WCCE 2026 · The Plate
The 16 engines eliminated in the main Round of 32 played their own knockout — Round of 16 through a Final and 3rd-place match — for bragging rights among the "second sixteen."
Starzix and Komodo Dragon tied their 3rd-place match 2-2-12 (50%, ±0) — so it went to a 10-game bullet extra-time playoff (9s+0.1s inc), which somehow tied again, 0-0-10, all draws. It took a third stage — 12 games at 2s+0.1s inc, the "penalty shootout" of engine tiebreaks — for Starzix to finally settle it, winning 7,0/12 (58%). Three separate matches, 38 games combined, to decide a single placing.
| Bracket | Engine 1 | Engine 2 | Score | W–L–D | Pct | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left | RofChade (Turkey) | Peacekeeper (Tunisia) | 7,0/16 | 0–2–14 | 44% | Peacekeeper |
| Left | Koivisto (Korea Republic) | Horsie (Morocco) | 6,0/16 | 0–4–12 | 38% | Horsie |
| Left | Starzix (Colombia) | Seer (Austria) | 9,0/16 | 3–1–12 | 56% | Starzix |
| Left | Clarity (Algeria) | Black Marlin (Saudi Arabia) | 8,0/16 | 3–3–10 | 50% | Clarity (4-1 bullet tiebreak) |
| Right | Caissa (Netherlands) | Cinder (Ecuador) | 9,0/16 | 2–0–14 | 56% | Caissa |
| Right | Booot (Scotland) | Arasan (Ivory Coast) | 8,0/16 | 1–1–14 | 50% | Booot (5-0 bullet tiebreak) |
| Right | Komodo Dragon (Uruguay) | Velvet (Australia) | 11,5/16 | 7–0–9 | 72% | Komodo Dragon |
| Right | SlowChess Classic (Egypt) | Igel (Panama) | 7,0/16 | 1–3–12 | 44% | Igel |
| Bracket | Engine 1 | Engine 2 | Score | W–L–D | Pct | Delta | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left | Peacekeeper (Tunisia) | Horsie (Morocco) | 5,5/16 | 0–5–11 | 34% | -115 | Horsie |
| Left | Starzix (Colombia) | Clarity (Algeria) | 8,5/16 | 1–0–15 | 53% | +21 | Starzix |
| Right | Caissa (Netherlands) | Booot (Scotland) | 10,0/16 | 5–1–10 | 63% | +92 | Caissa |
| Right | Komodo Dragon (Uruguay) | Igel (Panama) | 10,0/16 | 4–0–12 | 63% | +92 | Komodo Dragon |
| Rank | Engine | Country | Eliminated | Elo Rank (of 16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–8 | Igel | Panama | QF | #9 |
| 5–8 | Booot | Scotland | QF | #10 |
| 5–8 | Clarity | Algeria | QF | #11 |
| 5–8 | Peacekeeper | Tunisia | QF | #14 |
| 9–16 | Cinder | Ecuador | R16 | #5 |
| 9–16 | RofChade | Turkey | R16 | #6 |
| 9–16 | Velvet | Australia | R16 | #7 |
| 9–16 | Koivisto | Korea Republic | R16 | #8 |
| 9–16 | Seer | Austria | R16 | #12 |
| 9–16 | Arasan | Ivory Coast | R16 | #13 |
| 9–16 | Black Marlin | Saudi Arabia | R16 | #15 |
| 9–16 | SlowChess Classic | Egypt | R16 | #16 |
Caissa's title is fully deserved — the #1 Elo engine of the 16 went through the entire bracket unbeaten (0 losses across all 4 of its matches), closing with a comfortable 62% win over Horsie in the Final. Horsie (#3 Elo) as runner-up and Starzix (#4 Elo) taking 3rd — after the longest tiebreak of the whole tournament — mean three of the top four Elo-rated engines took three of the top four placements. Komodo Dragon, the #2-rated engine of the 16, is the outlier: 4th place despite the second-highest rating in the field, undone by the tiebreak coin flip rather than the run leading into it.
The one real outlier: Cinder, the #5-rated engine of the 16, was eliminated in the Round of 16 — the earliest exit of anyone in the Elo top-5, losing to Caissa. On the other side, Peacekeeper (#14 Elo) reached the Quarter-Final, a clear overachievement relative to its rating. Small sample, same pattern as every bracket in this tournament: the strongest engine usually wins it all, but the draw still decides who has to prove it earliest.