You can use the Code system command from the Options menu or click the toolbar button to display a dialog window called “Code system” which contains all typical chess symbols. You can also click the right mouse button in the chess notation window and select this option from the pop-up menu that appears on the screen.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Y.

The “Special Characters” window appears, which contains all the special characters.

Here you can choose from two styles called Chess Academy and Chess Informant. You can also set it to display four symbol groups in any combination: evaluations (of position), move evaluations, symbols like !, ?!, etc., and pieces in figurine notation.

Each line of the list sequentially displays: the designations of special chess symbols or pieces, their explanations, name of the key to be pressed in combination with the Ctrl+Shift+Alt keys to put that symbol into the string. However, there is a much easier way to insert special chess symbols into annotations. Simply select the necessary line in the list and click the Copy button.

In the input fields for comments and evaluations, you can use keyboard shortcuts to enter chess pieces and special chess symbols according to the next table.

Each line of the table sequentially displays:

the designations of special chess symbols or pieces in Chess Academy style;

the same symbol in Chess Informant style;

its explanations;

name of the key to be pressed in combination with Ctrl+Shift+Alt keys to put the symbol into the string;

the decimal code of the symbol.

This option allows setting a game notation which appears when a board window is opened. Click the toolbar button or choose Notation from the Options main menu to select the game notation you want to set.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+N.

There are the following possibilities to show a game notation:

1. Game notation will be shown in the normal (text) long notation.

2. Game notation will be shown in the normal (text) short notation.

3. Game notation will be shown in the normal (text) USCF notation.

4. Game notation will be shown in the special (figurine) long notation.

5. Game notation will be shown in the special (figurine) short notation.

6. Game notation will be shown in the special (figurine) USCF notation.

It is possible also to call up the notation setting window from the Page Setup dialog. You can also click the right mouse button in the chess notation window and select this option from the pop-up menu that appears on the screen.

In the “Define Notation” dialog window you can set the symbols for the pieces and pawns (for example, you can change from normal notation to figurine notation). Notation is a row of 6 characters that are used to denote the chess pieces in game notation, in the next order: Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, and King. You can also include the pawn by checking the With pawn button, but please note: the pawn usually is discriminated against in Standard algebraic chess notation (SAN).

There are a total of 19 types of national and figurine chess notation presented here. For example, English piece notation can be selected by setting this option to English while Germans may prefer German. Many users may prefer figurine notation called Pieces. The standard figurine characters without pawns are the default program set.

Note: If the “Define Notation” window is called from the Page Setup, the settings you make affect the print layout, not the on-screen presentation of the game’s text.

To look for free disk space in your system, choose Free Diskspace from the Options menu.

At this command, you are informed of the total volume of detected drives and the amount of free space on them, in kilobytes.

This may be useful before installing new Chess Academy modules, for example. Remote (network, e.g.) and CD drives are ignored.

You probably want to turn the diagram around, which you can do by selecting Flip board. This option flips the current board orientation and can be very useful when you want to have a look at the board “as your opponent” or as a “neutral visitor”, for example.

If you wish to flip board, select the Flip board option from the Options heading menu.

and choose from:

Downside – means that White is always at the bottom;
Upside – Black is always at the bottom (the board is turned at 180 degrees);
Leftside – White is always on the left side of the board (the board is turned at 90 degrees);
Rightside – White is always on the right side of the board (the board is turned at 270 degrees).

You can also click with the right mouse button on the chessboard’s coordinates or border area. Then select the necessary option from the pop-up menu which will appear on the screen.

Alternatively, you may use respectively down, up, left, and right arrow keys in combination with the Alt+Shift keys.

This option allows you to select what size of diagram appears when a board window is opened to fit best your eyes and display resolution. There are five possible sizes of the board: tiny, small, medium, big, and huge.

Choose Board Size in the Options menu.

or click with the right mouse button on the blank chess square to choose from the following board sizes:

Tiny

Small

Medium

Big

Huge

You can also use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3, Ctrl+4 and Ctrl+5 respectively.

