They can! The program can also search for mutual zugzwangs. In the actual game, after But endgame textbooks claim that he could win by playing 73…Kd5.

This is a position from the 9th game of the World Championship match between Steinitz and Gunsberg New York, The game ended in a draw, but it has always been believed that Gunsberg had a winning position. One can be sure that without the 7-piece endgame tablebases, no human player could win against a modern computer program in this position.Īnd a chess program armed with them could probably win against any opponent for either side. Well, we actually found the answer several years ago, when we have just started developing the algorithm. The most popular question would probably be about the longest mating position for 7 pieces. All users of ChessOK AquariumHoudini Aquarium and Chess Assistant products get free access to the service for the period specified in their product description. Lomonosov Tablebases will be accessible online from the Aquarium interface and on the chessok. The total volume of all tablebases is gigabytes, which is obviously too much for personal computers. In6-piece endings were solved in Nalimov Tablebases which are now used by many professional chess programs and services.Īs a result, we now have tablebases of the 4 vs. In the beginning of the s, the same task was done for 5-pieces. The first ending tablebases - for all 4-piece endgames - were built by the end of the s. This is why there is a limit to how far the calcullations can go with the current level of computing devices. When the piece limit is increased by one, the number of possible situations goes up about times. The main difficulty in compiling such tablebases consists in the fact that all possible positions and variations with the desired number of pieces on the board must be thoroughly analysed and catalogued. If the losing player makes a suboptimal move, he will lose sooner and the program will display the new optimal path. If the game can be won, the path with the least number of moves until the end of this variation is shown, given that both players make the best moves possible. With Lomonosov Tablebases, this limit has gone up from 6 pieces to 7! Endgame tablebases are computer databases of chess endings with precise calculations for optimal play in any position, provided the number of pieces on the board does nor exceed a certain limit. Lomonosov Tablebases are can be accessed directly from the Aquarium interface.

Houdini 6 chess