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Tablebases: Updated March, 12 2022 |
Syzygy tablebases for ending games:
Syzygy tablebases are the latest and most reliable resource to enhance the speed and the computing precision of the endgames. In order to use them you must have a recent Chessbase chess program, the Droidfish app for android or the free Arena GUI.
After months of testing I can safely say that 6 MEN (pieces) and 7 MEN Syzygy databases are unuseful and counterproductive with these recent NNUE engines: they need an SSD, demanding hundreds of gigabytes, and the gain on strength is null. I leave the links to other sites storing them for testing and accademic purposes, though.
The Syzygy databases can be subdivided in three parts: the Syzygy for game endings up to 5 pieces, the Syzygy for 6 pieces (also known as "6 MEN") and the Syzygy for 7 pieces (also known as "7 MEN").
- 3-4-5 pieces: 1 Gygabyte of storage.
- 6 pieces: 150 Gygabytes of storage - subdivided in WDL (the main part, size 68.3 GB) and DTZ (checking the 50 moves rule, size 81.9 GB).
- 7 pieces: 16700 Gygabytes of storage - subdivided in WDL (the main part, size 8500 GB) and DTZ (checking the 50 moves rule, size 8300 GB).
As one can imagine the 7 pieces would need 16.7 Terabytes of storage on a solid state hard disk that is impossible nowadays. They could run on a 16 Terabytes hard disk (or a couple of 8TB), though, but the only devices I'm aware of are normal disk drives, hence the performances of analysis on such enormous databases would be negative.
EVERY tablebases, whether is the 3-4-5 pieces or the 6 pieces, must be run on a VERY FAST storage, like an SSD drive or an USB pen. The essential one is the 3-4-5 pieces database, so you can just buy an USB pen if you don't want or can't spend money to buy an expensive device like an SSD drive.
The fundamental part, both for mobiles and personal computers, is the 3-4-5 archive. Different facts are for the 6 MAN Syzygy: being sized 150 GB you must download it by installing a torrent client (be aware of the unwanted programs they are asking at the installation process). The one I feel to suggest is Bittorrent.
The two sites below offer direct links but you have to manually download every single file or use a download manager.
Download here the 3-4-5 pieces Syzygy tablebases.
Download here the 6 pieces torrent archive (extract the files from the zip archive then use a torrent software to download the tablebases).
Installation instructions: https://en.chessbase.com/post/syzygy-tablebases-maximizing-performance.
External links:
How to install the Syzygy tablebases on Fritz and other Chessbase products
How to install the Syzygy tablebases on Chessbase program such as Fritz, Komodo and others. Step by step tutorial.
How to install the Syzygy Tablebases on Droidfish
How to install the Syzygy tablebases on Droidfish for Android. Step by step tutorial.