I just built and posted the latest versions of ChessX for both Windows and Macintosh Operating systems at www.box.com/chessx. ChessX is a simple free open source chess database program with a very nice and clean user interface. You can install chess engines and use it to study PGN databases.

Very helpful tool!

Thanks, in my opinion it is at least one of the best looking chess programs. I find that between the current version of ChessX and Hiarcs Chess Explorer (which is very similar to ChessX) I hardly ever feel the need to use Chessbase anymore. Hopefully sometime soon we can get the current version of ChessX onto the offical ChessX site. That site is unfortunately two years old. In the meantime I try to keep the most current builds on www.box.com/chessx 

I just updated the windows build. There is now a new mahogony and erable board called mahogony which looks really nice.

The Official release of ChessX 0.9 is out and the web site has finally been updated. Come and check it out!

http://chessx.sourceforge.net

I have chessx for mac - i can not figure out how to load an database of openings...any help here?

You need to have a PGN database file. You can open it by file open. After which it's games will apear in the Game List View. You click on a game in the game list view to display the game. You will also see the database entry  in the Databases view. You can right click on the database entry and add it to favorites.

I have posted the recent version on my box site www.box.com/chessx which support setting engine options, for those who like to be able to do so. The version on my site also has some extra boards which are not in the official version.

I use the Macintosh Version with Stockfish, Critter and Hiarcs 14. I will take a look.

I just tried the windows version again and while it works with all of the engines I had tried previously including Houdini 2.0 it does not work with Houdini 1.5. Not sure what Houdini 1.5 does differently.

The odd thing is I when I go into the windows version of ChessX's new Engine settings dialog for Houdini 1.5 (  its the ... button at the bottom right corner of the engine tab page) and set the thread count, after that Houdini 1.5 started working.

Perhaps setting the engine options performs some initialization that Houdini 1.5 needed. I will forward  this information on to the developer who has been working with engines.