Chess Help

To challenge your Mac to a game of chess, choose Game > New.

Open Chess for me

Get hints: Choose Moves > Show Hint. An arrow points to where you should move the piece. If the level of difficulty is set to Faster, hints aren’t available.

Take back a move: Choose Moves > Take Back Move for each move you want to undo.

See moves: Choose Moves > Show Last Move; an arrow points from the piece’s originating square to where it moved. To see all the moves made during a game, choose Moves > Game Log.

Change the look of a game: Choose Chess > Preferences, then choose a style for the board and pieces.

Set the level of difficulty: Choose Chess > Preferences, then drag the slider toward Faster or Stronger to decrease or increase difficulty.

Hear moves spoken: Choose Chess > Preferences, select the checkboxes for the moves you want to hear, then choose the voices.

Change the viewing angle of the board: Click and hold any corner of the board, then adjust the viewing angle using your mouse or trackpad.

Use spoken commands: To use spoken commands, you must first turn on Enhanced Dictation, then choose Chess > Preferences, and select Allow Player to Speak Moves. When the Dictation window appears, press the shortcut key (the key you selected when you enabled Enhanced Dictation) and speak a command; try not to hesitate while speaking.

You can use spoken commands for the following actions:

Action

Spoken command example

Move a piece

“Pawn e2 to e4”

Capture a piece

“Pawn e5 takes f6”

Drop a piece

“Drop bishop at g4” (only for crazyhouse games)

Promote a pawn

“Pawn e7 to e8 promoting to queen”

Castle

“Castle kingside” or “Castle queenside”

Take back a move

“Take back move”

Get more help for your Mac