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Bread 3.0.0 wins New Engine Test, by Chess Engines Diary 2026.03.21-26

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In a recent tournament featuring 21 chess engines, Bread 3.0.0 took first place, followed by Ynode 0234 in second and Bread 3.0.0 JA in third.

AI Review

The results from the "New Engine Test" (March 2026) provide a fascinating look at the current hierarchy among these specific chess engine versions. Here is a detailed review and analysis of the tournament standings:

1. The Dominance of "Bread" and Ynode

The top of the leaderboard was a three-horse race that left the rest of the field in the dust:
Bread 3.0.0 (1st Place): A truly crushing performance. Scoring 36.5/40 without a single loss (+33 wins, 0 losses, 7 draws) is elite-level consistency. A rating gain of +192 Elo suggests this version was significantly underrated going into the event.
Ynode 0234 (2nd Place): Finished just half a point behind the winner. Like Bread, it remained undefeated, proving to be an incredibly stable and "hard to beat" engine.
Bread 3.0.0 JA (3rd Place): Rounding out the podium, this version confirms that the "Bread" architecture is currently the gold standard in this tier of testing.

2. The Benchmark: Critter 1.6a Under Pressure

The most telling result is the performance of Critter 1.6a (6th place). 
Despite entering with the highest base rating in the table (3230), it finished sixth with a score of 29.5/40, losing 60 Elo points.
The Takeaway: In the chess engine world, standing still is the same as moving backward. The fact that five engines (Bread, Ynode, Leaf, and Caligula) outperformed a classic benchmark like Critter shows just how much "engine science" has progressed. Critter struggled specifically against the top five, failing to secure wins and dropping critical points.

3. Surprises and Struggles

Leaf dev-5382 JA (4th Place): A very strong showing with 35 points, tying with the 3rd-place Bread version on score but losing out on the tiebreak. It’s definitely an engine to watch.
The Bottom of the Pack: It was a rough tournament for Kociolek 2.1, which finished with 0.0/40. A -172 Elo drop indicates either a major technical bug (like frequent crashes) or a massive mismatch in playing strength compared to the 2400-level field.
The Facon Family (17th & 19th): Both versions struggled significantly, suggesting that their current evaluation or search algorithms need more refinement to compete with the "Bread" and "Ynode" class.
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Technical Summary

This tournament illustrates a "narrowing of the gap." Engines previously rated around 2400-2800 are now routinely challenging and beating established 3000+ Elo legends like Critter. The low draw rate at the bottom of the table also shows that the top engines are becoming "ruthless" at punishing even minor inaccuracies.

CEDR 837.643 games download (01.03.2026)

💾 Tournament download with 420 games
💻 Asus Zenbook, AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, RAM 32,0 GB  🖬 GUI - Arena
#chessenginesdiary Country - Poland, City - Malbork  🕓 Time 3'+3"

P Engine CEDR Score (Tie) Chg +/-/=
1: Bread 3.0.0 2400 36.5 / 40 645.00 +192 (+33 -0 =7)
2: Ynode 0234 2400 36.0 / 40 637.00 +188 (+32 -0 =8)
3: Bread 3.0.0 JA 2400 35.0 / 40 604.75 +180 (+30 -0 =10)
4: Leaf dev-5382 JA 2400 35.0 / 40 597.50 +180 (+32 -2 =6)
5: Caligula 7.0 JA 2761 33.5 / 40 551.75 -8 (+30 -3 =7)
6: Critter 1.6a 3230 29.5 / 40 434.00 -60 (+26 -7 =7)
7: 4k-dot-c 8.0 2400 28.0 / 40 390.50 +108 (+25 -9 =6)
8: Tunguska 2.0 2638 25.0 / 40 310.25 -48 (+23 -13 =4)
9: Fatalii 0.10.0 2385 22.0 / 40 252.50 +56 (+19 -15 =6)
10: OxideChessEngine 1.0.0 2400 21.0 / 40 245.00 +40 (+17 -15 =8)
11: Chal 1.3.2 2400 20.5 / 40 242.25 +32 (+15 -14 =11)
12: Rusty-rival 1.0.35-rc8 2400 18.0 / 40 167.50 +8 (+17 -21 =2)
13: TiltEngine 1.3 2400 17.5 / 40 175.75 +4 (+14 -19 =7)
14: Kreveta 2.2.5 2400 15.0 / 40 123.75 -20 (+14 -24 =2)
15: Zeppelin 1.4.1 2400 14.0 / 40 115.25 -32 (+12 -24 =4)
16: Zeppelin 1.4.2 2400 12.5 / 40 85.75 -48 (+10 -25 =5)
17: Facon 1.2 2400 7.0 / 40 33.00 -100 (+7 -33 =0)
18: BenBot 1.7.5 2400 5.0 / 40 15.50 -120 (+4 -34 =2)
19: Facon 1.1 2400 5.0 / 40 13.50 -120 (+4 -34 =2)
20: AllayaChess 1.5 2400 4.0 / 40 12.00 -132 (+3 -35 =2)
21: Kociolek 2.1 2400 0.0 / 40 0.00 -172 (+0 -40 =0)



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