This option allows you to set a color presentation of white and black pieces, squares, piece shapes, and different on-board marks. You can also choose acceptable colors for the presentation of the game’s text in the Game’s Editor window.

The program calls up the “Color settings” property by clicking on the toolbar button or by choosing Colors from the Options menu.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+C.

It is possible also to enter the “Color settings” from the Editor status dialog window. You can also click the right mouse button in the chess notation window and select this option from the pop-up menu which appears on the screen.

Colors of two-dimensional chess board

or Colors of game text in the Editor window.

Select the necessary one and click on the corresponding tab to activate the proper page.

Then select the desired item from the applied list, double-click it, or click the Change button and choose any color you wish to set up from the Windows-standard Color palette.

The button Black & White allows to display of either chess pieces, squares, and marks on the board or game’s text in Black & White mode.

The button Default colors restores the default color settings.

Any changes you made are immediately shown in the preview window.

Click the OK button to confirm your choice and save the currently defined color settings.

Alternatively: press the Enter key.

Click Cancel to return without any changes of color settings.

Alternatively: press the Esc key.

If you want all settings to take effect immediately click the Apply button. It is inactive until you have made some changes. On this command, the program saves current color settings and redraws the desktop (if necessary). Since an unrecoverable change of data has been made, this option will change the OK button to the Close button and disable the Cancel button.

By clicking the Help button the program calls up the relevant section of the help file.

The Animation option allows you to choose the way in which moves are displayed on the chessboard: “Jump” or “Easy”.

You can switch on/off pieces animation by clicking Animation from the Option menu.

If the option is enabled then the program controls the speed of move animation. You can choose the speed of the piece moving on the board that fits you best.

You can reach this feature through the Options > Time intervals…

The window “Time intervals” shows you the current sliding speed of the response move where you can reduce or increase the animation value.

You can use the “thumb” on the scroll bar to set a faster, or slower response move.

The program beeps every time you have to solve the key position in the current example or some commentaries or variants appear in the game. Disable it if necessary.

You can switch on/off the sound signal by clicking Beep from the Option menu.

Those who are not familiar with chess notation may use the Coordinates option. It determines whether the coordinates should be given at the edge of the board or not. By default, this option is enabled.

The coordinates are switched on: by choosing Coordinates from the Options menu or pressing Alt+R.

The coordinates are switched off: by choosing Coordinates from the Options menu or pressing Alt+R again.

You can also click with the right mouse button on the chessboard’s coordinates or border area. Then select the necessary option from the pop-up menu which will appear on the screen.

If you want to change the current time settings, click the toolbar button or choose Time Intervals from the Options menu.

Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+I.

The Database program displays a window called “Time intervals” where you can set up the Movetime (time interval between successive moves) and the Animation Speed (time for performing a move in Animation mode) parameters. The default time setting for Movetime is 0.5 sec per move and for Animation Speed – 0.4 sec. per move.

Select the Movetime option to set up a time interval for displaying each move one after another.

Select the Animation speed option to set up the piece’s “slide” speed to what works best on your PC.

If you wish to change any of the settings mentioned above use the “thumb” on the scroll bar to set a limit for the Movetime or for the Animation Speed parameters (to make moves displaying on the chessboard faster or slower).

If you are working with a Tutorial and Training program, you can set up different time intervals, such as move time, wait time, time limit, and animation speed.

Select the Movetime option to set up a time interval for displaying each move one after another.

Select the Waittime option to set up a time interval for the presentation of the commentary window.

Select the Time Limit option to set up a time interval to consider and find a solution in a key position.

Select the Animation speed option to set up the piece’s “slide” speed to what works best on your PC.

You can use the “thumb” on the corresponding scroll bar to set a faster, or a slower response move. The settings will be saved if you click the OK button.

You can choose the Timer menu item under the Options menu.

It allows you to select a clock picture to either Clock or Hourglass .

By choosing Language from the Options menu, the program displays the pop-up menu, from which you can determine the language of program messages and help texts (if available).

