chess software for mac

What's the best playing / teaching software for a mac that isn't too expensive for a lower rated player. I have chessmaster 10 for work I love it and it cost only $10. I'm sure mama will let me spend a little more than $10 (i hope). Give me your thoughts and opinions I'd appreciate it

Although from a different forum, the following link has the most comprehensive and up-to-date information on mac softwares.

http://www.chessforums.org/chess-software-recommended-websites/7373-what-best-chess-software-mac.html

thanks. alot of info there

thanks

Be aware, Sigma Chess will not run on Mac OS Lion. A pity since paired with Hiarcs this was a MONSTER chess program! see http://www.sigmachess.com/#SigmaChessLion

for details.

xboard runs well and you can use any free engine with it.

Frankly, the state of chess software on macs is pretty pathetic, my solution has been to install PC software adn run it using VMWare Fusion.

That is a fairly expensive proposition though.

I am not sure how well Chessmaster will run using Wine, but if it runs with Wine, that is a free solution, and it works well with some software.

Another possibility, if you have a copy of Windows you can use, is Virtual Box https://www.virtualbox.org/ .

native for mac:

shredderchess: Very good, its commercial (30$) but you can install a free demo that works for 30 days. Try it

chess explorer: soon to be released, will be the first native gui for mac built by hiarcs ( arguably the strongest engine existing now). Should be released this month. when released you could buy just this gui and add any free engine you want ( mac users lack gui, but not engines)

Arena3.0 + houdini: the 32 bit for windows work quite fine using wine ( i used winebottler), so no "unlicensed windows os" is needed to run on virtualbox... ( i dont consider buy a windows licence an option. Its much cheaper and effective buy a commercial chess program for mac. At least if the aim is just to play chess).

Xboard, Jose, Stockfish, shid: other gui that still works, but very old design and some of them miss tha match analisys feature that the one i use most. 

Personal hopinion: Shredderchess its a good product, probably worth the money it costs, and once bought the basic version you can add all the free engines you want.

The cons its thats a 2 and half years old product. Personally ill be disapointed to buy a product and see the new version in the next few months. I will suggest you to download the free trial. its a complete product just with 1600 elo engine max, and last 30 days. Should be strong enough for you and you can check if you like the product. While you test this product keep al eye on hiarcs if the new gui for mac its released. ;-)

p.s) If you dont care about the engine limit ( elo1600) remember that after the 30 day expiration, you can just uninstal and reinstall  (but don't tell anybody).

Stockfish is free and the #4 rated program in the world. It has a basic GUI, but it's good enough for analysis and playing against. You may need to get a back edition though, as recent updates only include the engine, with no board.

@ChessisGood: an engine without a gui its worthless. The problem with mac its to find a good gui. Mac users had sigmachess, a bit old styled, but complete, but since mac osx lion it does'nt work anymore because of deprecated library usage.

Hopefully the new hiarcs gui will fill the gap.

Take a look at chessx, it has a beautiful user interface and its completely free.

I have compiled the latest code for the mac and uploaded it to https://www.box.com/chessx

I have Sigma Chess with HIARCS on my Macbook pro.  They were the only quality programs I could find that ran on my Macbook pro.  

sigma chess dont work on mac osx lion ( 10.7) and newer

Like I said, the old versions of Stockfish include a reasonable GUI.

Sigma Chess with HIARCS does work with OSX Mountain Lion 10.8 +. Deep Sherrder 12 is another challenging program that works with OSX. At full strengh, either of these programs will give you an excellent opponent.

Hiarcs made a new chess gui for os 10.7+ almost one year ago.  Its called chess explorer. Another commercial software is shredderchess.

On the free side i can reccomend those gui:  scid vs pc and chessX .

They have already some basic engines, but i highly recomend to download stockfish and add it to the gui.