Tablebase hits Stockfish

[bezzy3004]

Can someone please explain why Stockfish 6x64 Modern is reporting tablebase hits with more than 5 peices on the board?
At one point there where 12 peices in play and it reported tens of thousands of hits, how can this be possible with 3-4-5 man TBS in operation, the bases seem to be operating ok as in an engine tourney i have seen a draw ajudication by tablebase.

Many thx

[syzygy]

Can someone please explain why Stockfish 6x64 Modern is reporting tablebase hits with more than 5 peices on the board?
At one point there where 12 peices in play and it reported tens of thousands of hits, how can this be possible with 3-4-5 man TBS in operation, the bases seem to be operating ok as in an engine tourney i have seen a draw ajudication by tablebase.

When Stockfish is searching it "mentally" plays out long variations of moves, including captures. After mentally capturing 7 pieces, only 5 pieces are left and a 5-men TB can be probed to look up the outcome for that variation.

Draw adjudication by tablebase will be done by the GUI (or whatever it is that you are using to run the tournament) and does not mean that the engines succesfully probes the TBs. But the fact that SF shows TB hits confirms that things are working OK.