I was browsing in CCRL Endgame Tablebases Forum, when I read this topic:
7 8 or more pieces tablebase generator
According to the author (Pedro Pérez Moreno), this tool (which reminds me to Freezer) was developped in the last four years. It can be downloaded for free from this URL:
http://www.mtu-media.com/finalgen
The web is well documented with a tutorial and some examples. The downloaded file is an installer, and once installed, FinalGen is translated into English, French and Spanish.
IMPORTANT:
This new tool seems interesting to me, although good hardware and nice amounts of time are required. I will not use it, but I post this release here because I know that some people will find it useful.However, you cannot give the castling status.
Remark: Tablebases assume that castling is not possible for two reasons:
First, in practical endgames, this assumption is almost always correct. However, castling is allowed by convention in composed problems and studies.
Second, if the king and rook are on their original squares, castling may or may not be allowed. Because of this ambiguity, it would be necessary to make separate evaluations for states in which castling is or is not possible.
The same ambiguity exists for the en passant capture, since the possibility of en passant depends on the opponent's previous move. However, practical applications of en passant occur frequently in pawn endgames, so tablebases account for the possibility of en passant for positions where both sides have at least one pawn.
@Moderation team: I do not know if this is the best subforum for this thread. Please feel free of move it if necessary.
As a side note: the name of the tool may be overlooked for a non-Spanish speaker: Final means End; applied to chess, Final means Endgame. Gen are the first letters of Generador ('Generator' in English). So, FinalGen can be translated as Endgame Generator. Enjoy this new endgame tablebase generator!
Regards from Spain.
Ajedrecista.
