Mac Software Recomendations

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Date: 05 Aug 2006 02:07:46
From: raggio
Subject: Mac Software Recomendations

Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which
Mac program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
figured I'd come here to see which is best.

Thanks,
John

Date: 07 Aug 2006 09:08:19
From: John A Swartz
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

I use Sigmachess, which is a decent program for what you say you want to
do - you can also use it with the HIARCS chess engine or other UCI-based
engines. I believe that Shredder may also now be available for the Mac.
There's also a free program called Jose which looks pretty good (I
believe it uses the Crafty engine).

John

raggio wrote:
> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which Mac
> program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
> figured I'd come here to see which is best.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>

Date: 07 Aug 2006 20:54:22
From: raggio
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

On 2006-08-07 09:08:19 -0400, John A Swartz <[email protected] > said:

> I use Sigmachess, which is a decent program for what you say you want
> to do - you can also use it with the HIARCS chess engine or other
> UCI-based engines. I believe that Shredder may also now be available
> for the Mac. There's also a free program called Jose which looks
> pretty good (I believe it uses the Crafty engine).
>
> John
>
>
> raggio wrote:
>> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
>> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which
>> Mac program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
>> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
>> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
>> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
>> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
>> figured I'd come here to see which is best.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> John

Thanks all for the info. is there any program available for the Mac
that would allow me to edit and review pgn files, play against an
engine like gnu or crafty, and also play on FICS? I know it sounds
like a lot to ask, but I'd like to use an all in one app if I could.
Now to really shoot the moon is there such an app that would also be
available for Windows, possibly in Java? This way I could learn one
tool for my home mac and windows laptop?

I know it's nuts, but didn't hurt to ask.

Thanks,
John

Date: 08 Aug 2006 12:42:11
From: John A Swartz
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

>
> Thanks all for the info. is there any program available for the Mac
> that would allow me to edit and review pgn files, play against an engine
> like gnu or crafty, and also play on FICS? I know it sounds like a lot
> to ask, but I'd like to use an all in one app if I could.

Not that I'm aware of. I use Sigmachess for my editing/PGN review and
playing against the computer (either the Sigmachess or HIARCS engines -
Sigmachess can use any engine that is UCI-compliant - I don't think
gnuchess or Crafty are), and Fixation for playing on FICS.

> Now to really
> shoot the moon is there such an app that would also be available for
> Windows, possibly in Java? This way I could learn one tool for my home
> mac and windows laptop?

Nope.

> I know it's nuts, but didn't hurt to ask.

Nuts it is, but it didn't hurt...

John

Date: 09 Aug 2006 07:29:47
From: Henri Arsenault
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

In article <[email protected] >,
John A Swartz <[email protected] > wrote:

> Not that I'm aware of. I use Sigmachess for my editing/PGN review and
> playing against the computer (either the Sigmachess or HIARCS engines -
> Sigmachess can use any engine that is UCI-compliant - I don't think
> gnuchess or Crafty are), and Fixation for playing on FICS.
>
You can use shredder for the Mac with Sigmachess, but it does not have
the Fritz interface of the PC version. There is a demo for shredder.

Henri

Date: 08 Aug 2006 21:33:51
From: raggio
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

On 2006-08-08 12:42:11 -0400, John A Swartz <[email protected] > said:

>
>>
>> Thanks all for the info. is there any program available for the Mac
>> that would allow me to edit and review pgn files, play against an
>> engine like gnu or crafty, and also play on FICS? I know it sounds
>> like a lot to ask, but I'd like to use an all in one app if I could.
>
> Not that I'm aware of. I use Sigmachess for my editing/PGN review and
> playing against the computer (either the Sigmachess or HIARCS engines -
> Sigmachess can use any engine that is UCI-compliant - I don't think
> gnuchess or Crafty are), and Fixation for playing on FICS.
>
>> Now to really shoot the moon is there such an app that would also be
>> available for Windows, possibly in Java? This way I could learn one
>> tool for my home mac and windows laptop?
>
> Nope.
>
>> I know it's nuts, but didn't hurt to ask.
>
> Nuts it is, but it didn't hurt...
>
> John

Thanks for the reply.

J

Date: 07 Aug 2006 13:06:41
From: Dave (from the UK)
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

raggio wrote:
> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which Mac
> program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
> figured I'd come here to see which is best.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>

I don't know much about Macs, but believe many are based on UNIX. In
that case the database program scid

http://scid.sourceforge.net/

might well work and the chess engine crafty should too I expect.

--
Dave (from the UK)

Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: [email protected]
Hitting reply will work for a few months only - later set it manually.

http://witm.sourceforge.net/ (Web based Mathematica front end)

Date: 07 Aug 2006 07:58:55
From: Henri Arsenault
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

In article <2006080502074616807-raggionospam@optonlinenet >,
raggio <[email protected] > wrote:

> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which
> Mac program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
> figured I'd come here to see which is best.
>
If you want something with the Fritz interface for the Mac, you are out
of luck, unless you have a Macbook Pro with a dual-core Intel chip. I
have one, and after you install Bootcamp and Windows (you need a Windows
XP disk), you can install Fritz or any of the programs that use the same
Fritz interface like Junior of Shredder. Note that Shredder is available
for the Mac, but it doesn't have the Fritz interface.

On my Macbook Pro, Fritz 9 runs much faster than on my 2 GHz Pentium
4.(If you use Parallels instead of Bootcamp, you don't have to reboot to
go from the Mac to the PC, but it is much slower - or so I hear.)

But Fritz 9 is not free. However one of the older versions of Fritz is
pretty cheap, if you can find one.

Henri

Date: 05 Aug 2006 12:36:12
From: Andreas P. Hofmann
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

raggio <[email protected] > wrote:

> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which
> Mac program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
> figured I'd come here to see which is best.

Visit

http://www.internetcontact.be/~macchess/

for a survey of Mac & Chess.
--
Eppur Si Muove!

Date: 05 Aug 2006 10:41:36
From: raggio
Subject: Re: Mac Software Recomendations

On 2006-08-05 06:36:12 -0400, [email protected] (Andreas P.
Hofmann) said:

> raggio <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Hello. I am new to the group and am looking for some advice. I
>> recently switched from Windows to a Mac and would like to know which
>> Mac program (preferably free) is good to use for playing against the
>> computer, analysing games, and playing back pgn files and possibly some
>> DB searching. I used Fritz 7 on my Windows machine and liked it. Is
>> there something similar in the Mac world? I donwloaded vektor and
>> sigma, but have not tried them yet. I saw many others as well, so I
>> figured I'd come here to see which is best.
>
> Visit
>
> http://www.internetcontact.be/~macchess/
>
> for a survey of Mac & Chess.

Thanks. I did see this site last night using google. There are so
many to choose from. I still need some guidance on which one I should
use.

Thanks,
John