RE: Chess for Mac OS X

Sure! Download Sigmachess. It's availible at www.macupdate.com. Its the best freeware program out there

Really... A fresh install should contain the software. Very weird... You bought your mac new?

I also really like Sigmachess. If you need a database, Exachess is available.

Speaking of database software, has anyone with an Intel Mac tried ChessBase using Parallels? Does it work? How well? Is the speed OK? 

I tried it recently on a MacBook with Parallels and the free version of ChessBase Lite.  There was much freezing of the virtual machine (and from what I could gather, I didn't like it significantly better than ExaChess anyway).  The thing that bugs me about ExaChess is that I don't like investing (fairly serious $$$ too) in a product that doesn't seem to be in active development. (?) 

I have that too. It really is amusing, and if you're a beginner or amateur player, it's okay to use. Although I must warn you...if you are playing black, sometimes the computer will call you a cheese lady...

I recently downloaded the free version of Sigma Chess. Apart from one crash, it has worked pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of the analysis or lack of ability to add variations, but it's quite good for a free program.  I'm going to download the trial of Shredder and see if that works for me, and if so, probably buy it. Shredder has a nicer interface and seems to handle variations and analysis better. For whatever it's worth, I can't get Chessmaster 10 to run through Parallels 3 and XP. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.  I don't know about the other Windows chess programs (Fritz, Chessbase, etc.).

Hmm... So I tried the Mac version of Shredder. I had previously downloaded the Windows version to my old laptop and found it to be pretty decent.  The Mac version, however, doesn't seem to measure up! 

(Wall of text ahead)

The interface requires that you move and resize multiple windows just to center the program on the screen -- totally clunky. The histogram doesn't have the same functionality as the Windows version (right click to create the histogram or copy to the notation, one of my favorite features).  Commenting is much harder, as you have to enter the drop-down menu each time to add a comment. There doesn't seem to be a way to delete the position evaluation glyphs after adding one without deleting all comments. And when I analyze a game, it only seems to add variations one move long!

The board looks beautiful, but as a program, it seems to fall short, at least so far as I can tell.  Can any Shredder Mac users tell me if these problems still exist in the full version?  If so, I don't think I could bring myself to spend $60+ on this program -- it seems like it's still in development.  Everything they need is there, but it looks like they just never finished it up. 

Now I'm wondering if I should just spend a bit and upgrade to Sigma Chess Pro and figure out what engine to run with it.  The only problem is that Sigma Chess seems to crash from time to time, and it doesn't support on-board variations, and that it can't seem to correctly display 'absolute' analysis (the position evaluation from white's side, where +9 means white is up a queen and -9 means black is up a queen).

If Shredder came out with a revised version, I'd be happy to spend the money on it, but right now, I don't think I can bring myself to do it.

Any thoughts from other Mac users?

You've pointed out my two biggest pet peeves with Shredder 11 Mac, and yes, I do have the full version.  For what it's worth, I have talked to one of their developers about this, and even sent them a side-by-side comparison of Shredder's analysis against the (much more helpful) output I get from ExaChess.  The worst part is that, even though I've paid for Shredder, I can't simply refer ExaChess to a Shredder UCI engine, as I could for instance with Hiarcs.  You're stuck with the Shredder interface - which is fine apart from the analysis (and lack of advanced database features).

What I really need is a new iMac with enough RAM to handle Windows via Parallels or VMWare Fusion.  I gotta get out of this chess-ware ghetto.  (And I had such hopes when Macs moved to Intel too... sigh.)  I used to ♥ the analysis in Fritz.

If you are going to use a GUI that can plug in any UCI engine, you might as well look at all the free chess engines out there. Glaurung, Toga, Fruit, etc. might not be in Rybka's league, but with ~2800 ratings, they are nothing to sneeze at. More than adequate to point out the errors of class players.

You should just download Decaf and play against a computer on FICS etc

I have Shredder for Mac 11 and it feels weaker than Shredder for Windows. It's not a bad program, but I think it's much worse than the Windows version and isn't at all as good for game analysis. One program that hasn't been mentioned here is

http://www.stockfishchess.com/