A chess database for your Mac, without the wait.

Your games, searched by position in under a second

Import PGN files, ChessBase databases (.cbh, .2cbh, .cbv and .2cbv) and SCID databases with their variations, comments, evaluation symbols, arrows and colored squares intact. Your games export to PGN.

In our tests on a MacBook Neo with 8 GB of memory, searching a 12-million-game database for a board position took under a second. There is no index to build first, and each search updates the move statistics for the games it finds.

Search by tactic, material and structure

Stack rules for material, pawn structure, piece placement, ordered move sequences, and tactical motifs like pins, skewers and knight forks. Save the searches you reuse.

These searches look inside every game, so they take a few seconds across 12 million games.

Annotate your games

In annotate mode, add variations, comments and evaluation symbols as you go, and draw colored arrows and square markers on the board. Run the engine over the whole game with the time or depth you choose for each move, and press X to see what your opponent was threatening.

In the library, the Moves and Openings tabs show how each move and named opening has scored in your database, with ECO codes and average ratings. Both tabs follow the board as you play through a line.

Stockfish 19 and your own UCI engines

ChessRoller offers to download Stockfish 19 the first time you run it, so you can start analyzing right away. Add your other UCI engines and choose which one analyzes and which one plays.

You get a fast overview of a game when you open it, and batch analysis when you want to go deeper. Add your CTG and Polyglot opening books, and your engines play from them.

Play the engine, or watch two engines play

Play an engine at the strength you choose, play a friend on the same Mac, or set two engines against each other, each with its own opening book. Games you play save to your library.

Turn your games into practice

Review a game you played, and ChessRoller picks out the moves that mattered, names the tactic behind each one (such as a fork, skewer or discovered attack), and asks you to find the better move.

Your mistakes go into a spaced-repetition trainer alongside your opening repertoire, which you can generate from your own games and practice the same day.

Your online games, synced

Follow your Lichess and Chess.com accounts, or your next opponent's, along with Lichess broadcasts and The Week in Chess. New games arrive in your database automatically.

Scout your next opponent

For any player in your database, see their rating by year, which openings they lean on, how they score with white and black, and who they've faced.

Free databases to start with

Lumbra's Gigabase has more than 12 million over-the-board games and 6 million online games, updated monthly, and The Week in Chess adds new top-level games weekly. See the free databases and how to import them.

ChessRoller for Mac at a glance

Coming from another chess program

• HIARCS Chess Explorer: PGN databases import directly. Databases in HIARCS's own format need to be exported to PGN first. HIARCS engines are UCI engines, so you can add yours. More for HIARCS users.
• ChessBase: Your databases import as they are, and CTG opening books work with your engines. More for ChessBase users.
• En Croissant: Your PGN files import directly, and your Lichess and Chess.com accounts sync automatically.
• ChessX and Scid vs. PC: PGN and SCID databases import without conversion.