Website on computer chess on Mac updated

[ydebilloez]

I just wanted to announce an update on my website that handles computerchess on Mac. It's history goes back to Mac os 7 up to the most recent macOS 12 on M1.
Modern times means rendering on phone/tablets as well. Comments welcome. I will need to add a few more programs I suppose.
http://macchess.internetcontact.be/

[adams161]

I just wanted to announce an update on my website that handles computerchess on Mac. It's history goes back to Mac os 7 up to the most recent macOS 12 on M1.
Modern times means rendering on phone/tablets as well. Comments welcome. I will need to add a few more programs I suppose.
http://macchess.internetcontact.be/

I noticed on Internet Chess on Mac you had Jin and Fixation for connecting to FICS but no mention of Diamond Chess Online, which I wrote and allows users to connect to FICS and ICC and is in the Mac App Store. Also Diamond is full featured with engine analysis, seek graph, an Opening Explorer and some PGN ability including game logging and opening PGN. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/diamond-c ... 1496131224 It is mac catalyst and requires Catalina or higher. There is an ICC only version from same code base, Lantern Chess - ICC Online, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lantern-c ... d743520893 also mac catalyst. And all free and ad free.

And also i wanted to mention for your consideration my Pulsar Chess Engine in the Mac App Store which uses my pulsar2009b engine and has chess and variants like chess960, atomic, losers, and crazyhouse with levels. This is also a mac catalyst app and requires catalina or higher. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pulsar-ch ... d839640447 it has a play mode and users can open their log file of all games that end with a result or resignation and use engine analysis in this viewer view and make moves while analyzing.

And finally there is my www.lanternChess.com for my most sophisticated ICC Mac interface and this works on older macs and comes with a signed and notarized installer. This is currently being ported to FICS at www.pearlchess.com but no installer with java run time made yet. This last, lanternchess.com and pearl, is a java project and above are mac native code.

Anyway I just offer these apps for your consideration.

[wickedpotus]

This sums it up pretty well..

[IanO]

Surprised not to see more of Hiarcs in the old Mac history. For the longest time, it was the only strong commercial program to have a Mac version.

There should also be some mention of Sargon III. It was the first third-party 68000 program of any kind whatsoever to get ported to the first Macintosh! Also Battle Chess and the first ChessMasters need a mention.

[adams161]

The computer i'm on now is a Mac Mini for $799.
Depends what you want chess wise how apple fairs.
I wrote an engine, the Pulsar Chess Engine and i support engines analysis in clients.
But i'm not running engine tournaments.
I'm not interested in real deep analysis.
I'm not currently running a computer account.

what i felt was missing from mac when I went to mac in 2010 was decent chess software in general. There was no chess base on mac and typical mac user was using things like SCID which is fine but there was not a good set of easy to use products without installing java.

Since then i've done my contribution and others have too. I've got my Pulsar chess engine in the mac app store for a nice playing program for club players or less with levels and variants like crazyhouse, atomic, losers, chess 960 etc and review log file with engine analysis and scratch moves possible at least if it was a chess game so far.

I've made two ICC clients for mac(lantern chess and lantern chess(also on windows) mac catalyst) and two FICS ICC clients for mac(Diamond Chess and pearl Chess(also on windows)) were I offer engine analysis(its a little more advanced support on the windows/mac apps, a little easier to use on dedicated mac apps) an opening explorer based on over the board games were both players are rated over 2300, powerbook style, and open save to PGN databases plus the online play. Basically trying to bring a more Chessbase flavor of app to Mac that I had not seen when i started in 2010.

And others are doing things too. If mac can support chess software depends what you are trying to do.

[adams161]

Surprised not to see more of Hiarcs in the old Mac history. For the longest time, it was the only strong commercial program to have a Mac version.

There should also be some mention of Sargon III. It was the first third-party 68000 program of any kind whatsoever to get ported to the first Macintosh! Also Battle Chess and the first ChessMasters need a mention.

Stockfish in particular has leveled the field a little with engine support is what i've noticed. Now Mac apps last decade bundle stockfish and when it's around worlds #1 where it's been, its doens't make people on mac feel they don't have access to the potentially top engine. I did this in my mac app lantern chess put stockfish in. And i see others follow suit. At least on mac you can open another exe in a program and you dont run into these oh it violates GPL stuff you get on iOS.

[ydebilloez]

Thanks all for the information. I will include this in the website.

[wickedpotus]

Surprised not to see more of Hiarcs in the old Mac history. For the longest time, it was the only strong commercial program to have a Mac version.

There should also be some mention of Sargon III. It was the first third-party 68000 program of any kind whatsoever to get ported to the first Macintosh! Also Battle Chess and the first ChessMasters need a mention.

Stockfish in particular has leveled the field a little with engine support is what i've noticed. Now Mac apps last decade bundle stockfish and when it's around worlds #1 where it's been, its doens't make people on mac feel they don't have access to the potentially top engine. I did this in my mac app lantern chess put stockfish in. And i see others follow suit. At least on mac you can open another exe in a program and you dont run into these oh it violates GPL stuff you get on iOS.

It's completely moot points made about being "good enough", especially at the pricepoint asked for these brands.

If you are happy with an engine that beats Carlsen.. just buy a $100 Android phone instead, install SF. And keep using your overpriced poser-hw for browsing and Spotify. So there fixed it for ya.

Cheers...

PS. iOS and other "appliances" that don't support su root are crap for general computing needs and chess. That's the sad truth.

[adams161]

Surprised not to see more of Hiarcs in the old Mac history. For the longest time, it was the only strong commercial program to have a Mac version.

There should also be some mention of Sargon III. It was the first third-party 68000 program of any kind whatsoever to get ported to the first Macintosh! Also Battle Chess and the first ChessMasters need a mention.

Stockfish in particular has leveled the field a little with engine support is what i've noticed. Now Mac apps last decade bundle stockfish and when it's around worlds #1 where it's been, its doens't make people on mac feel they don't have access to the potentially top engine. I did this in my mac app lantern chess put stockfish in. And i see others follow suit. At least on mac you can open another exe in a program and you dont run into these oh it violates GPL stuff you get on iOS.

It's completely moot points made about being "good enough", especially at the pricepoint asked for these brands.

My mac mini was $799. People are buying macs for many reasons and they want chess. I try to deliver. There's stuff there depends on if there is some specialized chess app they feel they need to have on windows. And you can run a VM like parallels on mac. i got it for just under 100 and now run windows 10 and Ubunto in VM's. and its not clunky vm stuff, i get my vm window like a normal mac window and i can save stuff to my mac drive from the windows vm. I don't do this for chess though, but to build installers on windows. But I knew one guy who was never happy with mac till he had the parallels vm to run his ChessBase and he had already purchased a bunch of stuff when he had windows. he was a good chess player too, over 2000.

PS. iOS and other "appliances" that don't support su root are crap for general computing needs and chess. That's the sad truth.

Mac of course does support SU and Sudo in terminal.

[wickedpotus]

Mac of course does support SU and Sudo in terminal.

Given Apple's track record and their current path of streamlining their hw and OS stack. It's likely just a matter of time before they also remove root access on Macs.

Completely boycotting and Not supporting Macs at all, is truly a service to mankind and the future of computing in the longer perspective. Just like moving away from Flash plugins, every developer should take a stance and shy away from locked down, DRM-riddled, un-open, proprietary things from Apple!!

Let some unhappy users b*ch that wasted money on overpriced, un-open stuff.. In the long run they will be thankful and better of without proprietary locked down hw.