freeware chess gui for mac

[hawkeye]

I just purchased a new macbook and was wondering what the best freeware chess gui was and what other non free software was available for mac.

Thanks,
Steve

[hgm]

The XBoard devlopment version (the future 4.5.0) is now available as pre-compiled install for the Mac:

http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... 19&t=50428

[Tord Romstad]

I just purchased a new macbook and was wondering what the best freeware chess gui was and what other non free software was available for mac.

You may want to try the new Stockfish 1.7.1:

http://www.mediafire.com/?nzmmommli22

It's far from perfect, and has some rough edges, but unfortunately all the other free (and commercial) options also leave a lot to be desired. We badly need a decent free, open source chess GUI for Mac OS X.

[hgm]

Well, if they leave a lot to be desired, it is upto us to meet the desires.

What would you desire most in XBoard? It is already free and open source, and the most universal GUI around, so it seems a good starting point.

[hawkeye]

[quote="Tord Romstad"][quote="hawkeye"]I just purchased a new macbook and was wondering what the best freeware chess gui was and what other non free software was available for mac.[/quote]

You may want to try the new Stockfish 1.7.1:

[url]http://www.mediafire.com/?nzmmommli22[/url]

It's far from perfect, and has some rough edges, but unfortunately all the other free (and commercial) options also leave a lot to be desired. We badly need a decent free, open source chess GUI for Mac OS X.[/quote]

When I had my windows machine i used arena alot. I only wish that they would release the source so that it could be compiled for mac and linux.

Thanks for the link Tord and congrats to you and the rest of the stockfish team.

Steve

[hgm]

What makes you think the source can be compiled for Mac or Linux? The WnBoard source certainly could not. It needs completely different code for the front-end, which is XBoard. Basically everything has to be re-written from scratch. If that was not the case, we already would have had a WinBoard for Linux long time ago...

[hawkeye]

Wishful thinking on my part. I am sorry.


Steve

[IanO]

Well, if they leave a lot to be desired, it is upto us to meet the desires.

What would you desire most in XBoard? It is already free and open source, and the most universal GUI around, so it seems a good starting point.

Myself, I would want a nice looking Cocoa application, with a tastefully arranged UI in line with other OS X applications. I doubt that is something XBoard either desires or could support.

Tord's Glaurung UI would probably be the best starting point, though it requires a lot of bug fixing and edge polishing. Maybe he'll get back to it when he tires of rolling in the dough from his iPhone version.

My preferred Mac UI is the shareware Sigma Chess, but it has more of a retro, Classic-Mac UI, since it is still a PowerPC Carbon application. That it only supports UCI is only a minor annoyance these days; lack of chess server connectivity is more grievous. I currently rely on the Java interfaces to play on FICS.

Ian

[zullil]

When I had my windows machine i used arena alot. I only wish that they would release the source so that it could be compiled for mac and linux.

Steve

Arena runs well enough on my MacBook using wine. Or you could install Windows, I suppose.

[IanO]

Tord's Glaurung UI would probably be the best starting point, though it requires a lot of bug fixing and edge polishing. Maybe he'll get back to it when he tires of rolling in the dough from his iPhone version.

I hadn't realized Tord's Stockfish link above was to an updated Glaurung UI! It looks really nice, with about the same level of UCI match support as Sigma Chess.

And now for the feature requests! Though it has continuous analysis, I didn't see an "Analyze Game" option. I also expected that clicking on moves in the game listing would navigate to that move. Having the game list and analysis as separate windows makes moving the board around the screen more awkward.

Thanks, Tord! And thanks to the team for such a strong open-source chess program!

Ian