ExaChess - the premier chess database for the Macintosh


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ExaChess Home


Welcome to the home of ExaChess!

ExaChess is a powerful chess-database program for the Macintosh with many features. You can use it to manage a database of hundreds of thousands of master games, as a chessboard to play through games, and as a tool to record and annotate your own games, to play games against the computer, or to play perfect endgames.

ExaChess comes in two forms: ExaChess Lite is a free version of ExaChess that provides most of its features in a version suitable for maintaining a personal games collection. You can download ExaChess Lite from this web site.

The full version, known as ExaChess Pro must be purchased from Exant Software for A$125 (around US$92 depending on exchange rates). See Ordering for more information.


What's New

ExaChess 3.1.3 and ExaChess Lite 3.1.3 are now available for download. These releases fix the problems of earlier releases when closing game windows under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

New features in ExaChess 3

The major new features of ExaChess are as follows:

  • Carbon and Classic versions that run native under OS X and OS8/9. ExaChess 3.0 and ExaChess Lite 3 are Carbon applications that run natively under OS X (10.1 or later) as well as OS 8.6 or later. There is also a Classic version of ExaChess 3.0, for OS 8 and 9 only, which is a bit faster and more responsive under those operating systems, and which can be provided on request.
     
  • New game parser. The new parser can parse game text without parentheses for the main variations and without braces for comments (with a few exceptions), so displaying a game this way is now an option and makes the game look for readable. Some stored chess games have variations entered as comments. ExaChess will turn these into variations you can play through.
     
  • Export games as Web page and as Styled Text. A chess game or selected games in a database can now be exported as a web page (not ExaChess Lite). The web page allows replay of the game on an included chessboard, navigation to any position by clicking on a move etc. You can also export single games as Styled Text.
     
  • Merge paste. Pasting other games into a game window inserts the games as variations to the original game at the latest point of divergence, producing the classic 'game within a game' style of annotation where the pasted game's header becomes an end comment.
     
  • Automatic play through main line. Click and hold on Forward icon, or hold down the right arrow key, and ExaChess will automatically repeat the Forward command and play through the game without the need to hold down any keys.
     
  • Find Novelty search for similar games. Position a game at the first position of interest and Find Novelty will find all games in the database that match that position or one of the next 19 positions, sorted by how late the matched position occurs and making it easy to spot where the game first deviates from existing games.
     
  • Mark Game / Unmark Game commands to remember specified games in a database. You can mark (or unmark) selected games in a game or database window. Marked games are shown with blue text in the database window.
     
  • PGN databases don't need a TEXT file type or Mac line endings. ExaChess will open/import Text and PGN databases that use UNIX-style linefeeds or DOS-style CR-LFs as line separators.
     
  • Analysis by search engine while browsing games. ExaChess can show the chess engine's thinking (i.e. its evaluation of the position and suggested best move) as you browse through any game.
     
  • Remember open windows. ExaChess can remember open windows across launches.

Ordering

  • New users, see Ordering for details.
  • Existing users of ExaChess 2 can upgrade for free. Contact Exant Software for a download URL.
  • Existing users of ExaChess Lite 2 can download the new version from the Downloads page.


ExaChess Features

Both ExaChess Lite and ExaChess Pro provide the following features:

  • Direct support (without conversion) of ChessBase (CBF), NICBase, PGN and EPD databases, as well as ExaChess's own binary and text database formats.
     
  • Search across all databases or just a single database file by player name, event, year, result, ECO code, opening name, position, partial position, material, special game features, or any combination of these.
     
  • Shows ECO code and opening name for each game and statistics for all matching games.
     
  • Finds and allows easy removal of duplicate games from any database.
     
  • Resizable, customizable 2-D color board with smooth animation.
     
  • Move display shows game title and all notes and variations, using colorized text and formatting to distinguish the main line from annotations and variations. Click on a move to go to that point in the game; edit the move text to add annotations.
     
  • Flexible game parser that handles free-form text input, both algebraic and descriptive, including move and position evaluations, variations and text comments.
     
  • Records full tree of moves. Switch to variation or return to main line.
     
  • Shows opening tree (next moves for any opening position) with stats from the database. Quickly find matching games in database for any opening position.
     
  • Supports play against the database or against external 'chess engines' via Apple Events, including ZZZZZZ (supplied), Crafty, Sigma Chess, Vektor3, Screamer, GnuChess, and MacChess (available at Mac and chess Internet archive sites).
     
  • Supports automatic annotation of games using external chess engines.
     
  • Plays perfect 5-piece endgames using Ken Thompson's endgame database CDs (included with the ExaChess CD and also available from other sources).
     