There are the following languages from which you can choose:

English (alternatively use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E or Ctrl+Shift+A)
German (or use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+G or Ctrl+Shift+D)
Russian (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+R)
French (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F)
Spanish (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+S)
Italian (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+I)
Portuguese (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+P)
Dutch (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H) *
Polish (or use keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+O)

Note: This command can not change the language of text commentaries and annotations while working with any Tutorial module since libraries are not multilingual. To avoid possible inconvenience please order the Tutorial libraries in your preferred language.

* – This language version is still under development

When you are using commentary symbols and figurine notation, you need to use the special chess fonts, included in the package with the main program. Chess Academy presents new Chess Academy True-Type fonts, which were designed especially for printing a game notation, including different special chess symbols and chess diagrams, and Chess Academy screen fonts, which were designed for on-screen presentation.

To enable font selection click the toolbar button or choose Fonts from the Options menu.

The program brings up a Windows-standard Font dialog and allows you to choose between different fonts.

When working with the list of games or examples you can select any font installed on your PC and use it for on-screen presentation of games list or examples list respectively. The default font for the list is MS Sans Serif.

When working with the game window, editor window, or tutorial example window you can select any TrueType or OpenType font installed on your PC and use it for both on-screen presentation and print layout of additional textual information (game’s header, textual annotations, tutorial tasks, Engine’s output text and so on). The default font for the non-chess text in any window with a chessboard and chess notation is Courier New.

This option allows you to choose a pieces sets which can be displayed on the chessboard.

Choose the Pieces Set and Board command from the Options menu

or click with the right mouse button on any piece on the chess board to choose from the proposed pieces sets.

Note that the starting three sets present a two-dimensional chess board and pieces while the rest are for three-dimensional layout.

3D-pieces and boards in Chess Academy

There are some samples of 3D pieces sets and boards designed and used in the Chess Academy program:

  You can also alternatively use keyboard shortcuts Alt+1, Alt+2, and so on.

All variants of pieces presentation are the original Chess Academy design.

Chess Academy Toolbars are designed in a “docking or floating” style. This provides a variety of possibilities and makes it very handy to manage the program tools.

Any toolbar can be docked or floating. A docked toolbar is fixed either to the top or to the bottom borders of the application window. A floating toolbar can appear anywhere on your screen and has a thin title bar. A floating toolbar is always on top of all other windows. You can move a floating toolbar.

You can change a docked toolbar to a floating toolbar. Point to a blank area between buttons on the toolbar or to it left border. Then drag the toolbar away from the dock to the position that you want.

You can dock a floating toolbar. Point to the title bar or to a blank area in the toolbar. Then drag the toolbar either to the top or to the bottom borders of the application window. When the mouse pointer reaches the boundary, the toolbar window becomes a single horizontal row of buttons.

If you want to move a docked toolbar to its last floating position, double-click the docked toolbar.

Similarly, to move a floating toolbar to its last docked position, double-click the title bar of a floating toolbar. If the toolbar has not been docked before, it moves to a new row below the Menu Bar.

To position a floating toolbar over a docked toolbar, point to a blank area of the toolbar or its title bar. Then hold down the Ctrl key, and drag the toolbar over any docking area of the application window.

The following Toolbars are available now in Chess Academy software:

