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Subject: Re: Help with strange tablebase output - Crafty-18.6 & Fritz6

Author: John Hatcher

Date: 13:22:07 03/16/01

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On March 16, 2001 at 16:09:53, Dann Corbit wrote:

>On March 16, 2001 at 16:02:20, John Hatcher wrote:
>
>>Here is a position arising from Rueben Fine's "Basic Chess Endings", No. 309b -
>>
>>[D]r7/4P1k1/3K4/8/8/8/8/5R2 w
>>
>>White wins after 1. Ra1.  This solution was found instantly (of course) by both
>>Wcrafty-18.6 (using Winboard) and Fritz6, both using the same 5-piece Nalimov
>>tablebases.
>>
>>But now it gets strange.  What if White temporizes first with 1. Rg1+  Kf7,
>>arising at this position:
>>
>>[D]r7/4Pk2/3K4/8/8/8/8/6R1 w
>>
>>Wcrafty-18.6 instantly finds the win after 2. Rf1+  Kg7 (not 2. ...Ke8? 3. Rf8#)
>>3. Ra1, transposing into the first position.  However, Fritz6 doesn't see the
>>win!?  It's engine output reads:
>>
>>Analysis by Fritz 6:
>>
>>1. = (0.03): 10.e8R Rxe8 11.Rf1+ Kg6 12.Kd5 Kg5 13.Rf7 Rd8+ 14.Ke5 Re8+
>>2. = (0.00): 10.Re1
>>3. = (0.00): 10.Rh1
>>4. = (0.00): 10.Rd1
>>5. = (0.00): 10.Ke5
>>6. = (0.00): 10.Kd5
>>
>>How can Fritz6 see the win in the first position and not see it in the second?
>>The most obvious move, 2. Rf1+, isn't even listed in the engine output!?
>>
>>What's going on here?  Can anyone duplicate this strange output?
>
>That is very odd.  Every engine I tested (which knows about tablebase files)
>found it immediately.
>
>I have the 5 men files.  Maybe Fritz has only the 4 men files available?

No, Fritz6 and Wcrafty-18.6 are accessing the same 5-piece tablebase files.

Just to be certain, I run the native Chessbase version of Crafty-18.03 under
Fritz6 and it instantly found the win in the second position after 2. Rf1+.

Fritz6 accesses and uses the 5-piece tablebases just fine, as evidenced by the
fact that it instantly found the win (1. Ra1) in the first position.  I've been
using the 5-piece tablebases under Fritz for a while, and they've always worked
just fine.

Even stranger, in the first position, Fritz announces mate in 'x' moves if White
plays 1. Rg1+ instead of 1. Ra1, but then "loses" the mate when it reaches the
second position.   I'm stumped.

JOHN



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