A Mac is a worthy opponent for even the most gifted chess player. A wide variety of chess programs are available for the Mac platform, from the beautifully-crafted Mac OS X Chess — which is included with every new Mac — to the heavy-duty Shredder series, which boasts ten World Computer Chess Championship titles. Whether you’re a casual player or a potential grandmaster, read on to discover how the Mac can push your chess to greater heights.

Computer vs Computer

Walking into the main hall at the 16th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship (IPCCC), everything seems normal at first glance. Serious-looking men move pieces around chessboards, while stroking their chins and scratching their heads. But a closer look under the tables reveal this famous tournament’s not-so-well-kept secret: the real stars of the show are powerful computers, with multiple processors.

As the processing power of personal computers has increased, so has the potential for them to run ever more sophisticated chess software. Today, high-performance computers like the Mac Pro, combined with applications like DeepShredder, are able to defeat even the very best human players. Current chess programs can calculate millions of positions and have access to huge opening and endgame databases. At Paderborn, the role of the serious-looking men was reduced to that of marvelling assistants, moving the pieces around the boards at the behest of the machines.

Mac OS X Chess can be found in the Applications folder of Mac OS X and can be directed by speech recognition.

One Mac Against All

DeepShredder 10 running on the Mac regularly takes part in major international competitions, proving that the Mac is not only rightly renowned for its elegant design and unrivalled usability but also for its world-class performance. Powered by a Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors, DeepShredder won six of its seven matches at Paderborn in convincing fashion. Only the winning engine “Rybka” — running on a machine with twice the number of cores — proved too strong for DeepShredder.

Human vs Computer

Amateurs as well as top players can improve their play with chess software. It can be used to replay classic matches or to analyse complex positions and common chess problems. There are several Mac-compatible chess programs that qualify as patient training partners. One of these is Mac OS X Chess — based on the Sjeng Chess engine — that can be found in the Applications folder of Mac OS X.

Alternatively, online chess portals such as Chesscircle.net or the Internet Chess Club (ICC) are great places to find real human opponents of varying quality. Many portals offer online gaming via a standard Web browser, while others require downloadable clients.

Chess Software for Your Mac

Younger players can learn the “Game of Kings” with the chess instruction series Fritz & Chesster from Terzio. While casual players will have fun with Big Bang Chess, which forms part of the Big Bang Board Games suite that is included with new MacBook, iMac and Mac mini computers. Based on the GNU Chess engine, Big Bang Chess makes it easy to play against other human players over the Internet. Big Bang Chess is seamlessly integrated with iChat AV, to make finding an opponent as simple as sending an instant message. This integration of Mac OS X technologies was recognised with two Apple Design Awards.

Chessmaster 9000 is another popular chess program for the Mac. Packed with tutorials, drills, quizzes and puzzles created by some of the world’s greatest chess minds, this title features challenges for players of every skill level. You can even replay classic matches that span the years 1619 to 2002, with an accompanying glossary that helps you understand different moves employed in those contests.

A Grandmaster on Your Desktop

Sigma Chess HIARCS 11 and the Shredder series both leverage powerful chess engines that present a genuine challenge for serious players. Both are available in different versions with adjusted feature sets, and — following the release of Sigma Chess HIARCS 11 in April 2007 — both are now available as Universal binaries, optimised for multiple processor machines (both PowerPC and Intel) such as the new 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro.

With powerful chess software, your Mac becomes a Grandmaster on your desktop — can you meet the challenge?