English Chess Forum

Rule 10b of the ICCF server playing rules states " In case the tablebase shows a win that supersedes the 50 moves rule, the win will be awarded.".

Kevin Thurlow wrote:Rule 10b of the ICCF server playing rules states " In case the tablebase shows a win that supersedes the 50 moves rule, the win will be awarded.".

To be precise (which perhaps I should have been yesterday) this only applies to 6-man (or of course fewer) positions that are resolvable by the Convekta tablebase mentioned in the ICCF rules.

7-man endings (solvable by the Lomonosov tablebase only) cannot be claimed for adjudication. This is important because there is large class of non-trivial endings (especially R+2 v R+1 which frequently arises) where players can use the Lomonosov tablebase for guidance but cannot make a claim based on it.
You have to play on until one more piece or pawn is removed from the board.

Moreover a guideline to the rules stated (not with optimal clarity):

In a position that is not solvable by the certified ICCF tablebase, the 50 move rule as
described by FIDE Laws of Chess is valid even in case such a solvable position will
arise immediately after the 50th move. In case the solvable won position arises, and
is claimed, before draw according to 50 move rule, the win will be awarded.

So while 7 men remain on the board in ICCF, the 50-move rule still applies.

I've just been minded to look at the Kasparov vs. The World endgame with Lomonosov.

It seems that the much criticized moves 51...b5 and 52...Kb2 were still in the drawing zone. It was only 54...b4? that threw the game away, where both 54...Qd5 and 54...Qd3 were still okay for Black. After 54...b4? 55 Qxb4, Kasparov doesn't let things slip (as can be verified in the more readily available six-piece tablebases).

"The world's first free 7-piece tablebase is now available on Lichess"

https://lichess.org/blog/W3WeMyQAACQAdf ... e-complete

Comments in the linked discussion:

Entuzijasta wrote:How far is 8 pcs option? A year, 5, 10?

revoof wrote:@Entuzijasta Full 8-piece set in 10 years does not look likely at this point, but I'd like to be proven wrong. RdM mentioned it might be feasible to generate a few well-chosen 8-piece tables to beat the record for the longest endgame.

There's an android app called "7 piece chess endgame training". (look up "lomonosov" at google play).
I use it quite often. Pretty useful.