1. Standard. It contains the most common program tools.

big icons

middle size of icons

small icons

2. Game Viewing. It contains commands for handling chess games, key positions, or tutorial examples.

3. List and Search. This bar contains a list, dataset, and search commands.

4. Analyse and Training. All training and analysis tools are available here.

5. Convert. This bar contains both the importing and exporting tools of Chess Academy.

6. Keys. Chess Academy Opening Keys, Key Positions, Middlegame keys, and Endgame keys are presented here.

7. Options. The majority of program options are accessible through this bar.

8. Edit. It contains a Game Editing Tool.

9. Multimedia annotations. This bar contains tools to manage multimedia comments.

10. Database Tools. It contains Database Editing and Rebuilding Tools.

11. Window. It contains windows managing Icons.

12. Engine. This bar contains commands necessary for the chess-playing program.

13. Help. This bar contains help managing commands.

By default, all bars are enabled and docked in 2 or more (depending on screen resolution) rows beneath the Menu Bar. You can disable or enable any bar, whether it is docked or floating. Select the Toolbars command from the Options menu, or click any toolbar or Status Bar area with the right mouse button. Then select the necessary bar and switch it on or off. If a toolbar is enabled the corresponding line in the pop-up menu is checked. Otherwise, it is unchecked. You can also click with the right mouse button on the title area of the floating toolbar and select either Move or Hide options.

This option is very useful if you are using very high or very low screen resolution mode. Select the Toolbar Size command from the Options > View menu, or click the toolbar button .

A dialog window called “Toolbar options” appears.

Use sliders or “left arrow” and “right arrow” keys to change the size both buttons and borders around buttons of visible toolbars. Any changes you make are immediately displayed on the screen.

Three different button sizes are available. The default button size is calculated with the Chess Academy installation routine and depends upon your PC screen resolution mode when installing the software. In case installation was successfully completed this parameter is saved in the application’s *.INI-file.

There are several options that could optimize your studies with the Chess Academy Tutorial program.

Choose the command Board Status in Tutor from the Options menu and switch the options on or off.

If you want to solve the tutorial examples from the current list one by one switch the Auto-Display Next Example option on. Then the next example from the current list will load automatically into the Tutorial window after the end of the current one.

If the Auto-Display Variant option is on, the extra board with the variant will be automatically opened in case the program matches any variant in the text of the example.

If the Flip Board on Black’s Move option is on, the chess board in the Tutorial window will be turned at 180 degrees in case the first move in the example is for Black and will be normally displayed if the first move is for White. This option does not affect the Flip board settings.

If the Skip Learned Examples option is on, the examples previously learned would be skipped when listing examples forward or backward.

View options enable users to customize Chess Academy’s on-screen presentation. The following features are accessible:

Status Bar — tells the program to display or to hide the status bar. A status bar is a bar that contains several text-output panes. The leftmost pane briefly explains the selected menu or toolbar command. The next displays the status of the chessboard square on which the mouse cursor is currently positioned. The last pane contains a timer.

Gradient-like Title Bar — switches on or off the gradient effect for window title bars.

Note:

1. This option does not correspond with analogous Windows 98 or Windows 2000 feature and overrides it. Switch it off if you want to preserve the original Windows view style.

2. It does not affect the appearance of some standard system dialog boxes).

Menu Buttons — enables or disables button-like icons in the menu.

Bitmap as Background — enables or disables using a bitmap as background for all pop-up menus.

Tool Tips — enables or disables on-screen descriptions of toolbar buttons when positioning the mouse cursor over a button for a period of time.

Toolbar Size — the Toolbar Options window appears on-screen to set the desired toolbar button size.

When an option is enabled the corresponding line in the pop-up menu View is checked. Otherwise, it is unchecked.

One more powerful feature related to Chess Academy bars is the “flyby” status bar update. By default, the message on the status bar describes only a particular toolbar button when the button is activated. Here you can have these messages updated simply when the mouse cursor passes over the toolbar without actually activating the button!

Disable Movie option

By starting Chess Academy you can see an original Chess Academy movie.

You can disable the Movie option by clicking Disable Movies in the Options menu.

If you wish to enable this option, simply click again.

Selecting this option displays the “Welcome” window.

It can be done by choosing About Chess Academy… from the Help menu, or by clicking the toolbar button .

In the window, you can read what version of Chess Academy you own, the user’s name and serial number, program copyright, etc.

The window will automatically disappear when you click the left mouse button.

Alternatively: enter the Esc key.

By default each time when you call up this option a short advertising clip is displayed.

To skip it switch on the Disable Movies flag either in the “Welcome” window or in the Options menu.