Manifest Chess Studio: chess PGN database for Mac with position search and game review

All your games. One library.

A modern desktop chess database for club players and professionals. Search positions across millions of games, run deep engine analysis locally, and walk through your own play to find the blunders you keep repeating.

  • Position search: drop any position on the board, see every game that reached it
  • Local Stockfish 18: deep engine analysis on your hardware, nothing uploaded
  • Lichess and Chess.com sync: every online game, pulled automatically
  • Automated review: every move tagged, every blunder double-checked
Manifest Chess Studio showing a Master Games database of 45,000 games beside the board, engine lines, and position explorer
Your whole chess library, in one placeMillions of games on your own Mac, searchable in an instant.
Chess database import, search, and exploration

Every position that has been reached

Bring your databases in. Drop any position on the board. Studio finds every move that has ever been played from it, and every game that has ever reached it.

Drop a PGN fileor click to browse
megabase-2024.pgn
3.2M games · 1.8 GB
Start with your library

Every PGN, ready to search

Studio opens whatever PGN you have. Drag a file from disk, paste a game or a thousand, or pull studies from your linked Lichess account. Each one lands in a database, ready to search.

  • PGN files with millions of games, dragged or browsed
  • Lichess studies from your linked account
  • Paste anything in PGN format from anywhere
  • Each import lands in a database, ready to search
Scout an opponent2 handles
Handles
DrNykterstein3257
6,512
MagnusCarlsen3404
2,841
Filters
Color
Time
Since
Last 12 months
Matching3,722 games
Plays as Whitefirst moves
1.e4
47%
1.d4
33%
1.Nf3
12%
1.c4
8%
Scout the opponent

Every game your opponent has played

Got a Lichess or Chess.com handle? Studio pulls every game that player has played into its own database. Filter by color, time control, rating, or date. Then drop a position on the board and see what they actually play.

  • Pull games from any Lichess or Chess.com handle
  • Filter by color, time control, rating, and date
  • See what they actually play, move by move
  • Search the same way as any other database
FilterElo 2400+1953Zurich CandidatesResult: any
MovesFrom this position
12 games
6.Be2
40% W40% D20% B
5
6.Be3
33% W34% D33% B
3
6.f3
50% W50% D0% B
2
6.Bg5
100% W0% D0% B
1
6.Bc4
0% W100% D0% B
1
Browse the position

Every move that has been played

Studio aggregates every move from this exact position across the databases you have selected, with win, draw, and loss percentages baked in. Sort by what matters to you. Click a move to keep going.

  • Win, draw, and loss percentages for every move
  • Sorted by popularity, win rate, or rating
  • Click any move to extend the search down its line
  • Built to feel instant, even at scale
FilterElo 2400+1953Zurich CandidatesResult: any
GamesThat reached this position
6 of 12
WhiteBlackResult
Smyslov, V.Bronstein, D.½-½
Keres, P.Reshevsky, S.1-0
Bronstein, D.Najdorf, M.½-½
Petrosian, T.Smyslov, V.0-1
Geller, E.Euwe, M.1-0
Reshevsky, S.Petrosian, T.½-½
Drill into the games

Every game that got here

Every game that reached this position, listed in full. Filter, sort, and search exactly the way you would expect from a database that respects you. Open any game on the board to study it.

  • Sort by player, rating, date, or result
  • Filter by Elo, year, event, or outcome
  • Open any game on the board with one click
  • Search one database, several, or your whole library
Local Stockfish 18 chess engine analysis

The strongest engine, always on call

Analyse any position with the same engine that decides world championships. Stockfish 18 runs on your own hardware, instantly, with nothing to upload and nothing to set up. The best tool in chess, always at hand.

