FATHOM(6)

📦 version 1.0+git.20190811.97fb5c, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 FATHOM(6) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Games section of the manual, we're doing fathom today and honestly? she's iconic.

✨ NAME ✨

fathom — the command-line tool for probing Syzygy tablebases. no cap, that's literally her whole job. 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

fathom [--help] [--path=PATH] [--test] FEN

🌸 WHERE: 🌸

  • FEN — the position you wanna probe, handed over as a FEN string. that's the whole vibe, you give her a position, she tells you things. 🫶
  • --help — prints this very helpful message. she's helpful! that's the point! 💅
  • --path=PATH — sets the tablebase PATH string. point her at your tablebases, bestie.
  • --test — prints the result only. super useful for scripts. no extra chatter, just the answer. 😌

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

So this program is a stand-alone Syzygy tablebase probe tool. like, no dependencies drama, she just does the thing.

You feed her a FEN string representation of a chess position, and she gives you back a PGN representation of the probe result. that's the whole transaction. chef's kiss. 👑

🎀 What's in the PGN 🎀

On top of the standard fields, the output PGN is packing all of this:

  • Result — it's giving "1-0" (white wins), "1/2-1/2" (draw), or "0-1" (black wins)
  • The Win-Draw-Loss (WDL) value for the next move, which is one of: "Win", "Draw", "Loss", "CursedWin" (a win but it's a 50-move draw 😭), or "BlessedLoss" (a loss but it's a 50-move draw 🙈)
  • The Distance-To-Zero (DTZ) value for the next move — measured in plys, yes plys, not moves, don't come for me
  • WinningMoves — the list of all the winning moves
  • DrawingMoves — the list of all the drawing moves
  • LosingMoves — the list of all the losing moves

🧚 The pseudo-PV situation 🧚

The PGN also contains a pseudo "principle variation" of Syzygy vs. Syzygy for whatever position you put in. it's self vs. self, main character energy only. ✨

Every single PV move is rational with respect to preserving the WDL value. so like, the line makes sense in a "keeps the result intact" way.

⚠️ but listen: the PV is not the shortest mate, and it is not the most natural human moves. do not come in here expecting cute human chess. this is tablebase chess. she said what she said. 💀

💜 AUTHOR 💜

fathom was written by basil <basil@reqrypt.org>. 💖

This manual page was written by Jose G. López <josgalo@gmail.com> for the Debian GNU/Linux project, but it may be used by others too — sharing is caring, bestie. It was written with the assistance of help2man(1) and then edited slightly to clean it up. glow-up complete. 🌈

and that's the whole page, babe 🦋 this was fathom, manpage section 6, dated December 2018, and we are obsessed. go probe something. 💅🌸💖

📦 where this page comes from