Since OS X 10.2 Apple has included a Chess game by default on your Mac. The current version allows you to play against the computer with varying difficultly levels, play against another person, and even play online. You can change the look of the 3D board, hear moves and even speak to make a move. You can also save and resume games. Main Chaos Combat Chess di PC dan bersiap-sedia untuk aksi taktikal yang mendebarkan! Pada awal setiap sesi permainan, pemain akan memilih sepasukan pemain dan meletakkannya di papan permainan. Kemudian, perlawanan akan bermula dan susunan anda ini.
(This is a short story/guide on the best way to install ChessBase on a Mac, including Macs without a DVD drive.)
Recently, I decided to embrace my inner hipster and get a Mac. (If you don't know what a hipster is, this handy flowchart from the youreahipster tumblr might help:
Chaos Combat Chess Mac Os 7
If you don't know what a hipster is, but you've seen American Psycho, check out:
If you don't know what a Mac is, then the rest of this post isn't going to be much fun for you.)
Combat Chess Game
My new MacBook is smart, sleek and sexy. I've named her Adelaide. 12 years ago, after 'a series of unfortunate events', I started naming my computers after Australian cities. That's another story, but I accept your judgement in advance.
However, there was just one tiny problem with my new toy, and it's exactly the same reason as to why you won't see any macs floating around at top-level chess tournaments, and the same reason why not one of my GM friends takes a mac to tournaments:
Macs don't run ChessBase.
Well, technically that's not true. A Mac is hardware, but the operating software that comes with a Mac - in my case, the imaginatively named 'OS X Mavericks' - can't handle ChessBase. Or, more accurately, ChessBase doesn't produce an OS X compatible version.
(Notice that in what follows, I will continue to use impressive-sounding computergeek terminology in order to appear like I know what I'm talking about. Of course, in reality, I really don't know very much about computers - besides which cities make appropriate names...)
You might well ask why ChessBase doesn't make a Mac-friendly version. It's a good question. Actually, ChessBase did make a Mac OS version a while ago, but apparently it didn't sell very well, so they canned it. Part of the reason could be that Macs weren't as popular a decade ago as they are now in our hipster-flourishing era. Or part of the reason could be, as was recounted to me, that the Mac Chessbase software was 'perhaps the worst-ever commercial Mac software ever created.' In any case, it doesn't exist for sale anymore, and ChessBase staff told me last year that they have no plans to introduce a Mac-friendly version any time in the near future.
Well, that's an issue. There are other ChessBase alternatives that work on Macs, such as Shane's Chess Information Database (SCID) and Mac Chess Explorer. For the casual player, these are quite sufficient. For a tournament player who is constantly using chess programs for on-the-go preparation, opening analysis and integrating other ChessBase products, this isn't really an option. This is a real shame, because ChessBase as a program is objectively really terrible: it's buggy, barely developed between versions, and gives the user neither decent control nor innovation. However, there's simply no alternative out there for the serious player.
My next attempt to install ChessBase was to investigate running a virtual copy of Windows. This is basically the equivalent of running Windows from within Mac OS X. The main programs you can get are Parallels, VMware and VirtualBox (the last one is free). There are two main disadvantages of this method. The first is the cost: You'll need to spend 50 euros or so on the virtual-machine software (unless you get VirtualBox), as well as buy yourself a copy of Windows to install. Well, so be it.
The second disadvantage, however, is the loss of processing power. Particularly if you're going to do some heavy engine work, your computer isn't going to be very happy with running two operating systems as well as blasting Houdini on full speed. Think of it like wearing a dinner jacket over the top of an old coat: Sure, it still looks pretty much the same, but things are going to get hot and tiresome if you do too much work. For the serious analyst, this is super annoying.
My next attempt was to check out Wine, which is a 'compatability layer'. To be honest, I don't know what that means. From what I can tell, however, it tries to take all the little itty-bitty Windows code in a program and translate it into something Mac-friendly. The result is that MOST features of MOST Windows programs will work on OS- mostly. Think of it like disguising your old coat to look like a dinner jacket: it'll get you in to most things, and you won't be hampered much, but there are going to be one or two functions you'd like that'll reject you.
It's free software that relies heavily on its user community, so as you can imagine, the most popular programs are the ones which get most of the work. ChessBase, unfortunately, isn't one of them. Apparently, at least according to their program directory, older versions of ChessBase (such as CB9) worked 'reasonably well', so I thought I'd take my chances with my ChessBase 12, the latest version. I have to say, it's not very easy to get the thing to run. It was originally designed for Linux people, who I associate with being far more computer-savvy than myself. After bumbling around for a couple of hours, I eventually got to the final stage of 'running' my ChessBase through Wine on my Mac. Unfortunately, it was a no-go. To be fair, the Wine site says that this is a risk for untested programs, and it also might just be that I'm not sophisticated enough to get it to work. But if you too think of yourself as a point-and-click sort of user, take my advice: this isn't the way to go.
(Intermission: If you think it's hard being a hipster, you wouldn't believe the stuff Australians have to deal with...)
