Getting started with chess engines & GUI

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1e4

Hi all, 

I'm starting to research into chess engines & GUIs to run training and analyse games etc. 

 

To be frank, I've picked up some odds and ends, but I'm lost. There are so many options and the websites for many of the products are a little disappointing!! 

 

I'm on a mac, and would love to run something natively on it - for example, shredder - but I keep hearing about Chessbase and Fritz - which I could run on a Windows virtual machine. 

 

Just looking for any tips or advice that people might be able to give me on how to get started and what they would recommend. 

BuChD

Hi, I’m using scid for mac. It runs native, I can connect directly with my DGT bleutooth board on Mac and when having a large chess DB, it is defintly a nice tool to play and analyse chess games.

it is not the same as chessbase but on the other hand, it is for free and good alternative for mac - in my believe worth to give it a try!

1e4

Awesome BuChD!  Thank you, I will check it out. 

 

I was also eyeing off Shredder, as a native app.  I'll check the site for this, rather than just ask, but I'm keen to be able to change up engines, for example - in time, purchase Komodo or similar... So, hopefully it supports that!

 

 

JessieMillano2015

BuChD wrote:

Hi, I’m using scid for mac. It runs native, I can connect directly with my DGT bleutooth board on Mac and when having a large chess DB, it is defintly a nice tool to play and analyse chess games.

it is not the same as chessbase but on the other hand, it is for free and good alternative for mac - in my believe worth to give it a try!

I used to use SCID too when my desktop computer was still functioning. Merely to transfer games from Chessmaster 4000 Turbo into PGN format. Now, I use Komodo 9 for SCID On The Go and DroidFish.

JessieMillano2015

BuChD wrote:

Hi, I’m using scid for mac. It runs native, I can connect directly with my DGT bleutooth board on Mac and when having a large chess DB, it is defintly a nice tool to play and analyse chess games.

it is not the same as chessbase but on the other hand, it is for free and good alternative for mac - in my believe worth to give it a try!

P.S. Not that I don't like Stockfish. But because SCIDOTG uses older version of it. DroidFish already has it and keeps on updating. So there's no use in downloading another. Amen.

JessieMillano2015

BuChD wrote:

Hi, I’m using scid for mac. It runs native, I can connect directly with my DGT bleutooth board on Mac and when having a large chess DB, it is defintly a nice tool to play and analyse chess games.

it is not the same as chessbase but on the other hand, it is for free and good alternative for mac - in my believe worth to give it a try!

I'm sorry for quoting you again. I'm such a buffoon.

1e4

I ended up grabbing Stockfish for Mac, because it was for mac and the right price!!!  


I don't think I can update the engine though...  Can't find any doco on this anywhere. Does anyone know?