TestFlight beta: The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton

Discussion of anything and everything relating to chess playing software and machines.

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Tord Romstad
Posts: 1815
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:19 pm
Location: Paris, France
Full name: Tord Romstad

Re: TestFlight beta: The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton

Post by Tord Romstad »

The MBCA beta is now available for macOS, from the same TestFlight link:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/mqfhpmHY

The goal is to make this a modern, Apple-native alternative to ChessBase, with a native look and feel (no cross-platform UI frameworks) and iCloud sync between your devices.

There's still a long way to go before this is anywhere close to ChessBase, but I already find it quite useful, especially for opening preparation and memorization. Here is an incomplete list of current features:
  • Supports databases with millions of games, with instant position search.
  • Search for players, events, and other PGN headers.
  • Search by pawn structure, material, and position fragments.
  • Import of ChessBase, Hiarcs, SCID and En Croissant databases.
  • Opening repertoire editor with spaced repetition training and PGN import/export.
  • Strong built-in chess engine.
  • Support for UCI engines (macOS only).
  • Play against computer, with bot personalities powered by the Maia 2 model. In the near future, Maia 2 will be replaced by the much more accurate Mira model.
  • Good support for reading and editing courses in PGN format. Reading courses from Modern Chess in MBCA, importing individual lines or entire chapters into my repertoire files, and using the spaced repetition trainer to memorize it has become my favorite way to study openings. It's like a vastly improved version of Chessable.
  • Support for ChessNut e-boards, both for local and online (Lichess) play (iOS only, macOS support will be added soon).
  • Runs on the Mac, iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch.