Mac fans are undoubtedly eagerly awaiting the release of macOS Sequoia, and looking forward to exploring its new features, including Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring, and a whole load of other goodies, but an unsung upgrade has also been spotted – an update to Chess for macOS.
According to a report from 9to5Mac, the stock Chess game within the developer build of macOS Sequoia has received quite a facelift, with new modern graphics, a fresh background, and more realistic textures for the pieces.
You can also change the style of the pieces and choose between wood, marble, or metal if you fancy spicing things up further.
You may be wondering why it’s such a big deal to have updated visuals for Chess, but you might be surprised to learn that the game hasn’t been updated since 2012. So, it’s been a long wait, but at least Apple has finally turned its attention to the app, and made improvements for those of us who enjoy a cheeky chess game between emails on a slow workday.
All just a waiting game
While the Chess upgrade and other nuggets have been spotted in the developer beta of macOS 15, it's worth noting that if Apple hasn’t explicitly mentioned a particular feature at WWDC 2024 or in other related announcements, there's no guarantee that it'll show up in Sequoia when it launches later this year.
That’s not to say we don’t expect to see the nice new chessboard and pieces – we just have to bear in mind that anything that’s spotted up until the public release of macOS Sequoia has to be taken with a pinch of salt, and it could even be the case that even more improvements to chess are rolled out.
It’s definitely an exciting time to be a Mac fan, what with refreshed MacBook Airs still cooling on the shelves, and a whole new AI-powered macOS operating system in the pipeline – and for chess fans, this news might be the icing on the cake.
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