  • Stockfish 18 built in, the engine top grandmasters trust
  • Runs locally, instantly, with nothing to upload
  • Nothing to install and no setup needed
  • As many lines as you like, as deep as you like
  • Engine arrows and an eval bar on every board
Stockfish 18infinite
depth 32
Evaluation+0.21
3
Lines
Top lines3 of 5
+0.216.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Nbd7 9.Qd2Best
+0.186.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.Re1
+0.146.f3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Be3 O-O 9.Qd2
Game sync and engine-powered review

Your online games, all in one place

Connect your accounts and Studio pulls every game you have ever played into one library. Click once to run a full engine review on any game. Find every blunder, learn the better move. Stop making the same mistake twice.

My Games4,779 games
Live
Lichess@manifestchess
2,847games
Synced 2 minutes ago
Chess.com@manifestchess
1,932games
Synced 14 minutes ago
Imported gamesSyncedActions
  • +3Blitz
    2m ago
  • +1Rapid
    14m ago
  • +5Bullet
    1h ago
  • +2Blitz
    3h ago
Bring every game in

Every game you have ever played

Connect your Lichess and Chess.com accounts and your full chess history shows up in one library. New games appear as you finish them. Re-pull everything from scratch any time you want.

  • Connect Lichess, Chess.com, or both
  • New games appear the moment you finish playing
  • Pull your entire history any time, in one click
  • Searchable as one library, across every account
  • Always local, always yours
You vs chess-art-us0-1
Lichess Rapid · 10+0 · 2 days ago · 78% accuracy
Evaluation over time41 moves
InaccuracyMistakeBlunder
Move 24 · Find the better move
You played
24.Rxd5−2.34
Best move
?+0.42
Learn from every game

Every blunder, every better move

Queue any game and Studio reviews it in the background, tagging every move and flagging the moments where it slipped. Then step through your blunders one at a time. The engine pauses, hides what came next, and waits for you to play the better move yourself. The point is not to see what went wrong, it is to stop doing it.

  • Every move tagged: best, excellent, mistake, blunder
  • Step through your blunders one by one, find the better move
  • Per-side accuracy scoring, yours and your opponent's
  • Critical positions analyzed twice, at deeper depth
Endless board and piece customization

Make it look the way you see chess

Chess is personal. The board you grew up with, the pieces you know by sight, the speed that matches how you actually think. Studio hands you all of it. Pick once and forget you picked. The app should disappear; you and the game should stay.

  • The board you have always wanted
  • The pieces you know by sight
  • Move them the way you actually move them
  • As fast or as slow as you want
  • Show only what you need to see
  • Sized exactly the way you like
Manifest Chess Studio vs ChessBase, Scid vs PC, Lucas Chess, and Lichess

An honest comparison

Chess software has been around for decades. Some of it shows. Here is what Manifest Chess Studio gives you, and what the alternatives do and do not.

Manifest Chess Studio
ChessBase 18
Scid vs PC
Lucas Chess
Lichess
Platforms
Mac (App Store)
Windows only
Mac · Windows · Linux
Windows · Linux
Web · iOS · Android
Pricing
€129 one-time
$195 + $54/yr
Free, open source
Free, open source
Free, donations only
Search across PGN databases
Slow at scale
Lichess DBs
Local Stockfish engine
Stockfish 18
Fritz NNUE
User supplied
57 engines
In browser
Cloud engine analysis
Premium only
40/day cap
Automated game review
Find-the-move trainer
Lichess account sync
Chess.com account sync
PGN file and paste import
64 max
Custom boards and pieces

Competitor data verified May 2026 across ChessBase 18, Scid vs PC 4.26, Lucas Chess R 2.21, and Lichess.org.

Frequently asked questions

Studio, answered

The questions we hear most about Manifest Chess Studio, answered without the marketing spin.

Manifest Chess Lite: offline PGN reader for Mac

Just want to open PGN files?

Manifest Chess Lite is our fast, fully offline reader: double-click a .pgn, analyse it with Stockfish, annotate, and your work is saved back into the same file.

Bring your chess games into Manifest Chess

A full desktop chess database and a fast PGN reader, built for Mac. Each is a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store.

DownloadJoin the community