march on. Until next time...