Nalimov EGTB

[cyberfish]

I am currently thinking about adding Nalimov EGTB access to my engine. However, it seems like online resources on how to do it is very limited. I have done quite a bit of research and still haven't figured it out.

According to some few-years-old threads, there should be an archive on Bob's FTP containing the tablebase generator as well as documentation on how to interface it with engines and the probing code. However, right now, I only see the actual tablebase files (3-4-5) on the server.

Can someone please shed some light on this?

Mostly
1) where can I find the probing code and the accompanying documentation? (preferably 6-men, since ChessWar has some 6-men, but 5-men would be fine)
2) How can I get Mr. Nalimov's permission to use his code in my open source engine?

Looking at the Crafty source, I can KIND OF get the general idea, but I don't think that's enough .

Thanks!

[Michel]

The situation with table bases is unfortunately not optimal.

An open source table base project is more urgently needed than a new open source chess engine, of which there are plenty.

[ilari]

The situation with table bases is unfortunately not optimal.

An open source table base project is more urgently needed than a new open source chess engine, of which there are plenty.

There's always Daniel Shawul's free endgame bitbase library. I would encourage every engine author to use it, it's very easy.

Tablebases are probably better for analysis than bitbases, but for playing strength there probably isn't much difference. And bitbases take only a fraction of the disk space required by tablebases.