In the options menu or by clicking on the corresponding icon in the icon bar you can set the animation speed, the colors, the thinking times, the board size, and some more. Each setting made is saved in the program’s INI file, so it is not necessary to select the same option multiple times.

There are the following program options available in the Chess Academy Tutorial and Training program, and their short description:

You can use the Code system command from the Options menu or click the toolbar button image360 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.

chessacademy keyboard Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+Y.

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

code system options menu

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.

code system dialog window

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 image285 or choose Notation from the Options main menu to select the game notation you want to set.

chessacademy keyboardAlternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+N.

chess notation options menu

 

There are the following possibilities to show a game notation:

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation2

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation3

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation4

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation5

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation6

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

chessacademy auswahl schachnotation7

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.

define chess notation dialog window

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.

free diskspace 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.

free diskspace on harddisk

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.

flip board options 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.

right mouse button coordinates option menu

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.

board size options menu

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

hige board size

 

Tiny

chessacademy brettgroesse aendern3

Small

chessacademy brettgroesse aendern4

Medium

chessacademy brettgroesse aendern5

Big

chessacademy brettgroesse aendern6

Huge

chessacademy brettgroesse aendern7

chessacademy keyboard 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 image126 or by choosing Colors from the Options menu.

color settings options menu

chessacademy keyboard 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

color settings 2d board

or Colors of game text in the Editor window.

colors game

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.

chessacademy keyboard Alternatively: press the Enter key.

Click Cancel to return without any changes of color settings.

chessacademy keyboard 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.

animation options 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…

time intervals dialog window

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.

beep options menu tutorial

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.

coordinates options menu

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.

coordinates2 options menu

If you want to change the current time settings, click the toolbar button image345 or choose Time Intervals from the Options menu.

chessacademy keyboard Alternatively: use the keyboard shortcut Alt+I.

time intervals options menu

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.

time intervals dialog window

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.

time intervals dialog window tutorial

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.

timer design options menu

It allows you to select a clock picture to either Clock image1126 or Hourglass image130.

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).

language options menu

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 image363 or choose Fonts from the Options menu.

fonts options menu

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

fonts3

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.

chessacademy figurensaetze menu

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:

chessacademy 3d figurensaetze1

 

chessacademy 3d figurensaetze2

chessacademy keyboard  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

toolbar1 big

middle size of icons

toolbar1 middle

small icons

toolbar1 small

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

toolbar2 small

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

toolbar3 small

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

toolbar4 small

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

toolbar5 small

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

toolbar6 small

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

toolbar7 small

8. Edit. It contains a Game Editing Tool.

toolbar8 small

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

toolbar9 small

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

toolbar10 small

11. Window. It contains windows managing Icons.

toolbar11 small

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

toolbar13 small

13. Help. This bar contains help managing commands.

toolbar14 small

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 image115.

toolbar size options menu

A dialog window called “Toolbar options” appears.

toolbar size dialog window

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.

board status in tutor options menu

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.

view options options menu

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.

disable movies options menu

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

Selecting this option displays the “Welcome” window.

chessacademy willkommen fenster

It can be done by choosing About Chess Academy… from the Help menu, or by clicking the toolbar button image374.

about chess academy help menu

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.

chessacademy keyboard 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.