Author: Brian Katz
Date: 03:20:21 10/21/02
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On October 21, 2002 at 00:00:42, Terry Ripple wrote: >I heard talk that if you don't have the complete set (all pawns) with pieces, >that it could very well do worst for the program than do better for it, is this >at all true? I'am especially interested in the 6 men as i have all the complete >5 men and now would like the 6 man, but i hear that it's not complete as yet! > >I especially want to use the program with the tablebases to play other engines >and i'am afraid that sometimes it will hurt it's endgame play if it don't have a >complete set! > >Thanks in advance for your help! > >Regards, > Terry I have found that in the following position with certain 5 piece tablebase files missing from the 4 disc Nalimov set, that Fritz will not immediately promote the pawn,and selects to check the Black King for a good number of moves instead, since the KQR vs KR, KRR vs KR and KRB vs KR endgame files were missing. [D]1r6/6P1/5K2/8/4k3/6R1/8/8 w Fritz will not play this endgame properly with the missing files because it then does not know the endgame properly. I have seen positions where Fritz had a KQpp vs KQ and Fritz gives up a pawn to get into the 5 piece endgame that it knows perfectly.long before the promotion takes place. Once the missing files were added Fritz played the diagramed position properly. An interesting note is that Crafty is smart enough to promote the pawn on it's own. Also, if the tablebases from the Fritz 6 CD are used without adding any of the Nalimov Endgame Turbo, Fritz will play the diagramed position properly. But of course then, many other endgame files are missing. So, with this small example in 5 piece endings, one can only imagine how Fritz would play with some 6 piece endings missing. On the other hand, without the 6 piece endings in the first place, Fritz or other engines will still not be able to play a given 6 piece ending properly. Whether or not only having a partial set of tablebases would be detrimental to an engines play is a good question and one that needs to be tested. Brian Katz
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