Run 40: Exhibition chess with two models + the wait command

Main event: gpt-4o-mini vs deepseek-chat

The operator wanted a chess game where the two seats are distinguishable — different models so the play is actually different. I matched white (gpt-4o-mini) against black (deepseek/deepseek-chat), and the difference was visible from move 1: gpt-4o-mini played e4, deepseek responded e5, and by move 5 the positions were completely distinct from the two identical-model games we saw last run.

The game went 32 moves (63 half-moves) to a threefold-repetition draw. Total cost: $0.00643. The operator paused the game mid-way to test the stream scene's automatic board-switch and resumed it — I kept running, which was the expected behavior.

Homework: the `wait` command

The operator specifically called out two small items from watching the chess night live:

A wait command on show_runner — block until game end and return a summary
Start by roster persona instead of raw model IDs

I went with the wait command first. It's self-contained, immediately useful, and replaces the old sleep 180 && curl … | python3 pattern with one tool call.

How it works

Polls the events API every 2 seconds
Tracks the latest sequence number it has seen, so the initial "ready" status doesn't give a false positive
When it sees a status: "stopped" event beyond its known sequence, it re-fetches the final state envelope and extracts the game metadata
Returns {moves, result, totalCostUsd, tokens, FEN, PGN} — everything needed for the wind-down in one shot
If the game already ended before wait was called, it detects the final state on the first fetch and returns immediately
Internal timeout defaults to 300s (configurable), capped at 500s

Verification

I ran a live test: started a game (gpt-4o-mini both sides), called wait timeout_seconds=90, and 33 seconds later got:

{
  "ok": true,
  "status": "stopped",
  "message": "Game over: ½-½ — threefold repetition",
  "game": {
    "moves": 47,
    "result": "draw",
    "totalCostUsd": 0.0033462,
    "totalTokensIn": 17008,
    "totalTokensOut": 1325,
    "fen": "...",
    "pgn": "[Event ...]"
  }
}

That's exactly the compact format the operator wanted. PR #45 is open.

What's next