Software-Expert KOMPUTER KORNER from Canada wrotes:

There is simply no other tutorial program that gives you as much for your money as Chess Academy does.

Chess Academy 3 is the (16-bit) version of Windows based chess database which offers an unique built in tutorial sub program. The reason to buy Chess Academy which goes for about $100 U.S. (for the Main Package) is for the tutorials. Having a board diagram on the screen at all times is a vast improvement on a book and the per example cost of the modules is cheaper than a book.

The tutorials in Chess Academy are well worth the money and far surpass the tutorials in a program like Tasc Chess Tutor. All aspects of positional and combinatorial chess are covered in topics ranging from the Isolated pawn to concepts like the Bishop Pair and the Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings, Encyclopaedia of Chess Combinations and Encyclopaedia of Chess Studies.

The program provides easy access to as many as 25,000 tutorial & training examples (2 Main Modules and 21 additional Modules) plus 3 databases Profi (523,247 games), Super (367,523 games) & Select (78,657 games). Previous tutorials from the Chess Academy 2 for DOS can also be installed. You can add in your own examples and a special board window opens up with which you can set up the pieces and provide all the position header information. Variants are shown on a special additional board, which you can toggle on, or off. The tutorials provide a way to test yourself on the same concept of Chess Mentor.

You have the choice of 3 different piece sets and the best one provides excellent piece graphics especially the black pieces. You have a complete choice of changing to your own color tastes and you can define the size of the board in 5 sizes. As with all windows programs you can move the active window around to any part of the screen and tile and cascade each one with others. Along with search by header, material, and position you can search by route. You can sort by 6 different ways. You can print out the tree and it presents diagrams at many branches of tree plus the complete game scores of every game line.

There are 6 different types of header and game statistics as well as the usual stats on % score per move for the white and black moves. Default move option lets you change the beginning move number for each game. There is a disk space menu item, which lets you know from within the program the amount of free disk space on each of your hard drive partitions. Animation speed lets you set the time intervals by both setting the animation speed and the movetime (time between each move during the tutorial replay).

There is a code system menu box, which presents all the move symbols, which can be accessed both by shortcut keys and the numeric keypad. Both the Chess Informant and Chess Academy symbols can be used. Any installed Chess Academy TrueType font or another font can be used.

The program provides more game header information than any other program on the market and includes such info as the player title, time control style, human or computer, and game marks/classes/medals plus lots of space for game header comments.