MacChess

Dedicated to chess on Mac

Information for Chess players, Chess programmers and Apple users

Updated on : 04/01/2022
Version 1.58
En français

mac OS on Apple Silicon (M1)


Following software is designed for and runs on mac OS X with ARM based processors. Available as of macOS version 11. Please refer to macOS 11 if you have an intel processor.

  • Apple chess: A chess program installed by default on macOS. Includes the sjeng engine.

  • Scid: A chess database program. Allows to plug in engines. See also ChessX, Scid vs PC and Scid vs Mac

  • BanksiaGUI: A free chess program. Allows to play chess, organise chess engine tournaments, play online chess and plenty of other features. A must have. See also the open source Banksia.

  • HIARCS Chess Explorer: A commercial chess database, analysis and playing program. Interfaces with command line chess programs. See also Deep HIARCS Chess Explorer

  • Shredder 13 Series: A commerial chess playing program. See also Shredder Classic 5 and Deep Shredder 13

Some of the applications above allow you to install command line based chess engines. They have to support the UCI or Xboard (winboard/CECP) protocol.

  • Stockfish: World champion of chess programs. Elo 3700 with NNUE. Elo 3500 without. Can be configured to play at less strength. Open source and available on all platforms.

  • Dragon: A very strong contender for the first place. Elo 3500. Can be configured to play at less strength. Human like play. Commercial engine. Successor to Komodo.

  • Komodo: Free older version (up to version 12) preceeding dragon. Elo 2750. Can be configured to play at less strength. Human like play. See also Dragon.

  • Crafty: The refernce in open source chess programs. Elo 2600.

  • Sjeng: Engine included in apple chess. Based on Faile. Elo 2450. See also deep sjeng.

  • HIARCS: A strong commercial engine with human like play.

Please refer to the downloads page for more information on where to find them.