Manifest Chess Lite

Manifest Chess Lite is a single-file PGN reader, editor and annotator for macOS. Double-click any .pgn file in Finder and the game is on the board straight away: board, game list, move tree and engine, with no import step, no account and no setup.

The engine is built in. Stockfish 18 runs on your own Mac with up to five analysis lines at once, on or off with a single keypress, and a stronger, larger build of the same engine is one setting away.

It is fully offline. There is no sign-in and the app has no way to reach the internet at all. Nothing is collected and nothing is sent anywhere.

Your file stays yours. Comments, variations, symbols like !! and ?!, arrows, highlights and tag edits are saved back into the same file you opened, and games you did not touch are left as they are. Every edit can be undone.

It stays quick on real files. Collections of tens of thousands of games open and scroll smoothly, damaged real-world files still open as far as they read, and the very largest open in a read-only mode. Filter by player, rating, year, colour or result to find the game you are thinking of in a keystroke.

Press Space on a chess file in Finder and Quick Look shows you what is inside without opening the app. Light and dark themes, board colours, piece sets and sound themes are all yours to set.

Manifest Chess Lite requires a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 12 or later and is sold on the Mac App Store as a one-time purchase.