  • Detailed User's Guide included.

ExaChess Lite is restricted to showing only the first 256 games of larger databases (128 games for ChessBase, NICBase), and limits searches across multiple databases to at most 8 databases.


Features of ExaChess Pro (commercial version)

All the features of ExaChess Lite plus the following:

  • Supplied on CD with 400,000 game database and more than 300MB of Ken Thompson's endgame tables for perfect 5-piece endgames.
     
  • Accelerated for Power Macintosh (runs native on PowerPC).
     
  • No 256/128 game limit on individual database files, and no limit on the number of databases that are listed in the Games menu or All Databases window and which can be searched across in a single operation.
     
  • Opens multiple games and databases at once, each in its own window.
     
  • Provides 'Change Headers' command for easy bulk editing of database game headers.
     
  • Prints games with figurines and diagrams and full annotations.
     
  • Exports formatted RTF text, including figurines and diagrams and full annotations, for publication of games.


Screen shots

Chess games

Chess games are presented in a Game window that looks like this. The window is resizable (the one in the picture is using small chess pieces (18 point) to fit on this page -- you can choose any size from 12 to 48 points). You can also use any built-in chess font in place of the built-in piece set, and can set the color of the board and pieces.

Databases

Databases are shown through a database window. The window is resizable and the relative column widths can also be adjusted. Searching for games is very easy and very fast: Enter information into any of the Players, Event, Result, Opening or No. field and ExaChess will filter the displayed games to only those that match the entered information. In addition you can do a wide range of positional searches through a simple dialog.

Database list

ExaChess supports operations across all its databases. The databases are simply placed in the ExaChess Games folder and can then be accessed from the Games menu. To search for games across a set of databases, simply select the databases in the All Databases window and create a New View. You can then search this view as if it were a single integrated database. This displays a window just like the Database window and shows matching games as though they all came from the one database. The All Databases window lists all the databases in the ExaChess Games folder.

 


What can I do with ExaChess?

If you use a Mac and enjoy chess, you should check out ExaChess! Whether you are a casual player wanting a bit of fun, or a serious student of the game, ExaChess has something to offer you.

ExaChess as a chess database. If you haven't used a chess database before, here's what you can do with ExaChess and a reasonably sized game collection:

  • Use it for entertainment. Pick a game at random and play through it -- choose a game by one of the leading grandmasters from a recent tournament, or a classic win by a past champion, or a quick win in one of your favourite openings, or a recent pawn and rook ending. A chess database gives you instant replays at a pace you control of thousands of entertaining games.
  • Study openings. Assemble a collection of games in one of your favorite openings, or defenses, or a new line you are trying to learn. Find what other players have played in the same positions, and with what success ratios. Play against the database to check for holes in your opening repertoire or to check your memory. Explore deviations off the main line.
  • Study middlegame themes and combinations. Look for combinations and sacrifices. Find how the Masters proceed as a particular opening line moves into the middlegame.
  • Study endgames. Find where a rook draws against rook and pawn. When do bishops of opposite color draw and when don't they?
  • Prepare a database. Build a database of your own games, or of games from a recent or historical event. ExaChess has a powerful game parser to extract games with annotations from a wide range of text sources. It allows fast duplicate finding and removal, easy merging of games with other databases, conversion of databases to other file formats, and can use databases in other file formats without conversion.

ExaChess as a chessboard. It's easy to move the pieces, take back moves, add annotations, keep a move tree of all the lines you explore.

  • Play through a game. It's quicker than setting up a board. You can instantly wind the game back or forward to any point. Move entry is easy: type the moves, choose them from a menu, drag pieces with the mouse, or use the move prediction feature to just click on the destination square and have ExaChess play the most likely piece to that square.

ExaChess as a chess partner. Its built-in engine lets you play against the database to test your opening repertoire. It works with external chess engines, providing the user interface while a chess playing program calculates the moves, and can host a match between two chess playing programs.

  • Play speed chess against the computer. Or play serious games. Practise banging out opening moves in your favorite lines, or checkmating your opponent when you have a large material edge but only seconds left on the clock.
  • Analyse your own games. Play through them again. Ask a chess engine to find its best move in a critical position, or to annotate the whole game. Play against the computer in a side variation -- can you still win?

ExaChess as a chess publisher. It can directly print games with full formatting, figurines and diagrams. It can export a single game or a whole database of games with formatting, figurines, and diagrams in RTF (Rich Text Format) format for import into word processors or page layout programs.

  • Annotate your own games and print the analysis. Write your own book of best games.
  • Publish a book on an opening you've studied with example games from the database.

 


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