Finally, I was down to my last attempt: Boot Camp. This is Apple's integrated software to run a full version of the Windows operating system on your machine. Basically, when you turn on the Mac, you get to choose whether to run OS X or Windows, so there's no loss of CPU power in ChessBase (you do have to allocate some of your harddrive space to a second operating system, of course). The problem for me was that my MacBook doesn't have an optical (DVD) drive, so I couldn't install a Windows disk, even if I had one (which I don't).
Fortunately, a while ago Microsoft commissioned a company called Digital River to provide .iso downloads for all their Windows 7 versions. You can find the downloads here (and yes, this is totally free and legal). Basically, Microsoft wants you to be able to download and install Windows 'for free', because Windows only works for 30 days without an activation key - which you have to buy from Microsoft, of course.
Chaos Combat Chess Mac Os Catalina
Once you have the Windows 7 .iso file, the Boot Camp instructions are incredibly simple to use; you can google them for yourself, if you have any troubles, and there are plenty of websites offering advice. Next, boot your computer holding down the 'Option' key and choose to boot to Windows. Then, install ChessBase. Obviously, make sure you have a downloadable version if you don't have a DVD drive. If you're using an .iso file, you'll have to install VirtualClone (free!) to mount it: http://static.slysoft.com/SetupVirtualCloneDrive.exe
One final problem: If you don't already own Windows 7 (and thus an activation key) you might be wondering what to do to keep your Windows copy going after the 30-day trial. Believe it or not, it's actually really difficult to legally buy a licence from the Microsoft website. Your best bet is actually to go to any computer store and buy a brand new copy of your Windows 7 version (make sure you get the same one; don't buy Windows 7 Home if you downloaded and installed Windows 7 Professional!). You won't need the disk, of course, but just the code on the back. Then you can manually activate it like this: http://www.wikihow.com/Activate-Windows-7
Note that Microsoft DOES NOT sell individual activation codes. If you google around, you'll find plenty of sites willing to sell them to you; these are most likely illegal (although, apparently, most likely safe as well). There are also different sneaky ways of disabling Microsoft's ability to check after 30 days whether you've got a legal copy or not, including how-to videos on YouTube by 12 year old kids (seriously, kids, what are you doing?!). It doesn't matter about the method; after 30 days, if you're running Windows and you haven't bought an official copy, technically you're doing something illegal.I wash my hands of thee.
Anyway, finally, you'll end up with a full-power version of ChessBase on your Mac, and of course, now you have the ability to install any other Windows-only programs you might have as well. You can be both a chessplay AND a hipster! Hurray!
(You made it this far? Well done. Here's your reward: The Bondi Hipsters. Steer clear if you're easily offended.)
Since OS X 10.2 Apple has included a Chess game by default on your Mac. The current version allows you to play against the computer with varying difficultly levels, play against another person, and even play online. You can change the look of the 3D board, hear moves and even speak to make a move. You can also save and resume games.Check out Play Chess On Your Mac at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.
Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Did you know that a chess game comes with your Mac and it has for a long time. You can find it in the Applications folder, it's right there, or just launch it with Spotlight by using Command space and typing chess. It's a pretty versatile app. It asks you to sign in with iCloud, I'll tell you why later, but for now you can just cancel and skip that. So, you can start a new game and there are several different modes in this chess game. You can do different variations on chess and you can also play human versus human. So you don't need a chess board with you. If you've got your MacBook with you, you can play with the person sitting next you. You can also do human versus computer and reverse the situation there. You can even have a computer versus computer game where they play each other. Now, once you start you can set the number of seconds that the computer thinks per move. The more time you give the computer to think the tougher it's going to be. So you start. Now you just move the pieces as normal. Just drag and drop. Then the computer will make its move and even call it out for you. So you've got this little microphone here and you can even show the moves there so you can see all the different moves. There are a whole bunch of other options as well. So, for instance, you can go into Chess Preferences here and you can set the board to be something different like a metallic board. You can even change it during the game and the pieces as well. Lots of fun options there. You can turn off the speaking moves right there. Even change the voice that the moves are spoken in. You can change the intelligence of the computer right in the middle of the game if you wish. You can even speak your own moves and it will understand you. You don't even have to click anything or hold a key down. It's always listening. I'm going to create a pause hear so it starts listening and speak a move. Pawn E2 to E4. Pawn C7 to C6.There is a bunch of other options as well. For instance you can take back the last move. You can have it show a Hint. You can have it reshow the last move if you missed it. Check this out. You can save a game. So in the middle of a game you can save it and then open that game later on to resume it. So you can have multiple games going at the same time or pause to continue the game another day. Now I mentioned that you can also do multi player and that's what that iCloud sign in was before. If I do New and I choose Game Center Match there, then I hit Start and it allows me to connect with people I'm connected to using Game Center. If you're not familiar with Game Center it is a whole other subject. But it is a nice thing to be able to do. The one last thing I want to show you is that notice that this is a 3D view of a chess board. So you can click and hold any corner of the board and then drag to change the view. You can rotate it all the way around and you can kind of drag it up and down just to get a slightly different view of the board if you want.
