Best Software for Macs

I did get Chess King installed on the Mac but abandoned it because it was too buggy. I can't recall what the problems were, but it comes from the same stable as Chess OK Aquarium and Chess Assistant, neither of which are particularly user-friendly in my opinion.

I previously mentioned that HIARCS might be worth considering if it refines the shortcomings of ChessX. Whilst I haven't tried it, I understand that it is quite an improvement over the open source version. It is reputed by some to be the best option for Mac. My biggest gripe is the cost. Whilst the basic package sounds reasonably priced, you have to shell out quite a bit more to get a version that will run on multiple cores, and handle databases with more than 2 million games. It pushes the price up close to the absurdly expensive Chessbase. The basic version would probably be enough for what you intend. It's a shame they no longer offer a trial. They must be losing a lot of potential customers.

What I have done is to install Scid vs PC in Crossover, and I've been using that exclusively on the Mac. It runs well and you can add the latest version of Stockfish too. It's an economical solution, in that you only have to stump up the cash for Crossover. If you have the savvy and are prepared to do the installation yourself, you could use Wine and have the whole thing set up for free!

I hope this helps, and I'd be pleased to hear from anybody who has found a better alternative.

XBoard