mac OS and chess software

Is there anyway yet to get Rybka, Houdini, and something like a GUI with a chess database running on the mac OS without using the mac running windows in virtual machine mode?  I can't believe that I still can't find something with the similar features of Fritz, chessbase, aquarium to run natively on Mac.

thanks in advance for any recent updates.

yeah try finding software for linux.. i installed some on my machine i just hope it is good software.. i have zero choice of fritz  or houdini on my win xp though i have chessmaster 8000

Not much, but I have been using the old Stockfish GUI with Critter as an add-on UI.

You can run Stockfish or Critter engines on SCID or ChessX

I have compiled the latest source for ChessX and the stockfish engine and uploaded them to

https://www.box.com/chessx

I would highly recommend taking a look at the the chessx chess database program for pgn files. It works really well for pgn ebooks such as those sold by everyman chess. Or you can browse the internet for some annotated pgn files to try it out with.

You can also download the latest source repository for ChessX along with Qt and compile it for a PC or Linux in addition to the Mac.

A Mac installer package for XBoard is available from WinBoard forum. As for engines, Stockfish will certainly be available (like most open-source engines). Many other engines are also available as Linux binary, which should run on Mac OS. I don't know about Houdini. Windows binaries can usually be run under wine.

im coming late in the day, but the absolute best chess package for mac right now is Hiarcs chess explorer.  It is a lovely, simple GUI, and you can run the free stockfish 2.2.2 in it (second strongest engine in the world)

Certainly Hiarcs chess explorer is the best program for the Mac, but more often I prefer to use ChessX because HCE tends to waste a lot of screen real estate. ChessX is free and open source. Both ChessX and HCE have a common ancestry so have a lot of similarities.

Well after a year and a half there is still no way to get chessbase, fritz, or houdini on the Mac.  Hard to believe that there is not enough market to sell these programs for the mac.

I have just loaded ChessX 1.0.0 and Stockfish 4.0 and at least can get decent analysis of a pgn game or a position of interest.  But it sure isn't as nice as fritz and chessbase were.

Hi There,

I have faced a similar situation as you sacaric. I got my macbook pro 1 year ago and wanted to have chessbase and fritz on it. I went down the pathway of hiarcs, as well as shredder to play chess with, but for me there was no substitution for fritz.... I love the sparring mode and there is nothing like that with the other programs.

I started first by getting Wine for my mac and ran fritz 12 and fritz 13 in it. It actually works pretty well. Minimally buggy. However, chessbase 12 was impossible. It couldnt perform the basic types of database searches in a reasonable time.

Here is my solution and it works beautifully:  Bite the bullet and partition your hard drive using the preinstalled Bootcamp software on your mac.  You get two computers in one mac.  I put windows 8.1 on my Mac and put chessbase 12, mega database and Fritz 13.. They run absolutely flawlessly, because it is effectively a PC.  To switch between the operating systems takes less that one minute.    Once you have windows installed you little have two computers in one. Good luck!

I wondered if windows on the mac would be a useful situation.  I am glad to hear it works.  I also thought of using Parallels or VMware instead of bootcamp, so that you don't have to reboot and can run simultaneously.  However my previously state-of-the-art Macbook Pro (when I bought it) has slowed to a crawl since I have updated to Mavericks OS and I don't think it would perform well.

thanks!

Well, just know that once you have a mac (a new one?) that can handle mavericks, you can partition and then have chessbase and fritz working beautifully.  Also, to switch between the two operating is fast and a breeze.

take care!!