Syzygy (chess)

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Syzygy (English for German "Syzygie" from gr. - Latin "joining" from gr. Σύζυγος (suzugos) for "team") is a special data format that was developed for particularly efficient storage and use of endgame databases in computer chess .

It was presented in April 2013 by the Dutchman Ronald de Man and uses two different tables for each type of endgame. Firstly, the comparatively small WDL tables (WDL short for win-draw-loss , ie “win-draw-loss”) contain, taking into account the 50-move rule, for every possible position of a type of endgame the evaluation of whether it has won, a draw or lost. Due to their compactness, these tables are well suited to be called up during the tree search. Second, the larger DTZ tables (DTZ short for depth to zeroing of the ply count stands for the number of half-moves up to a move or pawn move ), however, contain the number of moves up to a move or pawn for winning positions.

The Syzygy tables in WDL format are sufficiently compact to store all endgame positions with up to five stones as well as the most important six stone on standard DVDs and also on hard drives or solid state drives . Modern chess programs such as Komodo , Deep Fritz , Houdini and Stockfish can use the Syzygy tables while the program is running, which leads to a significant increase in playing strength in the endgame even with more than six pieces.

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